Cooke & Arkwright
News
American Daydream
10/09/08
Daydream Education, an award winning and UK leading producer of educational wall charts and supporting Interactive Whiteboard resources, has relocated from Cardiff to Bridgend as part of an expansion programme that is taking in new markets worldwide. It has recently set up a joint venture with Anatomical Worldwide and is currently targeting the USA education market where it is estimated that only 17% of educational establishments currently employ Whiteboard technology.
Its new headquarters are situated in Central Park, a speculative six acre scheme comprising 85,000 sq ft being developed by Robert Hitchins Ltd. Jeremy Symons, director of Cooke & Arkwright’s industrial agency, who acted on behalf of Robert Hitchins with joint agent Alder King, said, “The attraction of this new scheme is that it provides a first rate, flexible working environment. Rapid access to the M4 is a big bonus as it means that Daydream Education can readily facilitate its increasing distribution requirements.”
The flexibility of the space allowed Daydream to create offices and design studios to the first floor and spacious storage and packing facilities in the ground floor warehouse. From here its educational products are sent for distribution throughout the UK and to more than 50,000 educational establishments worldwide.
“This is an excellent move for our growing company,” said Wes Paetel, operations director at Daydream Education. “The access is a big improvement on our previous premises in Cardiff and we’ve been able to design bespoke accommodation to suit current and future needs. Our new venture in America has enormous potential and we anticipate further expansion as we capture market share.”
Daydream Education designs intuitive software that is used on Interactive Whiteboards, bringing their popular wall charts to life. The Whiteboard charts were originally launched through their award winning Science series, which led to the same formula being applied to ICT, English, Maths, Music, Religious Education and Business Studies. Packed with interactive activities, animation, quizzes and worksheets, they provide exciting and engaging educational resources and are equally popular with teachers and pupils.
First established in 1996, the business originated out a request by managing director Chris Malcolm’s mother, a maths teacher in Pentyrch, Cardiff, for some posters to assist with teaching in her school. Mr Malcolm took on the task himself and the ensuing set of five posters were so well received that they sent 1,000 brochures promoting the posters to schools all around the area. The response was overwhelming and Daydream Education was born, with the posters quickly evolving into Whiteboard software.
The business now produces a range of over 600 titles from Art to ICT and the charts have appeared on TV programmes such as Coronation Street and Grange Hill. Products are distributed in over 15 different countries around the world and in March 2008, the company was named ‘Supplier of the Year 2008: between £1m and £3m turnover’ category at the prestigious Education Resource Awards in Birmingham.
Pictured, l to r: Jeremy Symons, Cooke & Arkwright; Lucy King, Alder King; and Clare Wall, Chris Malcolm, Wes Patel and Huw Williams of Daydream Education.