A LANDMARK building lying empty on a city canal basin development will finally be occupied by an IT firm, bringing jobs into the area.

The internet address service company Postcode Anywhere has paid £500,000 for the building at Diglis Basin and is ploughing £1.5 million into an internal refit.

Employing 32 people at its current base in Hallow, near Worcester, the company’s new city-based headquarters will provide room for up to 80 employees. It moves in to the building at the end of the year.

The building was once to be a restaurant, café and shops, but has been empty for four years.

Guy Mucklow, managing director, said the move was right for his firm. “I don’t believe in clustering businesses of the same type together,” he said.

“That’s a Government-sponsored idea but it doesn’t add anything for us. And office space costs here are a third of those in London.

“Also, we don’t have to be in London because many meetings can be done virtually and I’ve found we can get the right people here and there’s less likelihood they’ll get head-hunted, unlike in the capital.

“We’ve attracted some incredibly good people to relocate here because it offers a good work/life balance.”

The firm has bought its own canal boat The Jokery, moored at the basin, which employees can take for a week at a time.

Twelve years after setting up, the firm’s policy of steady growth appears to have paid off.

Mr Mucklow said: “The new building is twice the size of what we have at the moment working out of three buildings in Hallow.

“We have about 30 employees and we’ll be able to grow to about 80. We’re already recruiting.”

He said the plan was to hire over the next three to five years.

The company is responsible for a share of the technology which matches postcodes to addresses and can claim that one half of all the postcode address matches done online are down to its operations.

The firm has 8,000 customers, including National Savings and Investments and Royal Mail.

Worcester MP Robin Walker was delighted by the relocation and said: “Worcester has already attracted companies to set up headquarters here but it is something we are well placed to improve on given our strategic location and quality of life.”