Canada's franchising industry enjoys boom as IWG goes from strength to strength
The rapid inroads into Canada’s franchising industry made by IWG over the past year saw the company take part in two major industry events recently. Despite having only launched its franchising programme in 2019, the company took part in the Canada Franchise Show in October, then just recently at the beginning of November exhibited again at the same event in Vancouver.
“Both these events are hosted and organised by the Canadian Franchise Association, Canada’s ultimate one-stop-shop for anyone looking to take control of their future through franchise ownership,” says Steven McAnulty, Director of Franchise Development in Canada.
The two-day events offered the opportunity for aspiring franchisees to explore opportunities across the province and the country, and featured a wide variety of companies from the restaurant, health and fitness, retail, and business sectors.
“The Canada Franchise Shows are the ultimate franchise exhibition to meet face-to-face with leading franchisors and explore franchise opportunities in every industry,” adds McAnulty. He says IWG’s focus at the events was to increase awareness about its franchise offering for anyone looking to start a franchise business. “We believe that we have a unique offering as the global leader in flexible workspace, and it gives an opportunity to share our success over the last 30 years with aspiring franchise partners,” he says.
IWG’s booth at the events was a showcase for the best franchises in Canada, providing a great opportunity to increase awareness about its operations in the country, with some of those dropping in already being previous happy customers. “Many of the attendees have either used one of our centres, had friends who used our centres or attended an event at one of our centres across the country. “These attendees were pleased to hear that IWG is franchising Regus, Spaces and HQ in Canada,” McAnulty says.
IWG offers a huge choice of workspaces through its various companies, with each one aimed at a specific niche of the flexible-working sector – an industry enjoying huge growth. It’s predicted to increase by 24% a year, with 50% of workers set to be working remotely for most of their working week by 2020. By 2022, around 1.87 billion people will be working flexibly, with global real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) estimating that up to 30% of corporate real estate could be flexible workspace by 2030.
“We help millions of people have a great day at work every day, by giving people and businesses access to our world-leading commercial real-estate platform,” McAnulty states. “Through our range of office formats, as well as our growing mobile, virtual office and workplace recovery businesses, we enable people and businesses to work where, when and how they want, and at a range of price points.”
With a 30-year track record of delivering workspace solution for businesses, IWG has sites in over 3,400 locations, 120 countries and 1,100 towns and cities, with over 2.5m customers worldwide. In Canada, IWG operates over 120 locations across the country.
Such growth is proving to be an enticing prospect for entrepreneurs looking to start a franchise in Canada and break into a sector that’s really going places. “IWG is looking for strategic franchise partners who can identify highly desirable locations, build centres according to our proven standards, and recruit clients to their centres,” adds McAnulty. “Our franchise partners will be responsible for the daily operations of multiple IWG centres and ensure their clients receive excellent customer service.”
IWG is actively recruiting franchise partners to grow the Canadian network in all provinces and territories, so interested parties would do well to get in touch today.
To find out more, visit the website or contact the Franchise Team at Franchise.CA@iwgplc.com
