Growing, with competition in the background

Regus Business Centre is a company which provides fully-equipped office space and has been operating in Poland for seven years. Soon, it will open its fourth business centre here and its first outside Warsaw. Regus management regard this as good progress and reject rumours that the company has financial problems.

The first Regus business centre was opened in Sheraton Plaza in Warsaw and was followed by offices in Atrium Plaza, Warsaw Financial Centre and Wisniowy Business Park. Last summer, Richard Hazell, who heads the Polish section of the company, spoke of their plans to open a business establishment outside Warsaw.

New offices opening...
Mr. Hazell's words are unlikely to come to fruition until several months are up, when Regus will probably open a centre in the Kraków office building, KBP 100. "Yes, it is very much our intention to go into KBP 100. We think KBP will be good partners for us and the scheme is great. We are likely to move there next year, hopefully before April and we'll probably take around 1,200 sqm," says John J. Fekete, Director of Regus for Central and Eastern Europe, adding that the Kraków project would be its most advanced yet.

...and old ones closing
The KPB 100 operation, if it happens, will make it Regus' fourth not fifth business centre in Poland, because the company recently closed its Atrium Plaza office, which had been operating since 1999, and moved its clients to other centres. Why did they do this? Neither Regus and Skanska Property Poland, which owns the building, would comment on the matter, saying only that it's up to lawyers to determine whether the tenant was entitled to discontinue the contract. Experts claim that the rental rates, which Regus had been trying in vain to review for over ten months, were the real reason.

Working together
Two out of the three centres operating in Poland, in Warsaw Financial Centre and Wisniowy Business Park, as well as the company's branch in St.Petersburg Russia, were constructed by GE Capital Golub Polska. Does this mean that Regus is planning to open offices in Warsaw's International Business Centre, which is currently being developed by Golub Polska? "If we were or weren't, I couldn't say. Golub is one of our best and biggest partners in the region and we work with them in St.Petersburg. They are a great organisation. But I can't comment on the situation," said John J. Fekete, choosing his words carefully.
"I can't comment on whether or not we're negotiating with Regus," said Michał Melaniuk of GE Capital Golub Polska in a similar vein.

London and Warsaw
Over the last few months, the value of Regus' shares has been falling on the London Stock Exchange, and where at the end of last year they were being sold for 60 pence each, now it's around 10 pence. Eurobuild asked John J. Fekete if this fact might have any implications for the company's position in Poland. "I can't comment on the situation on the stock exchange. But our business is solid here and we intend to continue the growth."
As far as Nigel Wade, the Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis Polska, is concerned, there is a need on the Polish market for the sort of service Regus provides. "In my opinion, demand is very high because it allows companies entering the market, to lease short-term office facilities. Regus is the dominant business centre provider but there are others who are thinking of entering the Polish market."

Competition
Regus, sure enough, has a new competitor: Excellent Business Centre, a German company, which opened its first business centre on the 1st of December. Ironically, not only is EBC moving into Atrium Plaza, it also taking over the space previously occupied by Regus, (though 1,372 sqm, not Regus' 1,285 sqm). According to Jarosław Gorzko of Skanska Property Poland, John Bieler, the Head of EBC, who have already signed a ten-year contract, wants to attract other German firms now entering the Polish market, to Atrium Plaza.