Regus pledges more site openings

Office rental firm Regus says it will open 200 sites this year as companies increasingly use its services to make cost savings.

But it warned that its UK market, where it has about 140 centres, “remains tough” amid high property prices, suggesting that the bulk of its expansion will be overseas.

The group, which has 1,200 sites worldwide serving customers including Google, GlaxoSmithKline and Nokia, opened 139 new locations last year but only three of these were in the UK.

Group profits more than doubled to £50.6 million in 2011 after it grew sales by 12 per cent, helped by the opening of new sites and through cost savings as it renegotiated leases.

It has benefited as firms increasingly use its premises rather than pay for their own in order to make cost savings.

In the UK, gross profits nearly doubled to £29.7m, which it said was evidence of its turnaround after it found £15m of cost savings the previous year.

Chief executive Mark Dixon said: “The group continues to see significant opportunities in the structural move toward flexible work and as such we remain committed to building a network of 2,000 locations by 2014, of which we anticipate 200 will open in 2012.”