International Workplace Group (IWG), a global flexible workspaces, is considering doubling its co-working network in India in the next 36 to 48 months. It currently has 120 workspaces in 16 cities across the country.
Harsh Lambah, Country Manager, India, IWG, sees huge potential for the company in Tier II cities. “In each of the Tier II cities, we have tasted tremendous success. In Indore, we have opened our third workspace. In Ahmedabad, we are going from two to four workspaces. In Chandigarh, we have opened two. We have expanded in Visakhapatnam and Jaipur. There is a lot of commerce happening there, and hence a lot of potential in Tier II cities,” he elaborated.
The company is planning to adopt three strategies to grow its network – organic growth, acquisitions and the franchise route. “We are looking at markets where there is demand, where there is availability of good commercial real estate stock in major metros or Tier II cities and where we will grow organically."
He does not rule out taking the acquisition route to grow. "There has been a lot of fragmentation and consolidation happening in the co-working space right now among the 300 to 500 players in India today," he said, but was quick to add that the company has "not found any deal to provide value to our businesses yet."
IWG is aggressively rolling out its franchise model across the globe. “We have recently franchised Japan as a country to one party. We have done it in Taiwan and we are looking at aggressively rolling out the franchise strategy in India. Very soon we will launching our franchise strategy in India,” he said.
The company has based its expansion plan on two brands within its portfolio of five -- Regus, the serviced offices brand; and Spaces, its co-working, informal, inspirational transformational space brand in a large format of which it has nine facilities in India. It launched its ninth centre in Noida last week. The facility is spread across 55,000 sq ft and is located in Max One Towers.
It plans to introduce the other three brands in India by next year, Lambah said. “We are looking at the opportunity of bringing them to India next year. This year, we are focused on expanding the Regus and Spaces brand.”
Commenting on the firm's strategy for India going forward, he said, "Our global strategy is focused on co-working right now. We are evaluating the opportunity, evaluating whether to get the other three next year if the opportunity comes in. One is called HQ Global Workspaces, the acquisition we made in the US. It is a plain vanilla service office brand for sales people, a back office for call centres. The second is Signature by Regus, a premium offering for A Grade buildings. And the third is called No18, a Swedish company founded in 2012 and bought by IWG last year. It is more of a CXO club,” he said.
vandana.ramnani@nw18.com
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