Dartford based company, The Hug Group Ltd, design and manufacture people tracking technology. Following a personal experience of his own child wandering off at a zoo, CEO of The Hug Group, Andy Davies, formed the company with the aim to develop state-of-the-art technology which will make finding people easier.
The start-up recently launched an innovative wristband which now allows teachers and youth group leaders to easily keep tabs on young people in their care on school trips and excursions.
Latest figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents have revealed that one person dies every year on a school trip in the UK. Andy, is confident the ‘game-changing’ wristbands can help reduce that number to zero.
He said: “We want to provide an extra layer of safety that removes stress and allows trips to be enjoyable for everyone. We see ourselves as the equivalent of wearing a seatbelt in the car, it’s that something extra which keeps you safe.”
Locate in Kent was approached by the start-up in 2017 as they looked for a new business location. The company had been trading from the spare bedrooms of both the CEO and Co-Founder. Located in Surrey and Essex, running the business was proving increasingly challenging. We worked with the company, looking for serviced office space in North Kent; and having contacted several serviced office providers in the area, The Hug Group eventually found a new home at The Nucleus Business and Innovation centre in Dartford.
“Locate in Kent provided us with excellent expertise and guidance throughout the entire premises selection process, alongside fantastic networking opportunities via their local connections. Access to a skilled workforce, good local transport links and cost-effective rates all played a huge part in our decision to move to Kent.”
The Hug Group’s new premises have allowed them to take advantage of the Nucleus’ partnership with Oxford Innovation, to connect to a network of 24 centres, 1,000 companies and strong external resource and knowledge-sharing partnerships. Their technology is now set to become commonplace in classrooms up and down the country.
