CAN Mezzanine welcomes 100th customer 

17th January 2008 - CAN Mezzanine, the award-winning social enterprise that provides office space to the Third Sector, welcomes its 100th customer, Four Paws UK. The European animal welfare charity joined other third sector organisations in CAN Mezzanine's Loman Street office in early January 2008.

CAN Mezzanine provides high-quality affordable office space to charities and social enterprises and houses some of the leading names in social change. The social enterprise, that runs two sites in Central London, saved the Third Sector more than £2.2m last year, according to independent social impact research. An averaged sized organisations (5-6 people) in one year can save more than £5,000 for every desk rented, generating savings of more than £5m to Third Sector organisations by providing high-quality affordable shared office space.

Four Paws has been fighting for animal rights for over 10 years across Europe, originating in Austria in 1988. When deciding to expand into the UK, they did a lot of investigating on where best to locate.

"My colleagues visited many serviced office spaces but found them grimy and overpriced," says Marie-Claire Macintosh, Four Paws Head of Programmes. "We were looking for a small flexible space in an accessible central location, especially with many of our visitors coming across from Europe. We found an affordable, high-quality, modern, friendly place with excellent facilities. We were struck by the welcoming atmosphere rather than the exploitative, corporate and unfeeling offices we had visited before. We were encouraged that we would be surrounded by other NGOs rather than corporate organisations."

"Affordability and location are the primary reasons why our customers come to CAN Mezzanine," says Peter Murray of CAN Mezzanine. "We run quality buildings with business efficiency, passing on as many benefits to our customers as possible. But being a social enterprise ourselves, we understand the needs of our customers and that is reflected in how we run the buildings. We're delighted Four Paws chose CAN Mezzanine for their UK office and we hope to meet some of our European neighbours at our networking events."

Plans are underway to open a third site in north London later in the year and a feasibility study is being undertaken for a CAN Mezzanine in east Croydon. To register your interest please fill out the expression of interest form on the CAN website www.can-online.org.uk or contact Andrew Croft on 020 7922 7763 or email a.croft@can-online.org.uk. CAN Mezzanine Loman Street also still has some desk spaces availability. Please contact Pete Murray on 020 7922 7701 or email p.murray@can-online.org.uk

www.can-online.org.uk

ENDS

Enquiries

For more information, photos or interviews with Andrew Croft, CAN Mezzanine Director, contact Reena Chadha on 020 7922 7759 or r.chadha@can-online.org.uk

Notes to editors

About CAN

Founded in 1998, CAN (formerly Community Action Network) was the vision of three innovators of social change. The founding partners were Andrew Mawson, Adele Blakebrough and Helen Taylor Thompson. 

CAN Mezzanine (itself a registered charity) is the social enterprise founded by CAN who remain its sole member.

CAN is now recognised as one of the UK's leading organisations for the development, promotion and support of social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. It runs CAN Social Investment (which includes the social investment programme Breakthrough), leveraging business support from leading private sector companies, including Sony, Bain & Company and Permira. 

CAN Mezzanine has two buildings in London SE1

  1. - CAN Mezzanine London Bridge, 1 London Bridge, Downstream, SE1
  2. - CAN Mezzanine Loman Street, 32-36 Loman Street, London SE1 0EE

CAN Mezzanine London Bridge has 414 desks over 35,000sq ft / 3,250m2 over three floors and is currently 99% full.  

CAN Mezzanine Loman St is 25,000sq ft / 2,300 m2 with 281 desks over five floors and is currently 72% full.

In 2006 CAN Mezzanine won the national Charity Awards for Support and Research in the Third Sector.

A recent independent social impact finding survey found that in 2005/6, CAN Mezzanine London Bridge was 55% cheaper than the average of the three largest providers of serviced office space in the UK. This equates to £2,400,891 savings for the Third Sector based on our average sized organisations being 5/6 people.

Four Paws

For almost two decades, FOUR PAWS has consistently and successfully focused on one goal: to help animals - abused due to economic, scientific or other reasons - to their rights.

Every organism has a right to be treated with consideration and to live a life with dignity that complies with its needs. Animals are sentient creatures and therefore subjectively perceive the world; we as humans bear responsibility for them.

http://www.fourpaws.org.uk/