Glanbia Co-op’s new collaboration hub is currently undergoing its fit-out stage, so it won’t be long until colleagues occupy our brand-new offices at the Abbey Quarter in Kilkenny

As anchor tenants, our company will be located in a state-of-the art building which forms part of a wider 645,000 ft squared development of mixed use residential, commercial, retail, educational and civic spaces.

The building design has been thought of in a post-pandemic world and shaped with today’s, modern employee in mind. Three core principles of Connecting with people and place, Collaborating to realise potential and Complementing a hybrid lifestyle form the vision of how the building will operate. It’s built to enhance the work lives of all employees and advance our company’s ambitions.

Colleagues from three GI offices in Kilkenny will soon be calling the Abbey Quarter their base and Overherd at Glanbia Ireland was keen to get some thoughts on the big move!

Jane is currently based at our Purcellsinch offices in Kilkenny where she works in E-commerce / Marketing as part of the Agri team. Having started with Glanbia Ireland in 2019, about six months before the pandemic began, Jane has some very recent experience of moving from being full-time in the office to fully remote and she’s now enjoying the hybrid lifestyle.

Overherd at Glanbia Ireland caught up with Jane to get her thoughts on the upcoming move to Abbey Quarter and what this will mean for her working day.

You’ve been through the pandemic and hopefully out the other side! Through all these changes, what have you learned about your ways of working?

When Covid hit and we went to fully remote working it was a big change for all of us but as I got used to it, I found it fitted in better with my day-to-day life. Now that we’re in a hybrid style of working, I’m in the office one or two days a week. In general, I think I prefer working from home, but when we were at home for so long, I really welcomed the opportunity to go back to the office. If I had to pick a particular way of working now, I’d have to say hybrid is my preferred approach.

What do you feel are the advantages of going into the office rather than working from home full-time?

It’s purely the human interaction, the social side of things, being able to grab a quick coffee with someone rather than having to set up a formal meeting online. I suppose things just feel a bit more natural meeting people face to face.

With the move to Abbey Quarter on the horizon, have you been down to the site yet? Is there anything you’re looking forward to when you’re working from there?

I haven’t had the chance to go down there yet but I’ve been excited by what I’ve seen so far during the info sessions about the move – it looks unbelievable! I’m looking forward to experiencing the different ways of working and the different spaces the building will offer. In Purcellsinch at the moment, it’s very much just desks and meeting rooms, whereas what we’ve seen with Abbey Quarter is there are many more collaborative spaces, there will be opportunities to work cross-functionally and nice places to even just go for a chat. I think the likes of the modern canteen, training rooms and the gym will contribute to people’s work life balance as having all those things under the one roof will make the building not just work focused.

How do you think you will use the building? Will you go into AQ for a defined number of days per week?

I’m actually really eager to go in, firstly to see the building, but going forward I’m looking forward to splitting my time between home and Abbey Quarter. Having the option to book a desk and park my car for a few hours in the morning, meeting people face to face in the collaborative spaces and then going home to work for the afternoon having met friends for coffee in town are all nice options to have. As the building is built with hybrid working in mind, I think it will encourage me to go into the office more and make the most of its features and everything else Abbey Quarter and Kilkenny have to offer.

Abbey Quarter will have a lot of technology built into it, such as the desk booking and car parking apps. How do you feel about these aspects of the building?

I’m very open to them. I suppose it will be like trial and error, I have a bit of apprehension about how they’re going to work, like will I book a parking spot and find someone else has taken it? But it will be interesting to see how it all works in practice and I think if everyone uses the tech to its full potential, it will work very well.

What about the new building’s sustainability credentials. Is this something that’s important to you?

From what I’ve seen, sustainability was a key focus in the design of the building, which is great as it’s really important. Having things like the smart control lighting and spaces for bicycles and charge points for electric cars is really positive. Even the fact that employees know they’re in a sustainable building and working for a company that supports this adds to job satisfaction.

Muireann is a Kilkenny woman living just over the border in Co Laois. She originally started working with Glanbia in 2014 and left for a brief while in 2018 before re-joining Glanbia Ireland in 2020 as a Financial Accountant, just as the pandemic was kicking off in Ireland. Having only been in the Danville office sparsely since re-joining the company, Muireann told Overherd that she’s “very excited about the move to Abbey Quarter”.

What are you particularly looking forward to about the move to Abbey Quarter?

I suppose the Glanbia brand is synonymous with Kilkenny and the southeast, so to be going into such a state-of-the-art building on what was the old Smithwick’s site, which was also a very big Kilkenny brand, makes me feel very proud and fortunate to get to work in this building.

