Runway East has become Bristol city centre’s largest co-working operator, jumping ahead of rival Regus in a crowded and fast-growing market.
The flexible workspace operator, which launched in London in 2014 and opened its first site in Bristol shortly afterwards, now has 82,000 sq ft of office space on two sites across the city against Regus’ 58,000 sq ft.
Runway East, which describes itself as a ‘culture-led’ operator, now manages 10% of all Bristol office supply at a time when the market continues to expand, with recent entrants such as Clockwise opening in the city’s historic Grade II listed Generator building, with 30,000 sq ft of design-led spaces over six floors.
It has joined existing operators Desklodge, which is about to open 18,000 sq ft on three floors of Beacon Tower on The Centre to add to its base on Redcliffe Way, Origin Workspace in Berkeley Square and HERE in the former HTV studios on Bath Road.
Occupiers in Runway East’s locations next to Bristol Bridge, pictured above and below, and at Temple Meads include Octopus Energy, Deliveroo, Travel Local and Creativity UK, with fast-growing fintech firm Paymentsense recently taking space.
Regus operates city centre serviced offices in Broad Quay House on Prince Street, in Castlemead, Bristol’s tallest commercial building on Lower Castle Street, and in Programme, formerly The Pithay.
Runway East founder and CEO Natasha Guerra said Bristol had the strongest office market growth rate of any UK city outside of London.
“It’s a superb place to be with an emphasis on renewables and tech while offering a good work/life balance,” she said.
“Extremely low vacancy rates and a short supply of high-quality serviced offices have led to a strong uptake of employers looking for an operator that reflects their values.
“Becoming Bristol’s largest co-working operator is a real accolade for an independent business. It is symbolic of the changing workplace culture and greater demand for employee experience over space – and our mission to destroy boring offices.”
Runway East was initially a hub for tech entrepreneurs but has now grown to nine sites in London, Bristol and Brighton.
Its emergence as the largest flexible office provider in Bristol city centre comes as research by debt advisory specialist Sirius Property Finance reveals that the UK service offices market is set to grow by 17% this year.
Its analysis also shows that:
- The serviced offices sector generated a revenue of £961m in 2013 before growing significantly year-on-year until reaching a peak of £2.6bn in 2020.
- This period of sustained growth was, in no small part, driven by WeWork’s entry to the UK market in 2014, which inspired a nationwide boom in co-working,
- As the pandemic took effect and businesses were required to adapt to a work-from-home model, service offices revenue in 2021 declined by 20.1% before falling by a further 21.8% last year when revenue totalled £1.6bn,
- It is now estimated that this pandemic dip will finally be stemmed in 2023 when, by year-end, sector revenue is forecast to hit £1.9bn, marking annual growth of 16.8%.
- This growth, however, fails to bring the sector anywhere close to its pre-pandemic peak and, due to a greater acceptance of remote working, there is now the real possibility that serviced offices will fail to generate the kind of revenue enjoyed in the past.
