Regus targets provinces

Serviced office operator Regus Thailand sees great opportunities in key provinces including Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Songkhla with growing demand from young business start-ups.

Country manager Christoph Hodapp said many expanding one-man start-ups in Bangkok were looking for office space and the trend was spreading to major provinces.

“We have a student customer who ran her business at home while she studied at university and used a serviced office when she had a meeting with a client,” he said.

“Now her business has expanded to a company and she rents a private office space at one of our centres.”

Regus can see potential in key provinces such as Khon Kaen, the Northeast’s major educational city, which has more than 50,000 students with the chance to become entrepreneurs.

“We will seek partners in those provinces who may be landlords to develop office space that we can rent out,” Mr Hodapp said.

“The starting space we need is about 500 square metres.”

He said the company’s proportion of Thai customers had reached 60% after being only 30% in recent years.

Most customers are in the IT sector, followed by professional services, human resources, oil and gas and mining.

“We have seen strong demand from Asean integration, as we got an increase of 50% in enquiries last year compared with 2013,” Mr Hodapp said.

Listed on the London Stock Exchange with headquarters in Luxembourg, Regus entered Thailand in 2000 with a serviced office centre on 1,300 sq m at M Thai Tower.

It has 15 centres in Thailand comprising 4,800 workstations and 22,000 sq m with an average occupancy of 78%. Fourteen sites are in Bangkok and one in Laem Chabang.

Regus will open two Bangkok centres at AIA Capital Center on Ratchadaphisek Road next month and at Bhiraj Tower on Sukhumvit Road in July.

It has 3,500 customers paying from 790 to 10,000 baht per month depending on services. The minimum contract is six months.