Sheffield Chamber of Commerce is on a firm footing with its membership figures after an architectural design company signed up to become its 2,600th member business. 

The enrolment of Coda Studios has taken the Chamber to a new record for membership. 

The milestone follows on from an excellent external assessment report from the British Chambers of Commerce which hailed Sheffield Chamber’s monthly membership retention of 90 per cent as ‘remarkable’ and a ‘first class membership pack which is an example for the whole Chamber movement to emulate’. 

Sheffield Chamber has also increased its membership at the fastest rate anywhere in the UK. 

Coda Studios, based in Mowbray Street, Sheffield, design and deliver quality and contemporary architecture from simple house extensions to high rise developments. 

David Cross, director of Coda Studios, said: “We have become a member following relocation to Sheffield three years ago from Barnsley. Although we retained our membership with the Barnsley Chamber, we now feel that it’s time to target companies in Sheffield.

“Our membership of the Sheffield Chamber will provide excellent networking opportunities with other businesses in the city, enabling us to find out how we can work with them to benefit each other.”

The Chamber’s director of business development Paul Reeves said: “We said in our 150th anniversary year when we signed up our 2,007th member in 2007 that we were determined to keep the membership momentum going and this new 2,600th milestone demonstrates we are doing just that.

“Via sector and geographic-specific targeting we are proactively spreading the Chamber word – and businesses are engaging with us with this new approach. 

“Record-breaking membership figures are a ringing endorsement of the Chamber’s portfolio of services and benefits – from recruitment and training to events and lobbying.

“This milestone and the other membership achievements we have seen over the last 12 months are also very much testament to the successful re-structuring of the Chamber’s internal departments which has ensured we are building on solid foundations for the continued success of the Chamber and surrounding business community.”

Matthew Bowker, associate director at Coda Studios with Richard Ward, business development executive at Sheffield Chamber.