Soho Editors, the post production talent agency and training company, is to invest £100,000 in its Manchester operation as it reacts to the ‘MediaCity effect’.
The company is intending to bring in between five and 10 new staff over the next 12 to 18 months – currently there are four in the Manchester office. The rest of the investment will go on infrastructure and equipment improvements.
Soho Editors in London
Soho Editors has actually been in the city since June 2010 after buying out Cryptic Peach, but has been operating under the Peach Partnership umbrella.
Since January it has however rebranded and is now a wholly owned operation – a move managing director Brian Cantwell described as “the natural next step”.
He said: “The Manchester centre has an excellent record with the print and design markets, and increasing demand for video, graphics and effects training, an area which we have been the number one training provider in Europe for the last 12 years, means now’s the perfect time to make this investment of around £100,000.”
Soho Editors did have international offices in Dubai, Ireland and South Africa but closed them in order to focus on the UK operation.
And Cantwell told Prolific North the expected growth in work since the BBC’s move to MediaCityUK has now arrived.
He said: “There’s a volume of work that had been happening in the Home Counties and London that’s now happening in Manchester. It’s definitely the second hub for media in the UK now.”
Currently, the company is purely operating a training centre in Manchester but the objective is to open a freelance agency office to manage local personnel and clients.
Cantwell said he hoped to establish Manchester as a profit centre in its own right, with the potential to open further centres across the UK if the move proved successful.
Soho Editors has two sites in London, employing 10 people and representing 350 freelancers across the UK. It hopes to attract 100 through its new Manchester base.
