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IWG Plc, one of the world’s largest shared office providers, plans to introduce its low-priced co-working brand, HQ in India. The Switzerland-headquartered company already has 110 co-working spaces under its flagship Regus and Spaces brands in 16 cities across the country.
“Right now we have only two (brands) in India but we are looking to get HQ (brand) probably this year or the next,” Harsh Lambah, Country Manager, IWG plc told BusinessLine . One of the pioneers of flexible workspace business, IWG plc has more than 3,300 co-working locations in 1,000-plus cities and towns in more than 110 countries. In India, it has 101 co-working spaces under the Regus brand and serves the remaining under the Spaces brand.
Multi-brand offerings
Referring to the Marriott group of hotels as an example, Lambah said, multi-brand offering gives customers the freedom to choose the style of workspace that is best for their business. Marriott operates under multiple brands such as Aloft, Fairfield, Courtyard, Meridian, Westin, The Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott. “So we believe that in a flexible workspace, there is a multi-brand opportunity and that’s what we are offering our customers,” Lambah added.
In addition to Spaces and Regus, IWG, globally, offers a wide-range of co-working solutions under brands such as Signature by Regus, No 18, BASEPOINT and Openoffice, to name a few.
Spaces is is best suited for large corporate, while Regus offers smaller format of serviced offices. “HQ is a much more basic brand where sales team or projects team can work in a no-frill environment and that is something which we are looking for in Tier-2 and -3 towns,” Lambah said.
Noting that the Regus brand is doing extremely well in Tier-2 cities, Lambah said, “It took a little time to establish the proof-of-concept, but once we did, our Tier-2 cities started doing extremely well.”
He also added that the company would like to expand the Regus brand further in Tier-2 cities and then bring the HQ brand to Tier-2 and 3 cities.
IWG is also the major global company which has a significant presence in Tier-2 cities. It is currently present in Coimbatore, Vizag, Indore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.
The company is looking to double the number of co-working spaces in India in the next 36-48 months.
“Our growth strategy now is focussed on three pillars — organic, acquisition and franchising,” Lambah said, adding that IWG has already franchised entirely in Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and working on franchise-model in many other countries.
He also added that the concept of ‘master franchise’ is yet to take off in India, so the company is working with multiple parties in different parts of the country.
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