£780k salaries boost with 30 new North-West jobs

Wurkhouse provides innovative marketing solutions to a wide range of clients both locally and outside of Northern Ireland.

Troy Armour, CEO of the Bay Road-based company, said: “We are focused on becoming the leading digital agency in Northern Ireland through our export driven growth strategy. The advice and support we have received from Invest NI is helping us to scale quickly and has been vital to our ongoing growth and development.

“We play an integral role in the success of many of our clients and we believe that this success comes from our experienced staff and in-depth knowledge of the digital sector. We are confident that the North West region has the skills base we need to enhance our team, which will help us to achieve our ambitious plans for growth over the next three years and beyond.

“These jobs are for what we call ‘Creative Intelligents’. We seek two core attributes when hiring; intelligence and passion so we are looking for people with intelligence, who have a passion for what they do. This helps us deliver smart solutions for our clients and their passion is carried over into the delivery. It is like that old adage - cooking with love just makes the food taste better.”

In 2015, Wurkhouse received assistance from Invest NI of £24,000 to help with developing its design team.

Welcoming the investment, Alastair Hamilton, Invest NI’s chief executive, said: “Wurkhouse is a young and innovative business with high growth potential. The 30 jobs being created will contribute over £780,000 in additional annual salaries to the economy and offer excellent employment opportunities in the local area.

“The creative industries sector has been identified in Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Strategic Growth Plan as a priority sector for future economic growth and prosperity.

“We are delighted to support Wurkhouse in the next stage of its journey and to ensure it has the skills and knowledge necessary to exploit the substantial export opportunities it has identified, particularly in the GB and RoI markets.”

The new posts will include a range of designers, web developers, SEO and social media roles and will increase the company’s staff to 49 over the next three years.