A NEW office which allows colleagues to take their pets to work has opened in a historic quarter of Swindon.

The Pets at Home Vet Group has moved its support office base to the town after outgrowing its previous headquarters in the Oxfordshire countryside.

In 2001 the group, which includes Vets4Pets and Companion Care, established its support office in Kingston Lisle near Wantage in Oxfordshire, but in 2015 the team had 140 colleagues so the group had to find new premises.

After months of searching, a new home was found in the historic quarter of Churchward, in the original wheelhouse of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s railway works.

The Pets at Home Vet Group moved into the office at the end of last year, and the team is hoping its new setting will improve the services it provides to more than 400 veterinary surgeries across the UK.

Chief executive of the Pets at Home Vet Group, Sally Hopson, said: “We are delighted to have finally found our ideal new office in the beautiful Isambard building.

“The location offers good transport links, local amenities and helps us utilise current and future technologies, whilst also accommodating further future growth within our support team.

“We will also now be working mainly on laptops to enable agile working, so our colleagues can move around more to work together and not feel stuck to their desk.

“And as always, our colleagues’ pets will be welcome in our new support office. We are a company who puts pets first after all.”

Colleagues are loving the working arrangement, and feel having their pets at work improves their productivity.

Sue Hodder said: “Teddy [her dog] is a lovable little character. He gets so excited when he comes into the office with me, as everyone makes such a fuss of him. It is adorable to watch him play with the other dogs too.

“He is always exhausted when we get home after a day in the office. We are very lucky to have the option to bring them in.”

Scott Bearman-Brown added: “The opportunity to bring Tia, my collie/kelpie cross, into the office is great.

She gets lots of fuss and colleagues also love taking her for walks.

“I can even book her in at the in-house grooming parlour when I need it as well. It does wonders for both Tia’s wellbeing, and ours’.”

Alex Chequer has a new fitness regime of walking to work and her chihuahua Charlie is also feeling the benefits.

“As I live close by, I am now able to walk to work,” she said. “As part of my new fitness regime, I regularly walk Charlie to work, which means he is with me during the day. It’s an opportunity to be social with other dogs and I also use it as an opportunity to walk him at lunchtime and get some exercise myself.”

And Michelle Doeser added: “Bringing Lily to work every day means that I have my best friend with me 24/7”. She is also known as the ‘de-stress dog’ – everyone comes to her when they are stressed, and after stroking and talking to her for a few minutes, they feel much better!”