268 Bath Road on the Slough Trading Estate to the west of London was one of the first, new-generation serviced office centres to be established by Regus. With 77 offices, 770 work stations, 7 meeting rooms, 6 training rooms, 2 conference rooms and 9 board rooms, the building is one of the largest fully serviced business centres in Europe.
Yet when the building was first occupied by Regus in 1998 it was something of a departure for the rapidly growing serviced office provider.
“For us,” explains Nick Benbow, Regus’ UK corporate development director, “This building was the forerunner of similar type buildings. We grew pretty fast and in the early days we were operating out of relatively small buildings. As we expanded we went into much larger ones. This was one of the first of the larger ones we went into.”
At that time Regus ran only 50 centres. By mid 2001 that had grown to 422 spread across 50 countries. Yet the Bath Road building itself reflected the aims and ethos of Regus in a very complete way.
Its location at the heart of the busy Slough Trading Estate was typical of what Regus is about, explains Benbow.
“We try to go where the hub of the action is and where people are dynamic in their business. It endorses what we are all about which is reacting to change, being flexible, being suitable for incubating businesses as well as for well established businesses… I think Bath Road reflects that.”
This approach is also reflected in the design of the building. Characterised by large expanses of glass, it was designed by Foster and Partners. Its central flow, atrium area with its two glass lifts became a template for Regus’ later business centres in a variety of locations around the world.
As in other locations the 268 Bath Road building’s video conferencing, training and conference room facilities have become a resource for neighbouring businesses not necessarily located onsite. The always on, fast access cyber café with its Apple screens is nothing more than you would expect of Regus which specialises in providing services to 21st century businesses.
Nick Benbow says that Regus considers itself to be in partnership with SEGRO, which owns the building.
“We have very much a participation type of deal with SEGRO. They gain from us doing well there. What is good for us is good for them… and hopefully vice versa. Their hands-on approach to their buildings distinguishes them from most other landlords. They care about the long-term partnership as opposed to the short-term gain. This is a good thing. We would like all of our landlords to be like that.”
For Regus its Bath Road building needed to fully meet the demands of a large, state of the art, serviced office complex. It also had to provide the kind of environment Regus wanted to create for its clients, whether they happened to be large multinational corporations or younger, fast-growth IT, financial or pharmaceutical companies. The building succeeded in achieving these goals and has proved to be a success for Regus and its clients as well as playing an important role in the business environment of the Slough Trading Estate.