Commercial Property : The Regus Group

Sunday 18 November 2012

The Regus Group

In 1989 while on a business trip to Brussels, an English entrepreneur, Mark Dixon, noted the lack of office space available to travelling business people; they were often forced to work from hotels. He identified a need for office space that was maintained, staffed, and available for companies to use on a flexible basis and went on to found his first business centre in Brussels in Belgium.In 1994 Regus entered Latin America with a center in São Paulo and in 1999 it entered Asia with its first center in Beijing.The Company completed a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2000.In 2001 it acquired Stratis Business Centers, a U.S.-based network of franchised business centers, and expanded into the United States market.^]Later in 2001 the Regus business center on the 93rd floor of South Tower at the World Trade Center was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks; five employees lost their lives. The company was criticized for a lack of response to the victims' families, though a Regus official said they had made "proactive outreach to each and every family of the team members who are missing."