New home, fresh outlook

The firm’s Glasgow team has moved to St Vincent Plaza, a striking, grade A offce space in the heart of the city’s International Financial Services District (IFSD), as staff members look to the future of post-pandemic ways of working.

Managing Partner Fraser Gillies believes the move will act as an ideal springboard for the new hybrid working model being adopted by the firm in response to changes in working practices brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s a really modern space which is the perfect fit for our future-thinking practice,” said Gillies. “The new offce space will satisfy the needs of our people and our clients, and the open plan layout will really enhance collaborative working across our multidisciplinary teams.”

The c. 10,000 sq ft space at St Vincent Plaza will be Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie’s fourth offce on Glasgow’s St Vincent Street over the course of three centuries. The firm also has offces in Edinburgh, Inverness, Dunfermline and Dunblane.

Gillies continued, “Like so many other businesses, we had to adapt quickly to working from home, and although the experience hasn’t been without its challenges, I think we’ve learned a lot about how well we can work remotely whilst still fostering a sense of collegiality and we are using these lessons to shape our working practices going forward.

“We want to offer the team a space which allows them to work collaboratively, and somewhere they have as a hub to use in a flexible way that works for them.

“Despite continuing to perform well over the lockdown, we now appreciate the true value of meeting and having discussions in person, so while we fully intend to keep elements of home-working, we also think having a high-quality offce as a place to meet and collaborate with colleagues and clients is essential.

“We are seeing promising signs of growth as the post-Covid economic recovery builds steam, so it’s a great time to take this next step. The move will have a big impact on how our firm operates going forward.”