Our Blog

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

How 5 coloured gazebos, social bubbles and community spirit got us through Lockdown...

Martin, an associate at Geolytix, volunteers at Mudlarks, a charity which was deemed a front line care service during the pandemic. Here he discusses the challenges he faced, and how Geolytix helped support him, support others

Published 28th September 2021 • Tags our-team
Bank Branch Data Open and Free from Geolytix

We are making the last 5 years of canonical UK bank branch data fully open under a CC0 license. It includes all UK branches - including those now shut - that have traded over the last five years. Read for more information...

Published 23rd September 2021 • Tags open-data
In-person events are back on and we couldn't be happier

Our CEO Blair Freebairn headed to his first in-person event since before the pandemic started 18-months ago. Below he details the experience at ODI Canal Side Chats

Published 23rd September 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
GEOLYTIX Leeds - Setting up our new home

With an ever growing team, twelve of whom are based in Leeds, we decided it was time to move into a new Leeds office. We have the Yorkshire tea at the ready...

Published 15th September 2021 • Tags our-team
Freedom Day has been and gone, but have people been enjoying their freedom in London?

We look at how London activity levels have recovered since Freedom Day on July 19th 2021.

Published 31st August 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
GEOLYTIX shortlisted for Data IQ 'Best Place to Work in Data' Award

We thought what better way to celebrate being shortlisted for 'Best Place to Work in Data' than to ask the team their thoughts on working at Geolytix.

Published 25th August 2021 • Tags awards
Is Food Delivery catering for the rural?

The pandemic has brought us a 'new normal'; one such shift has been housing demand. With people looking to relocate to homes outside the city, we look at whether Food Delivery is catering for the Rural.

Published 25th August 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Mobility Data – A tale of two IKEA's in Bucharest

Using mobility data, we look at the catchment areas around two major shopping parks in Bucharest - anchored by IKEA stores.

Published 18th August 2021 • Tags mobility
How to juggle freelance work with a research degree: a masters guide

Oliver Hall recently joined Geolytix as a freelance software configuration developer, whilst completing his Masters at the University of Leeds. Here he discusses juggling masters work, a new job and multiple laptop screens...

Published 17th August 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Marugame Udon - Liverpool Street’s new lunch and evening spot

Last week, Jas, Chris and Kate were fortunate enough to be invited to the soft opening of Marugame Udon, an authentic Japanese Udon restaurant, located a short walk from Liverpool St Station in London.

Published 29th July 2021 • Tags market-visits
Conducting international business from your own home

Luke has been based in Japan for 16 years, with nearly 4 of those at Geolytix. He supports our customers in the huge and fast-changing APAC region applying over 20 years of experience in network planning for a wide-range of leading retailers and brands.

Published 29th July 2021 • Tags international
From South Korea to the UK : Understanding 'how busy is this road?'

We introduce you to one of our most ambitious data networks we have created - a modelled value count for every major road in the county of operation; we started with South Korea.

Published 28th July 2021 • Tags geodata
The Wimbledon Effect

Wimbledon was back this year, after taking a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic - the first time the tournament hasn't been held since the Second World War. This year we could appreciate 'The Wimbeldon Effect' from another aspect - the boost in activity levels.

Published 27th July 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Tokyo Olympics - Summer in the City

Luke, our business development director based in Japan discusses the impact COVID has had on the largest and most complex sporting event in the world.

Published 23rd July 2021 • Tags international
3 months after joining Geolytix and I've finally met the team in-person

With offices now allowed to officially open, Lizzie - our latest associate- discusses how working from home didn't hinder the spirit and qualities of Geolytix shining through the virtual workplace.

Published 21st July 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Has Yorkshire bounced back?

The impact of the opening of outdoor seating on mobility levels in Yorkshire, compared to pre-COVID (2019) and lockdown (January - April 2021).

Published 6th July 2021 • Tags geodata, team-thoughts
Is Poland turning discount?

With discounters taking more and more market share in Poland, we thought it would be interesting to look at the journey of grocery retail in Poland through the years and try and answer the question: 'Is Poland turning discount?'

