Office interior design consultancy makes headlines with new Midlands business

Headquartered in Reading, the company launched its new Midlands-based arm - Office Principles North - in 2019 and established an office in Birmingham.

The new regional business is spearheaded by joint managing directors, Tina Batham and Gary Tailby, who approached Barques, via referral, to help launch a regional PR campaign.

In the first twelve months our partnership recorded:

The office fit out and refurbishment market is incredibly competitive, and Birmingham and the West Midlands is no exception.

While the leadership team of Office Principles North is extremely well connected and respected in the sector, Gary and Tina required a PR strategy that would quickly raise the profile of a brand that was largely unfamiliar to a regional audience.

We understood the demands of launching a new business meant their time was a finite resource, so it was critical our approach was highly focused.

Together, we devised a plan that would primarily showcase project wins and completions - giving the market confidence that Office Principles North had the design capability to win high-profile business and the expertise to deliver it.  

It led to us breaking stories on projects including the global headquarters of the UK’s fastest growing lingerie e-tailer, Lounge Underwear; the new City of London HQ of built environment consultancy, Arcadis; and the £2m refit of Duran Duran’s former rehearsal studios, Rum Runner Works.

A consistent stream of coverage followed in key regional titles such as Business Desk, Insider Media, Business Live and Birmingham Post, as well as national commercial property titles including EG and Bisnow.

And we amplified that success by supporting Gary and Tina in using their social media presence to share good news, as well as producing related case study examples for the Office Principles website.