As work becomes more flexible and people opt for more mobility, so grows the demand for truly flexible workplaces.

“We are living in an era where we can all work on the move,” Chun Woo-jin, country manager of Regus Korea, said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

“The number of working professionals who work remotely from the office is rising, and this new trend is fanning the demand for flexible workspaces, including serviced business centers, business lounges and meeting rooms.’’

Luxembourg-based Regus was founded in 1989 by Mark Dixon, an English entrepreneur. Regus is the world’s largest workspace provider, running about 2,000 workspaces globally.

The company has shown steady growth here since its entry in 2006. Currently, the company runs 11 serviced business centers in Seoul.

Confident about its future business here, the head of the company appeared to be unfazed at the prolonged real estate slump. In fact, he said business is better when property markets underperform.

“Ironically, Regus Korea makes more profit when there is a slump in the property market,” Chun said. “As the office vacancy rate remains high amid the protracted economic slowdown, building owners seek win-win partnerships with business center operators like Regus based on long-term leasing contracts.”

This year, Regus will open a facility in Busan ― its first outside of Seoul.

Regarding its clientele, Chun said multinational companies formed the largest client group.

“Firms that want to test the waters here before making a full-fledged commitment are our key customers, followed by temporary corporate task forces and venture start-ups,” Chun said.

On the list of some of Regus’ high-profile corporate clients are Twitter, Amazon and Samsung Electronics.

“Regus sees high growth potential in the technology-driven Korean market. We hope to raise the number of serviced business centers to 100 in Korea over the next few years,” the country manager said.

Regus’ business centers in Korea are divided into two groups: high-end business centers and simpler second-tier facilities.

The premium centers target conglomerates and their spin-offs or start-ups, while the key customers for the second group of centers are individuals.

“Under the vision that we provide companies of all sizes with the optimized office environment they need, we are offering an array of office solutions, all based on differing customer needs,” Chun said.

On top of the high-end serviced office space, for instance, Regus Korea issues “gold membership cards” for business lounge users for a monthly fee of 45,000 won ($40).

“This was a product we developed for customers who are constantly on the move but are looking for a place to sit down and work on their laptops with an Internet connection for a few hours between trips,” Chun said.

The services and products that Regus provides will become more diversified and sophisticated to keep up with the constantly changing office environment, the company said.

Its most recent attempts at innovation involve a project it launched to look for office locations that are outside of conventional or well-known business districts.

“The project, dubbed the ‘third place’ project, involves finding an alternative workspace to provide more productivity on the move. Railway stations are one of them,’’ Chun said.

As a case in point, Regus opened a fully serviced, state-of-the-art office space on the ground floor of Amersfoort central station in the Netherlands two years ago.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)