Published 30th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
EUROS 2020(1): The GEOLYTIX Top Trumps

With the EUROS in full swing (and our office sweepstake well under way) we thought we would honour our appreciation of geography and celebrate the stadiums hosting the EUROS - as well as the teams themselves!

Published 29th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Department for International Trade Export Champions 2021

Geolytix are proud to announce that we have recently been recognised as ‘Export Champions’ from the UK’s Department for International Trade.

Published 17th June 2021 • Tags our-team
Life has changed, and so has retail...

With the one year mark of the start of the pandemic (and multiple lockdowns) far behind us, our Project Director based in China, thought it would be the perfect opportunity to discuss how life - and retail - has changed.

Published 16th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Will large malls be replaced by smaller, more convenient venues in Poland?

As the world is slowly coming out of lockdown, we have been lucky enough to go on real site visits again; this week Jacek discusses his site visit in Warsaw!

Published 10th June 2021 • Tags market-visits
Office Place Recovery

Through the last 15 months, we have been using mobility data and applying it within 8,000 of our Retail Place boundaries to produce a weekly read on activity levels across the UK.

Published 9th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts, geodata
London has bounced back

The impact of the opening of outdoor seating on mobility levels in London, compared to pre-COVID (2019) and lockdown (January-April 2021)

Published 1st June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts, geodata
Modelled Traffic Volumes - a new product in our Road & Network data pack

Our new product in the Road & Network data pack - Modelled Traffic Volumes, answers the question "how busy is this road?"

Published 27th May 2021 • Tags geodata
What causes the online halo?

As much as the precise cause of the classic halo is not entirely settled, the online halo is not totally understood by retail planners. Yet their importance when planning and forecasting, means we need to both understand and model them when planning multi-channel networks.

Published 11th May 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Geolytix open Supermarket Retail Points - 20th Edition

The 20th version of Geolytix’s open data set; Retail Points, has now been released.

Published 10th May 2021 • Tags open-data, geodata
Mobility Data: Battle of Birmingham

Birmingham and the Black Country was a highly requested area for us to look at next, and we couldn't resist. This time we've looked at: Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Brom and Wolves and the results certainly are interesting...

Published 7th May 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Geolytix wins a Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Geolytix has been awarded it's second Queen's Award for Enterprise. This year we are being recognised for our excellence in International Trade.

Published 28th April 2021 • Tags awards
Working in an International Community

Virtually working from home has been a change a lot of people have had to get used to in the past year. So imagine how tough it is to tackle that along with multiple time zones... Coco, based in China, discusses the perks (and challenges) of being part of a team spread across the globe

Published 28th April 2021 • Tags our-team
Geolytix - Going Global

As Geolytix has been recognised with the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade in April 2021, we look at our successes as a small but global company.

Published 28th April 2021 • Tags our-team
Need a site visit fix?

2020 was a year without travel, and in an industry where site visits are part of the job, we were restricted to site visits from a laptop! As the world is slowly coming out of lockdown, our location planners based in Australia have been lucky enough to go on real site visits again!

Published 22nd April 2021 • Tags market-visits
Mobility Data Proves It – North London is Ours

Whilst looking through our Unacast mobile device ping data, we decided to use the data to look at which team had the highest active devices on home matchdays. And the results are in.....

Published 19th April 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Vaccination journey

With vaccinations now leading the daily news coverage of COVID-19, I decided to focus on some positive data, a better alternative to reading the 'worsening news'. Using the XYZ framework which underpins MAPP, we have built an open app that visualises vaccination rates across the world.

Published 13th April 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Visualising Sakura (cherry-blossom)

With COVID muting hanami (flower-watching), the true meaning of Sakura - people gathering under the cherry blossoms drinking and picnicking - I decided to visualise the seasonal phenomenon (and plan my celebrations for next year).

Published 13th April 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
The changing retail landscape

With more stores closing than opening in 2020, it is not surprising that UK high streets are left with empty retail units. Instead of leaving the spaces unused, developers are turning to new ways to use the space.

Published 30th March 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Census 2021 - A big day for data

With census day soon approaching on Sunday the 21st of March, we thought we'd get Blair's take on this once in a decade event.

Published 19th March 2021 • Tags census