Published: Thursday, 24th April, 2008 08:55
Regus boss speaks of 'most volatile economy I've ever known'
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REGUS founder Mark Dixon says the current uncertain economy is unlike anything he has ever seen.
Mr Dixon, speaking exclusively to Business Review as his serviced office company takes over three floors of Davidson House in Reading from previous operators Stonemartin, said while Regus was doing better than ever, the economy was less certain than ever.
He said: “In my 30 years I have never seen anything like this. I have seen a few recessions and I’ve seen uncertainty but this is the most volatile.
“We are crossing new barriers every week. A lot of other business people feel the way I do.”
Yet Regus is gaining as uncertainty creates demand for flexibility, leaving the serviced office giant in pole position to provide it.
Mr Dixon said: “We reported our numbers a few weeks ago. We had record levels of enquiries and record numbers and that’s in the face of a pretty brittle economy. It may be tough but we will get a lot of new customers as a result of the uncertainty.”
Mr Dixon (pictured) predicts a tough economy throughout 2008 and into 2009. More risk, he said, was making companies rethink their ideas on long term leases. A business’s biggest cost, he said, was unused space.
His acquisition of the Davidson House contract along with Stonemartin centres in Manchester and Birmingham has delighted him though.
“Reading has done particularly well, and in addition there are conventional lettings there done by Morley (Davidson House landlords) They are achieving some of the best rents in the centre of Reading.”
Mr Dixon confirmed that the IoD hub will continue at Davidson House and a further joint venture with Thames Valley Chamber is due to be launched soon.
Like the current economy Davidson House is no stranger to volatility. Its developer Roger Madelin, of Argent, was on record as saying he would never have built the whole Forbury Square development had September 11 happened before he had started.
It remained a white elephant until Stonemartin appeared to come to the rescue. Now Stonemartin has just lost all but its London centre and the building’s first three floors are now run by Regus while landlords Morley are leasing the upper floors on conventional terms.
But Mr Dixon insists a good building will always find its level. Davidson House, he said, was one of the best buildings in Reading.
Current tenants would continue as before and those in the Regus section could now use its centres everywhere.
Mr Dixon said: “There is an added benefit. We are one of the world’s biggest purchasing organisations. We have 400,000 customers so we basically pool all the customers together so that we can buy goods and services at low prices.”
Regus now has four buildings in Reading. Others are at GreenPark, Theale and Thames Valley Park. Ironically Regus had previously had a centre close to Davidson House but which had to go when the Forbury Square development was built.
Mr Dixon added: “We had to close it because this was being built on our car park.”
DAVIDSON house is now becoming the hub of two massive schemes to improve the situation for rail travellers.
Network Rail has moved into the fourth floor and is on a recruitment drive to have around 200 people working on the rebuilding of Reading station and Crossrail.
Robbie Burns, major programme director at Network Rail, said: “Network Rail’s investment in Reading will deliver big improvements to train services at the station. We are building a team of key professionals in Davidson House to support this and also to help deliver on our involvement in Crossrail.”
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