A global technology company which had its start as a spin out from the University of Aberdeen has celebrated finally moving into its new office more than a year after having taken over the keys.
Restrictions in the wake of the pandemic meant that the 50 people that work for Arria NLG in Aberdeen are now able to fully benefit from being able to work from their new offices in the city’s West End.
Since its beginnings in a small office at the university, the company is now global, with locations in Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; and New Jersey and San Franciso in the US.
The company’s technology was initially developed by Aberdeen University’s chair of computing science Ehud Reiter and senior lecturer Dr Yaji Sripada. Arria acquired their company, Data2Text and listed on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market in 2013.
In 2017, it switched from the UK’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim) to stock exchange listings in Australia and New Zealand in a bid to attract investors from around the globe.
The firm specialises in “natural language generation” software which translates complex data into readable text.
Speaking to staff members as he prepared to cut a ribbon, Neil Burnett, the chief technology officer, said: “Despite the fact this office has been open for a year and a half, welcome to the opening of the Arria office.
“The big thing is to see so many people in one place. If you think about it, this is probably more people than we would have had when we stopped being together in the office – we’ve had a lot of new people come in.
“We are looking forward to everybody coming back and adding to the culture and getting that spirit going again.
“We spent a year of walking around trying to find somewhere. We looked down at the harbour, we were out of town on industrial estates and everything.
“We have an opportunity to make this place ours. It is not just the furniture and pretty windows. The place is going to be the people that are in it.
“When I started there were only four or five of us in a very small office.
“It will be an amazing place to work. The big difference now is there is light and space, nice furniture that we bought rather than stuff we stole out of the hallway. We have high ceilings, in more ways than one.
“The culture of Arria as a company, is we are one real dynamic spirit. That is the culture globally as we cross international borders
“We have the opportunity to embrace that culture and foster our own culture here that is more technical and in keeping with the personalities we have here.
“To me what we have here is getting towards somewhere we belong, where people are help each other out, bring each other along and everybody that is here is better for being a part of that group.”
The firm has taken up 9,900 sq ft over three floors in the former church that has been redeveloped into an office.
Amy Tyler, associate director for CBRE said the company’s move was a great result for the area.
She said: “Arria acquiring the ground, first and second floor of such a prominent and high profile building in the heart of the city’s West End is a great result and demonstrates continued demand for office accommodation in the area. We wish them every success in their new home going forward.”
Agency CBRE acted on behalf of the landlord of the property, Carden Studios, and Ryden acted on behalf of Arria.
A self-contained office suite of 3,500 sq ft within the building currently remains available for occupiers looking for open plan, refurbished space in the city’s West End.