IWG’s first franchise partnership in Scotland is bringing flexspace to the region of Lanarkshire. Here, joint partner Tommy Nevin explains how it will serve the needs of small businesses navigating the new world of work. 

Tommy Nevin spent most of his career in leadership roles for big corporations, but had always dreamed of running a business. The chance came eight years ago while working for EE. The telecommunications giant was looking to expand its retail network through franchising and, as Nevin puts it, it was like “the stars were aligned”.

He opened his first franchise EE mobile store in 2015, then two more by 2016. He then partnered with BT Local to offer business-grade communications to SMEs across Scotland. It was while looking for office solutions for their businesses – ones that offered better presence in locations near to people’s homes – that he first became aware of IWG.

“We’d been looking at office space options when friend and former colleague Graeme Orr, who had been looking at franchising for himself, came across the IWG opportunity. We had a chat about it and a partnership developed from that,” Nevin explains. “It was pretty much a no-brainer, because it really fitted with what we were doing as a business.”

Nevin, Orr and Nevin’s BT Local Business partners Scott Gibson and Tony McCabe have now signed a ‘territory agreement’ with IWG to develop and open three centres over three years in Lanarkshire, with an initial focus on East Kilbride – one of Scotland’s ‘new’ towns, perfectly positioned between Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire. It has a high catchment of small businesses and Nevin believes that a lot of these will be looking at different options for their workforce as hybrid working becomes the norm in a post-Covid world.

“A lot of people from the East Kilbride and Lanarkshire areas would historically have commuted into Glasgow and Edinburgh for work,” he says. “Having a good quality premium serviced office on their doorstep will be a very attractive proposition for businesses in that area.”

Nevin says the site they are currently looking at for their first IWG centre in the town is a space of 11,000 square feet within a “high-spec” building located in East Kilbride’s ‘south orbital’ – an area that has become a business hub thanks to its excellent transport links, infrastructure and public services. Nevin believes the area’s commercial vibrancy is the perfect fit for the IWG brand.

He expects it to attract smaller businesses looking for more cost-efficient, flexible options rather than investing in traditional, longer-lease offices with significant capital expenditure. Nevin hopes the centre will be more than a workplace, though – he wants it to become a community where small businesses can learn from each other and grow.

“We are looking at approximately 200 seats to begin with, we will have a business centre, and high-class meeting room facilities with all the latest connectivity that you need to function in the new world of work. We’re looking at a high-standard serviced office and coworking environment that will attract lots of different business types and sizes, with the hope that they will be able to network and support each other.”

Nevin says his, and his business partners' involvement with the franchise will initially be quite hands-on, and they also plan to move their own businesses into the centre when it opens. He is really excited about the growth of the flexspace market, a sector that was already on an upward trajectory pre-Covid. He believes the pandemic has accelerated the need for serviced, flexible office and coworking spaces and that the demand for hybrid working solutions will continue to push the industry to expand further.

The level of support from IWG has been phenomenal, he says. While an experienced franchisee, Nevin is new to the flexspace sector, and he found the “hand-holding” that IWG offered throughout the process to be exceptional – from negotiations with landlords to information packs and direct advice.

Nevin has big ambitions for the franchise and wants to be IWG’s partner of choice in Scotland. “We want to have multiple locations, trading profitably and with a reputation as the go-to serviced office provider in this country,” he reveals.

He advises anyone interested in becoming an IWG franchise partner to do their research first – both on the company and within the sector to understand what the demands of being a partner are and meet the franchise team.

“The company will share its vision for IWG and you will understand more clearly the level of support available to you as a franchisee,” Nevin says. “Also talk to other franchise partners. I’ve found that they are always willing to share and be honest about what the experience is like. After you have done all of that research, you can decide if it is for you.”

Reserve a slot at our next webinar to learn more about franchise opportunities with IWG.