The multi-award winning manufacturer of specialist laboratory instrumentation for the analysis of trace organic compounds employs some 90 staff at its Llantrisant head office. Ten additional staff are employed elsewhere in Germany and the US.

Markes has occupied Units 3 and 4 since 2006 and has committed to the first floor of Unit 2 in order to accommodate its short and long-term expansion plans. This is as the company looks to further its success in the export market, having won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise earlier this year (April 2015).

LSH acted for the landlord Welsh Government in negotiating terms for the five-year lease adding 2,769 sq ft of high-quality space to the 13,903 sq ft Markes already occupies.

“The new accommodation will not only give us room for growth but will allow us to reconfigure the business operationally, moving different departments around within the various buildings and floors,” explains Alun Cole, Managing Director of Markes International.

“Gwaun Elai offers us many advantages and has served us well not just in terms of the high specification of the BREEAM-rated “excellent” space, but its close proximity to the M4 and other link roads. These have opened up the employment pool available to us, as well as supporting our requirement for fast distribution.”

Other occupiers at Gwaun Elai include the Council for Reproductive Medicine Wales and environmental consultancy, APEM. The Welsh Blood Transfusion Service and British Airways Avionic Engineering are also based in the local area.

Kate Simpson, Head of LSH’s office agency team, says: “Recognition is growing that Llantrisant is a strong strategic business location, and as well as Markes’ expansion with the Gwaun Elai campus, a number of other high-profile organisations have elected to locate there too.”