Regus to boost investment in Singapore

To meet soaring demand for flexible workspace, the company will top 2,000 business centres by 2014 as it announces new centre in Asia Square.

Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces, is set to make major investments to capitalise on the accelerating global trend toward flexible working. Research data from the last 18 months has shown remarkable strengthening in flexible work policies, not just in mature markets, but also in emerging economies.

Over the next three years, Regus will invest to increase its global network by at least 75%, equating to over 800 additional business centres. The majority of growth will take place across the USA and emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India. This move will also take the company into an additional 30 new countries – those in the pipeline include Slovenia, Uruguay, Nepal and Madagascar. Even in the current market, Regus is experiencing record levels of enquiries and in its last set of financial reports ,documented an all-time occupancy high of 86.7%, according to a Regus report.

In Singapore, Regus is performing at an all time-high having increased its footprint in the city by over 40% in the second half of 2010 when it opened two new locations. To meet the continued rising demand for flexible workspace, Regus will be opening its latest Singapore centre in Asia Square in October 2011. There is a wide-ranging body of research data evidencing the mainstream trend towards flexible working underpinning accelerating demand in Singapore and globally for flexible workspace, including:-

• 56% of businesses in Singapore state that flexible working costs less than fixed office working, saving tens of thousands of dollars per employee per year
• 40% of Singaporean businesses also say that flexible working increases staff productivity
• 20% of companies state that flexible working policies attract and retain skilled staff
• 80% of employees say flexible working creates a better work-life balance
• 25% of firms worldwide think business centres provide access to better communications technology
• 80% of all Singaporean companies now offer part of their workforce some form of flexible working
• According to an IDC report issued earlier this year, by 2013, 1.2 billion people, one-third of the world’s total work force, will be mobile workers and 62% of them will be based in Asia.

Mark Dixon, Regus CEO, says: “Demand for flexible workplaces is clearly burgeoning, the main driver of which is growing awareness of cost savings to be made by converting to flexible working, enabled by developments in cloud and ‘work anywhere’ technology. Looking at the research we have commissioned across the globe over the last 18 months, together with independent third party sources, it is clear that flexible, mobile working is the new normal.”

Regus customers include more than half of the Fortune 500 including Starbucks, Google, Accenture and GlaxoSmithKline. In the last three years its customer base has quadrupled to more than 900,000 as business people have embraced the multiple benefits of flexible working.