Did you know Manchester was the world’s first industrial city?

Didn’t think so and neither did we.

• By the 16th century Manchester was a flourishing market borough important in the wool trade, exporting cloth to Europe via London.
• From the 1760s onward, growth quickened with the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
• The first canal, bringing cheap coal from Worsley, reached the town in 1762.
• Manchester’s first cotton mill was built in the early 1780s.
• By 1800 Manchester was said to be “steam mill mad”, by 1830 there were 99 cotton-spinning mills.
• The world’s first modern railway (the Liverpool and Manchester) was opened in 1830.

In the early 19th century, the extraordinary growth of Manchester’s cotton industry drove the town’s expansion and put it at the heart of a global network of manufacturing and trade.

From its towering mills, bustling warehouses and crowded streets came new ways to live, work and think, which transformed lives in Manchester and across the world.

I knew industry was in our blood, but now understand why we were compelled to build on office technology business.

Much like Manchester being the focal point of the industrial revolution in the 18^th Century, we’re aiming to start another revolution on the outskirts of the city.

Our new revolution is called the affordable revolution.

We’ve made office technology, such as copiers, printers, phone systems and laptops with Office 365 affordable to small organisations.

…it’s all available on affordable fixed monthly subscriptions with no strings attached.