Clear skies ahead for Weather & Radar

 

Weather & Radar is an international weather forecasting app available on iOS and Android smartphones.

The sister company to German weather forecasters WetterOnline Meteorologische Dienstleistungen GmbH, Weather & Radar was formed to provide editorial content and market insights for the company to tailor the app for UK and Ireland users.

Weather & Radar features short-range and long-range forecasts, weather maps with radar, and severe weather alerts.

It also provides weather-related news articles on its app, which cover a wide range of topics including weather trends, climate change, and serious weather events from all over the world.

Around 610,000 people in the UK and Ireland actively use the app on a monthly basis, and different versions of the app are used by 20 million people around the world.

Its services can also be accessed without the app on its website weatherandradar.co.uk.

Weather & Radar was founded in 2019, and felt it had to base itself in the UK to provide a more accurate forecast for its users.

Move to the Science Park

Weather & Radar started looking for a suitable UK location soon after its formation, and felt a place with strong opportunities to network and a connection to an academic institution would be ideal.

After a bit of research, the company decided to move to the University of Warwick Science Park due to the opportunity to meet many different businesses on the site and its clear link with the University of Warwick.

Ditte Nielsen, General Manager of Weather & Radar in the UK and Ireland, said: “Our sister company in Germany has strong links with the University of Bonn which enables us to offer dual studies and to recruit more talent, so we wanted our base in the UK to have a link with a university as well. That was one of the most attractive features of the Science Park.

“And we knew the many different companies based at the Science Park would give us an opportunity to build our contacts in the UK, as we never had a presence here before we moved.”

Weather & Radar moved into an office at UWSP’s Venture Centre in November 2019 with a small team of two full-time staff, with the other members of the Weather & Radar team being based in Germany.

Science Park support

Although Weather & Radar quickly settled into their new base at the Venture Centre, it was only a few months until the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing the team to work from home.

Despite not being on site, the Science Park were still able to support Weather & Radar’s fledgling presence in the UK by hosting seminars through Business Ready – UWSP’s business support programme which helps SMEs in Coventry and Warwickshire.

The company took part in several of the seminars, which not only allowed the team to learn about new business-related topics, but connect with new companies as well.

“The business seminars from Business Ready were incredibly useful to us,” Ditte added.

“Not only were they important for us to learn business tips – especially ones that are related to the UK and Ireland – but they allowed us to talk to other SMEs, learn from them and build our contact base.

“They were also useful from an HR perspective too. The networking opportunities from the seminars helped us with recruitment strategy when we needed to hire more people.

“I’m glad the Science Park was still able to provide these opportunities for us despite us not being on site during the pandemic.”

Weather & Radar is hopeful of a move back to the office soon in order to catch-up with team members face-to-face and to meet fellow companies on site once again.

University links

UWSP’s link to the University of Warwick has also helped Weather & Radar tap into the UK & Ireland markets.

In March of this year, Weather & Radar took part in a Leadership Plus Programme run for students at Warwick Business School in order to improve their business skills.

The students then used the pitch to come up with a series of recommendations which were presented to Weather & Radar, and the best ones were taken forward by the company.

Ditte said: “It was always important for us to establish strong links with the university, and UWSP’s connections to Warwick Business School meant we could contribute to its Leadership Plus Programme.

“Not only was it useful for us to have students give us an outside perspective, it also allows the students to learn important business skills too.

“We are pleased to have a connection with the university and this project has been a very promising start.

“Had we not moved to the Science Park and been at a place without a link to an institution like the University of Warwick, this would have been very difficult to do.”

Further growth

Weather & Radar’s success since basing itself at the Science Park has meant it is looking to recruit new members of staff to its team.

Currently the company is looking to hire an online marketing manager and a country manager, and Ditte hopes the easing of restrictions will bring further success for Weather & Radar.

She added: “Hopefully we’ll be able to get the new staff members into our office sooner rather than later. It will certainly be nice to see people face-to-face when things return to normal.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming new people into our team and growing the Weather & Radar brand even further.

“We have to thank the University of Warwick Science Park in helping us get to the position we’re in now. Moving to the UK for the first time and battling the pandemic were big challenges, but we got through it thanks to their support and we’re confident of further success in the future.”