New headquarters in Darlington for subsea firm DeepOcean, CPNE

CPNE acting for Darlington Borough Council agree terms on Top floor for Feethams House.

New headquarters in Darlington for subsea firm DeepOcean

Firm has been based in Darlington for more than 25 years and also has a site at Blyth, Northumberland

Subsea company DeepOcean has announced a move to a new UK headquarters in the North East.

The Dutch company, which has had its UK base in Darlington for more than 25 years, is to take the top floor of the new Feethams House development in the town.

The base will provide home for around 100 members of staff, with DeepOcean also having a centre of engineering expertise and offshore maintenance facility in Blyth, Northumberland.

The company undertakes engineering and marine works solutions for large subsea cable projects associated with offshore wind farms, as well as providing links between countries such as the recently installed Nemo cable, which provides 2% of the UK’s electricity by connecting the UK and Belgium.

Feethams House will also provide a base for DeepOcean’s subsea trenching and seabed intervention division, Enshore, with staff working between Darlington and its facility at the Port of Blyth.

Feethams House is an £8.5m office complex in Darlington town centre. The five-storey building has been funded by Darlington Borough Council, the Tees Valley Mayor and Combined Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.

Pierre Boyde, managing director of Enshore, said: “The North East continues to grow in strategic importance for DeepOcean and Enshore, and this new office will support the continued development of our activities.

“We have always benefited from the excellent talent pool in Darlington and the wider North East and this new office will also further help us attract people to work at DeepOcean from beyond the region.

“Our vision is to be the world’s leading subsea services provider. We are excited by the tremendous opportunities in the offshore wind industry, both in the UK and further afield as well as rising to the challenge of sourcing metals from the ocean floor in an environmentally sustainable way that supports the transition away from fossil fuels to a low carbon economy.

“Feethams House provides a long-term, sustainable location from which to grow our business and will allow us to also continue to benefit from Darlington’s excellent transport links, which very much supports both our domestic and international operations.”

Darlington Council leader Heather Scott said: “We’re delighted to welcome DeepOcean as the first tenant in Feethams House. It is a company that has been in Darlington for a long time and has been looking for a new office location for a while. This is a signal of the confidence it has in this new building, and in the town and we wish them every success in the future.

“There are a number of potential other tenants interested in the remaining available space and we invite anyone looking to grow their business or move to more suitable accommodation to contact us. Feethams House is a high-quality building that makes the most of Darlington’s excellent rail links and its proximity to the town centre.”

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said: “I’m delighted that DeepOcean, a growing business which will play a crucial role in the offshore sector in our region is the first to come on board.”