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Lloyd Dorfman, Travelex founder and chairman of serviced office firm Esselco, has funded a management buyout of Bridges Ventures’ majority stake in The Office Group for £43.3 million.

Posted by Emma Mattin 10/9/2010

Dorfman, chairman of Esselco, said: “With interests in this sector already I was looking to diversify and it was evident that The Office Group had a very clear, differentiated proposition, an established customer base and a great vision for the future.”

The Office Group is a specialist provider of flexible office space with a portfolio of six sites in central London and one in Bristol, totalling 1350 workstations.  It has an average occupancy rate of 95% and forecast revenues of £7.29 million and EBITDA of £4.5 million for the year to December 2010.

The Office Group will be run by Office Group founders Olly Olsen and Charlie Green.  

Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP advised on the sale.

Posted by Emma Mattin 10/9/2010

Ventia is set to launch a serviced business centre in South Kensington to add to its portfolio of serviced offices across London and the Thames Valley.

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

The centre, located in Glen House on Old Brompton Road above a Ferrari and Maserati showroom, is being refurbished and is due to be completed in early September.

Leo Patching, director at Ventia, said: “The building is in a great location in an area of high prospective demand and very limited supply for what we will be providing.”

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

Orega, the flexible office provider, is set to launch its first London office space in High Holborn.

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

The managed and serviced offices firm has entered into a 10-year management agreement for 20,000 sq ft at 16 High Holborn, and will open up the office space on 1 October.

The management agreement is with Nine Court, the financial vehicle owned by Keith Beresford, and is worked off an equivalent rent of £28.50/sq ft. The targeted net return to the landlord, under the management agreement, is £37/sq ft.

Orega will operate the five-storey business centre and will manage the whole building on Nine Court’s behalf, including facilities management, cleaning and catering, telecommunications and front of house.

The property is owned by patent attorney Beresford & Co which will continue to occupy the 5,000 sq ft third floor of the building.

Zach Douglas, joint managing director of Orega, said: “16 High Holborn fits the bill and is in an area of high prospective demand from legal and financial occupiers to whom the flexibility of our offer is likely to appeal.”

He added: “We will continue to look for further opportunities in London to build on our presence.”

Last year Orega opened business centres in Manchester, Birmingham and Gatwick. It has seven UK locations in total.

Alex Peers of PPC advised Orega, Savills and Kinney Green advised landlord Nine Court.

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

Simon Taylor, head of property at Yell, describes how flexible working has helped save costs

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

“Five years ago, when I joined Yell as head of property, we had 52 offices in the UK. Today we have just nine offices, and have reduced property costs by 50%, despite having the same number of 4,000 employees.

“Our regional sales offices were underused because the sales staff spent most of their time out of the office. The good thing is we had short leases of an average of four years on most properties, so getting rid of them would not take long.

“In August we signed a deal with serviced office provider Regus, which enabled our 700 sales staff to use any of its offices in the country.

“The staff have a “bronze card”, which they use to gain access to Regus’s business lounge, where they can plug into Yell’s servers through Regus’s IT infrastructure. They can also book meeting rooms, make conference calls and print documents.

“We pay Regus a monthly retainer fee and for any additional services. This arrangement is estimated to save us £1.5m a year but in reality the savings will be higher, because once you give people flexibility, they find ways to be even more flexible. So a lot of team meetings are now held in coffee shops.”

Posted by Emma Mattin 5/10/2010

Company proclaimed ‘Trade Supplier of the Year’ by Britain’s serviced office and managed workspace providers

Posted by Emma Mattin 8/12/2010

UltraSoft Technologies has been voted „Trade Supplier of the Year 2010 by the Business Centre Association – the umbrella organisation representing Britains serviced office and managed workspace sector.

Harun Biswas, managing director, UltraSoft Technologies, received the award from Julie Grieve, chair of the BCA, at a glittering ceremony held in the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, London.

The Staines- based company, which took the same title in 2007 – beat off stiff competition from across the UK to win this year?s award. The finalists were nominated by occupiers of serviced offices or managed workspaces in response to levels of service and support which went well beyond their expectations.

Mr Biswas said: "We are very, very happy to have had the service we provide to the serviced office industry recognised in this way. The fact that we have already been winners of the Trade Supplier of the Year award does not in any way take the shine off this latest honour. In fact winning a second time is every bit as much an achievement as the first as it shows that we are staying ahead of the game.

We are dedicated to providing the best possible service to customers and this is award recognises how much our own employees have striven to achieve this."

UltraSoft has had a long and successful business relationship with members of the BCA, automating and simplifying business centre sales, licensing and billing activities through its UltraSoftBIS software. In addition it also provides software business solutions to government departments, universities, architects, solicitors and engineering companies.

Jennifer Brooke, executive director of the BCA, said: "BCA Trade Suppliers provide the membership with a wide range of quality products and services. UltraSoft Technologies joined the BCA in February 2007 and since that time they have successfully delivered their software solutions to a wide number of serviced office and workspace providers, always supporting their products with premier levels of customer service.

"There were some very impressive nominations for the Trade Supplier of the Year

Award and - for a second time, the panel of judges were overwhelmingly convinced that UltraSoft were the most worthy winners."

Recently, UltraSoft Technologies announced a new addition to their software, Contract Service Agreement (CSA) module, which provides business centres with the choice of producing one agreement for office space and contract services or producing two separate agreements.

"Adaptation of CSA within UltraSoft System reconfirms our understanding of business centre needs today," Mr Biswas added.

Posted by Emma Mattin 8/12/2010