Image taken from Regus Canada Facebook Page
Wayne Berger, Vice-President for Regus Canada, tells OT about Regus’ growth in the area and future plans for 2016
Regus Canada closed 2015 with 20 new locations, reaching a total of 90 business center locations across the country.
“We doubled our capacity to open centers, and we closed the year strong, with a particularly busy December,” VP Wayne Berger told OT.
Among the twenty new locations available in the country, Wayne highlighted the opening their first center in Waterloo, Ontairo, the heart of Canada’s tech triangle. This particular area houses around 600 startup companies and it’s recognized as the technology hotbed in Canada. Regus’ locations in the tech triangle are progressive collaborative spaces that go along the lines of coworking as opposed to Regus’ more traditional serviced offices.
“Coworking is, no doubt, taking up more steam; it’s become more of an option. We at Regus realize that we need to grow into this market; it’s become more popular, we’re seeing more competitors come into the market with coworking spaces. Though we keep on seeing more millennial generations drive towards coworking spaces, I do believe that in Canada specifically there is still real need for both serviced offices and coworking spaces.”
Wayne believes that part of this growing trend has to do with the fact that workers are living in a Renaissance period, where they have an increased amount of flexibility and workspace options. He mentions how, “companies are really starting to understand the importance of giving teams and employees options in terms of when and where they can get work done and the focus of workers has shifted from strict hours and locations to results and goals.”
These shifts in the focus of companies and workers hint opportunities for growth in Canada, and for 2016 Regus has big plans. Their goal is to continue with their aggressive growth strategy in order to meet the ongoing needs and demands of the market. By the end of the first quarter of 2016, they plan to open several new locations in urban markets and sub-markets.
Some of the areas mapped out for growth and expansion include British Columbia, Vancouver, Quebec, Montreal, Nova Scotia, and Dartmouth; this last one welcoming its first Regus location in the city.
As for how the growth and expansion will take place, Berger mentioned that Regus is looking at both organic growth and acquisitions, although he wouldn’t expand more on the latter option.
“We want to build our brand and network. We will make the right acquisitions when they make sense. We are aiming at building out different brands and designs to support different niches.”
We have reasons, however, to suspect that acquisitions are indeed part of their aggressive growth strategy, as we recently got news that Regus acquired the Canadian Business Center Group, Global Prime Office Networks (more on this on the coming weeks).
Regardless of how they plan to grow, we can all be sure that Regus Canada will have a busy 2016. They are so excited about their plans and their growth that not even WeWork can shake their confidence. When asked about the rumors that WeWork will soon establish its presence in the country, Berger only had good things to say:
“We welcome WeWork in Canada, we acknowledge that competition builds vibrancy and helps all of us strive to offer the best customer experience possible.”
We’ll keep an eye out for them and keep checking up to see how all the 2016 openings are coming along. Stay tuned.
