A Bradford publishing company which trades all over the world has begun work on its new purpose-built headquarters in Bingley. Next year Emerald Group Publishing will celebrate both the opening of its new base and its 40th year of doing business. T&A Reporter MARK CASCI took a closer look at the company.

Ground has been broken on the new headquarters for Emerald Group Publishing at the Aire Valley Business Park at Dowley Gap in Bingley.

Bosses expect the vast new premises to be completed by September next year.

And that will coincide with the firm's 40th anniversary.

Since its foundation in 1967 Emerald has gone on to become a world leader in publishing academic and professional literature for the management, library and engineering sectors.

Authors at 98 of the top FT 100 MBA schools have been published within Emerald and more than 135,000 articles are downloaded each week from the firm's website.

It aims to bridge the gap between the two distinct worlds of academic theory and practical instruction.

Emerald is a truly international company, with a staggering 85 per cent of its business done overseas. The company has representation in Australia, Japan, America and Malaysia.

Indeed the business has grown so much that Emerald has outgrown its premises in Toller Lane, Bradford.

Given its global profile, the company could realistically have relocated anywhere in the world.

However, the idea of remaining in Bradford was very important to those in charge and it was not long before they found the site at the Aire Valley business park.

Company founder Dr Keith Howard said: "We could have sold this company a million times and realistically we could have run it from anywhere in the world. But it was important for us to continue in Bradford and remain in the city."

The new site was discovered by chairman Martin Fojt, by chance.

"I drive this way to work and thought the site would be good," he said. "We have just outgrown our old premises. They were not designed for the purpose we use them for."

"Most of our staff live in and around Bradford so they have no problems getting here. This new site will have more staff facilities as well and it is in a nice place, just on the edge of the canal.

"It is an important message to send to the outside that Bradford is good place to do business. We have FTSE 100 companies based here and we are delighted to be staying here."

The new headquarters is being custom-built to the firm's exacting specifications and will house all of its operations.

The company recently took on 15 new members of staff and Mr Fojt predicts that they will be employing more people once they are settled into their new home. All 180 employees are now looking forward to September, 2007, when they move in.

Emerald was established by a group of senior academics who had grown dissatisfied with the publishing outlets that were available internationally.

The company, initially called MCB University Press, began life as a publishing house for niche management disciplines.

In 2001 the company adopted Emerald as its new organisational identity.

Rather than be intimidated by the growth of the internet, Emerald has embraced it, becoming one of the first publishers to provide access to wider literature, assisting researchers by allowing them to subscribe online.

Today more than 1,400 university libraries across the world and 96 per cent of the world's top business schools subscribe to titles from the Emerald portfolio.

It also stores an archive with many of its titles on a database called Emerald Fulltext. Users can benefit from a collection of more than 58,000 articles written by academics all over the world.

e-mail: mark.casci@bradford.newsquest.co.uk