From what I’ve seen, I think walking into the atrium part of the building every morning will be special. It’s so bright, airy and open and will set a nice tone for the day. Being in the centre of town is also a nice bonus, being able to meet people for lunch and get out for a walk in the public spaces around Abbey Quarter.

You’ve been learning about the new building through some information sessions recently. Is there anything that’s stood out for you from these sessions?

We spend so much time in our lives working, so to be able to do so in such a lovely building with lovely surroundings is a big positive. Also, with me living 35 minutes from the office, having the ability to work flexibly is very appealing to me. As a function, Finance interacts with most parts of our business, so I think working in an environment which is designed for collaboration can only be a major positive.

The information sessions were great and it’s incredible how much work has gone into this project. The team behind it has obviously thought of everything and real credit must go to them. The building is so bright and importantly it’s been built in and will be run in the most sustainable manner. Added to that, the design concept of blending industrial architecture with materials and colours taken from the Irish landscape perfectly reflects our brand and the site AQ is on.

Do you feel our new offices will enhance your hybrid lifestyle?

I’d see myself working at least two days a week in the office and going in for full days. I’m an early bird who likes getting the more intensive tasks done early in the morning, so I’ll probably be one of the first people in the office each day. Ideally, I’ll probably do my work from home towards the end of the week. What the lockdown has taught me is that the opportunity to go for a walk at lunchtime is now a priority in my day and it’s a refreshing break from the computer. The location of Abbey Quarter is perfect for this with the lovely river walk. I see myself bringing the best of what I’ve learned during lockdown into the office as well.

I think the ability for the office to work around people’s lives will drive efficiency because people will be happy to be in their new surroundings and getting the best of both worlds. I’m really looking forward to getting into the office, if only for two days a week to build new relationships with colleagues. I’m looking forward to the mix of working on more social and collaborative tasks when in Abbey Quarter and the more head down, intensive tasks when working from home.

Rory started with Glanbia Ireland in February 2019 and was based in Ballyragget up until the pandemic began. Since then, he’s been mainly working from home in Waterford. He’s looking forward to the Abbey Quarter move and connecting with colleagues again a couple of days a week or as is required in his role.

Being based in Waterford, how do you feel about the move to Abbey Quarter?

I live in Waterford City, so I’m looking forward to shaving a good bit of time off my commute when compared to the time it took to get to Ballyragget, which used to take me over an hour. All going according to plan and getting into the office during non-rush-hour periods, the journey should take about 45 minutes. Combine this with hybrid working and it will be better for my pocket and the environment.

I was lucky to get a tour of Abbey Quarter back in March. The fit-out hadn’t started at that stage but even then, it was easy to see how impressive the building would be when complete. As part of the old brewery, it looks like a unique building; the entire place looks open with bright spaces and it’s well thought out with the neighbourhoods for different departments. The views out the windows are impressive, especially the top floor with the views over the city.

Connecting and collaborating with colleagues is a big part of the building design. Are you looking forward to these elements of being back on-site?

There’s a good bit of collaboration as part of my role, mostly in the commercial function itself, which is quite large. I’m really looking forward to connecting with colleagues in my own function but also other parts of the business. Working from home definitely has its advantages but I have missed the social side of being in the office. Added to that, I think you get a better feel for what’s going on in other parts of the business through informal chats when getting a coffee or just bumping into people. With the new offices, there seem to be so many communal spaces and open areas that it will make it easy to catch up with people in an informal way, whereas I feel conversations on Teams generally have to be set up and are more formal.

Presumably there’s a strong external focus to your role too. Has the Customer Experience Centre been brought to life for you?

The Customer Experience Centre is really going to add value to our business. We’d have a number of customers that visit us regularly and it will give us the opportunity to showcase all that’s best about our ‘NewCo’, its people, purpose vision and values. It will also help us to position NewCo with new and existing customers as one of Europe’s leading processors, with deep ties within the local farming community and an inspiring range of value add dairy and plant based ingredient solutions.

How do you feel the office will fit around your lifestyle?

I’m really looking forward to using the gym. I think the modern office requires a gym, it really encourages people to get active which is good for physical and mental wellbeing. Another thing I’m looking forward to is access to Kilkenny City. Being from Waterford and based in Ballyragget, I haven’t gotten to experience Kilkenny that much, so the advantage of being in the heart of the city is being able to find some good spots for lunch and coffee, or even go for a drink after work. And living close to the train station in Waterford, this also opens up new ways for me to commute if I want to leave the car at home.