I was prompted by a tweet this morning to consider the question of market penetration of business centres/serviced offices in the UK market. The tweet was from easyoffices and it reported the fact that there are three business centres in Preston, Lancashire. The report caused to wonder how what the population of Preston is and how that number of business centres compared to the average and to other towns and cities in the UK.
According to officebroker.com, the best source of recent data about the business centre industry, there are over 2,000 business centres in the UK, meaning that on average there are three for each 100,000 inhabitants. Preston has a population of 132,000 indicating that there should be four centres rather than three. It is thus a little below average.
We have always felt that any town of city of at least 25,000 inhabitants is big enough to support a modest sized business centre, particularly if there is a hinterland that is not completely deserted. Having a business centre or serviced office is becoming part of the vital business infrastructure of any town or city. Councillors please take note!
Tags: business centre, executive suite, innovation centre, Preston, serviced office
