Pictured above: Stuart Turner, Solid Solutions and John Barnes, University of Warwick Science Park's Warwick Innovation Centre

A Warwick business centre has waved goodbye to one of its longest serving tenants - and is delighted to have done so!

Solid Solutions has been based at the University of Warwick Science Park's Warwick Innovation Centre for more than a decade but has moved its head office to the Leamington base of Wright Hassall in Olympus Avenue.

The business supplies the computer aided design (CAD) software SolidWorks, as well as training, support and development assistance, to over 3,000 customers - including high-profile organisations such as BAE, Bosch, RNLI, Stannah Stairlifts and Sealine.

And after a period of successful growth which has seen turnover rise to around £10 million, the company has ended its 12 year association with the centre to cope with growing demand.

Solid Solutions has a network of six other offices across the UK and managing director, Alan Sampson, feels this expansion was necessary.

He said: "As a company we had been with the Science Park for 12 years but I had personally been there since 1987 having formerly worked at Matra and Automatix.

"We had previously expanded within the Park but now we have outgrown it. This office has 30 staff but we also do a lot of in-house training and have 15 to 20 customers coming in each day, so that uses a lot of space.

"We are taking on new staff all the time to help facilitate our rapid growth and we were finding that we had less and less space.

"We now have a turnover in excess of £10 million and hope to double that in the next three to five years. 

"The Science Park really helped us to reach this point, particularly when we were starting out. 

"We didn't really know how to run an office and they were able to take care of that for us, which allowed us to concentrate on making a success out of the business."

John Barnes, centre manager for the University of Warwick Science Park's Warwick Innovation Centre, said: "This is a real success story, not only for Solid Solutions but for the Park too.

"The whole idea behind our centre is to take on innovative companies at an embryonic stage and offer them the support they need to grow and fulfill their potential.

"The success of Solid Solutions just goes to show what can be done and we feel this can act as example to other companies.

"We are delighted for them and wish them all the best for the future."