A former pub has been given a new lease of life.
The Pressers Arms at South Lane, Elland, is now home to Digital Media Systems, a company providing digital signs and audio visual equipment to clients ranging from power stations and airports to historic castles and fast-food restaurants.
The pub came on the market last August and was acquired by the company before Christmas.
A seven-week fit-out has seen the property transformed with the former pool room turned into a showroom and the ground floor bar partitioned off to provide offices.
Managing director Avtar Singh said the move to bigger premises would provide space for the firm to expand.
“We were in the centre of Brighouse three floors up above a bank,” he said. “We needed the space to expand.
“We had been looking for the right place for three years but as soon as somewhere in Brighouse became available it was snapped up. Elland is ideal because it is close to the motorway which is important because we get customers from all over the UK.”
Mr Singh said: “The pub was stripped back to the bare walls. We still have the wooden floor in the pool room where we now have a showroom. We have replastered, fitted new ceilings and taken out the perimeter seating – but we have kept a dartboard where the old one used to be!”
Mr Singh said it was hoped to rent out the five first floor rooms at the newly-named Presser House to other “tech” businesses to create a technology hub in the town. “By the end of April, those rooms will be ready to go,” he said.
To mark the official opening of Presser House, the company presented a £1,020 cheque to the Mayor and Mayoress of Calderdale, Clr Howard Blagborough and Catherine Kirk for the mayor’s appeal which is raising funds for the charities Together for Looked-after Children, The Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice at Bradley and The Brighouse Rest Centre.
Digital Media Systems, formed in 2005, has seen strong demand for its products, which include digital menu boards, signs, posters and outdoor screens.
It supplies locations including schools, colleges and universities; fast food outlets and restaurants; factories; airports, ferry ports and heritage sites. Clients have included York Theatre Royal, the Festival Theatre at Edinburgh, Raglan Castle, Pembroke Power Station, the Wales Millennium Centre, Fountains Abbey, Western Ferries and a US air base.
