Why our Leeds business has made a London hire - and other Yorkshire companies should consider it

As the business has grown, so has our team and this year, for the first time we’ve made a deliberate decision to recruit a London-based member.

We appointed our new Alliances Manager, Eloise Lane, at the start of 2025 and five months in, we can say it’s been a brilliant move.

Hitting this regional/London sweet spot has allowed us to boost growth faster than we’d hoped, hone our specialisms and provide an even better service to our developing client base.

Of course on an immediate level, it means clients can access all the best West Yorkshire digital expertise while having a point of contact in London to take IRL meetings.

But there has been a clear cost benefit to us too and the recent increase in travel costs massively accelerated the decision.

Our main partner, Salesforce, is based in London and Dublin so we travel between the cities fairly frequently.

Before we appointed Eloise, a senior member of our team was visiting once a week.

At short notice, a return can easily run to £300/400. Throw in an overnight hotel stay at £300 and some food and drink and you’re looking at £800 each time you take a London meeting.

When you’re sat on a train that has cost hundreds of pounds, as it slowly screeches to a halt for yet another delay, you stop hiring in the North and start to consider moving a portion of your operation to London.

Even if you offset the north/south salary difference it is still more cost-effective to hire in London.

Of course it wasn’t a step we took lightly.

From the moment we started looking to recruit we were clear about what we wanted and how this would align with our wider business aims.

Since taking up the post in January, she has become the face of the company and the primary point of contact for partners who wish to engage with Art of Cloud, liaising with our partners around the globe.

Naturally the effects of an increased presence should lead to an increase in revenue.

Five months in and it’s safe to say things are going well.

First off we’re saving a boat load on train fares but just as importantly we can see that having a single, London-based point of contact has allowed us to achieve a more constant presence with partners and clients.

This has increased our brand visibility and allowed us to gain an even better understanding of our key partners’ working and aims.

On a practical level, it’s been straightforward too.

We’re a tech business that operates globally so we’re used to operating in a fully remote capacity for clients and we’ve used the same systems to link our two operations.

We’ve worked hard to make sure Eloise feels part of the wider team because that’s what we are, regardless of where we’re based.

Since we made the leap I’ve been asked by lots of other business leaders about our decision. It’s sparked some interesting conversations and it seems others are thinking of following suit.

We’re just wishing we’d done it sooner. Leeds is definitely where our heart is but adding a London appointment is helping us enjoy a fruitful 2025.

Ben Stevenson is Art of Cloud Executive Chairman