NEW DELHI: IWG, a global workplace provider recently launched its ‘Space’ brand in India. The company previously known as Regus has six brands under its umbrella, two of which are now present in India. In an exclusive interview with ET Realty, Dominik de Daniel, COO & CFO, Spaces and Harsh Lambah, Country Manager, talks about their plans for expanding in India.
How do you see the co-working space market in India?
The co-working market is growing at a quick pace in India, thanks to the growing number of entrepreneurs and start-ups. Central government's pro-startup policies have also helped our sector. Apart from this, now the traditional companies too are showing interests in working from the co-working spaces, which has opened up a whole new audience for us.
India has one of the highest ‘young’ workforces in the world which makes it a significant market for companies like us. This along with the GDP growth that the country is expected to witness, it is on the top of our list for expanding globally.
There are different types of business-model present in the shared-space industry, what is the business-model for Spaces? And who is your target audience?
We will be considering all kind of business models. Currently for the co-working space we have launched in Gurgaon, we have tied-up with DLF. We are looking to tie-up with developers and landlords in other cities as well. These associations can work in many ways where the landlord provides us the space or also invest in setting up the infrastructure, etc.
What kind of retention you are expecting?
Considering the conversion we have seen in Regus brand and the demand we are witnessing for Spaces, we expect a 60% retention rate in coming time.
With the price point that you have, how do you plan to attract start-ups and entrepreneurs to your facility?
We agree that the price we offer is not the lowest in any market but all the global network that we offer along with the high-quality promise is already attracting people to our facilities. There are few who are even moving from Regus to Spaces. As of now, there is enough demand for every price bracket in the co-working market.
Do you plan to focus more on open spaces or the private spaces/business centers?
We will have a mix of both in our centres. In the Gurgaon centre for instance, we have 30% of the open spaces while rest 70% is for private spaces. Though the recent centre does not have flexible spaces, we plan to install them in our upcoming co-working spaces, which then can be re-moulded depending on the clients need.
Which are the cities you will be targeting at? And by when will you plan to open co-working space in these cities?
We are targeting all the metro cities i.e. Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, NCR and Pune. We are opening up a centre in Chennai soon having 400-500 seats capacity. It will be spread in 35,000-40,000 sq ft.
With all five brands present in the same industry, don’t you think it eats-up each other market?
We agree that all brands exist in the same segment but if you look at it from the price segment, each one of them is targeting a completely different segment. As for India, Regus targets mostly the higher segment while Spaces will target the mid and high-segment.
How do you see the existing competition in India?
We believe that as of now there is enough space for co-working companies to exist simultaneously. In a way competition helps in creating awareness about the product which benefits us as well.
Resource: http://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/
