Easy does it

Having witnessed strong demand for its no frills, no ties offering in the UK, easyOffice is now preparing to expand overseas. CEO Mark Smith tells CXO Europe why he believes the world is ready to do business on a budget.

“Working with the easyGroup is very exciting. I think it's tremendous. We're very light in terms of administration. We don't have many layers of management. I report directly to Stelios.”
-Mark Smith, easyOffice

In these times of economic uncertainty – its no surprise that business, for easyOffice at least, is booming. The company's offering – no frills offices to rent for as little as a week – has strong appeal for start-up firms that lack the confidence to commit to a long lease. And even long established companies are choosing to relocate their premises to offices with a fast get out clause. To date the company has offices to rent in the London boroughs of Kensington and Camden. However, says CEO Mark Smith, it won't be long before the offices, featuring easyGroup's distinctive orange decor, appear across the country. “We've got now a live hit list of seriously interested people around the country. That list probably contains about 40 locations right now. We will be starting operations in Glasgow this year and then we'll be moving onto Edinburgh. The next list of locations we've got includes two in Manchester and potentially two in Bristol. Once easyOffice has established operations in Manchester and Bristol it will be looking to open premises in Gatwick, then says Smith: “We're going to pause for some breath and fill those offices up.”

The breakneck speed at which easyOffice has developed its business reflects the business philosophy of its parent company, the easyGroup, which has developed a reputation for breaking the mould by making its budget concepts a reality and bringing them to the market swiftly.

Smith says the way in which the company operates is geared towards ensuring nothing stands in the way of progress: “Working for the easyGroup is very exciting. I think it's tremendous. We're very light in terms of administration. We don't have many layers of management. I report directly to Stelios (Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded easyJet then went on to found the easyGroup). We like helping the little guy out. We like to try challenging new ideas. It's an exciting and enthusiastic environment.”

Unfortunately, he says, other business people don't share the same enthusiasm or willingness to make decisions quickly, which Smith admits can be frustrating: “The biggest challenge is the time it takes between agreeing with a landlord to take on an office, to actually building that office They walk at their own pace and because we're enthusiastic and we want to get things done tomorrow, we do find all that planning frustrating. That's a big challenge for us.”
He's the first to admit however, that being part of the easyGroup has proven a distinct advantage for easyOffice, providing it with a distinct edge over other serviced office providers. “One of the things that has not been a big challenge has been explaining to people what the easy brand is,” says Mark. “Everybody seems to recognise it. If I was being tough on ourselves, I'd say the easy brand is all we've got really. Because to run a serviced office is easy. It's not difficult. It's not science. The advantage we have is the easy brand, which people do have confidence in. They know about easyJet and they know about Stelios.”

To leverage this advantage Smith has worked hard to ensure that easyOffice remains loyal to the easyGroup's philosophy of providing a no frills product at a cheap price and in a flexible package: “We have very flexible contracts and, just like booking easyJet tickets you go on to the internet and book your office space,” he says.  The offices are absolutely fine. But we try to keep costs to a minimum. It will always be no frills.” This approach also suits easyOffice's target customers: young entrepreneurs who are starting out in business with what they hope will be a great money making idea; “The typical profile is someone who has had a good idea and they've maybe been working on it at home on their kitchen table,” says Smith. ”They've then got two or three colleagues and they want to take it to the next level which is to find some office space.” Often these types of start-up companies would find it difficult to secure a long term lease with a landlord – and would not want to commit themselves to a long term agreement because they are not sure themselves how successful their business will be, Smith goes on to say: “The beauty of it is that they can go into the space, then if it does go as well as they would have liked they can get out early.  On the other hand if their idea goes well, they can get bigger and they can get from a two person company then take another office and become a six person office.”

Smith says that although he is concerned about the effects on his business from current economic conditions, however, he has found that customers who booked office space for three months are now booking for an additional three months.

In fact so confident is Smith in the future of his company that he now has his eye on international expansion – into Europe and as far as the Middle East. Smith's initial idea is, once the business has become well established in the UK, to start opening offices in the destinations which easyJet flies to and where the brand is already well recognised.

“My first calling would be to look at the routes that easyJet already flies to,” says Smith. The company will be known in those localities so it would make sense. What I have said to Stelios is 'let us prove ourselves in the UK first'. He also however, believes there is strong potential for the easyOffice concept in the Middle East, particularly in Dubai, where until recently when oil prices and the global economic downturn created harsh economic conditions for companies, thousands of foreigners flocked to the emirates to set up their own businesses.
“We could definitely go to Dubai,” he says.

Smith has come to easyOffice with a strong background of working in service-orientated industries, including a rival services offices provider, Regis: “I used to run their London area. Before that I ran several logistics companies,” he explains. “For the last six years I have been with serviced offices.”

Where this venture is different however, is that it is, like many of those companies renting easyOffice space, a start-up company; albeit with the weight of the easyGroup behind it.
And as Smith says; “To get things off the ground you need an awful lot of energy.”

About easyGroup
The easyGroup is the private investment vehicle of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who prefers to be known as Stelios. The easyGroup is the owner of the easy brand and licenses it to all of the easy branded businesses, including easyJet plc, the airline Stelios started in 1995 and in which he remains the largest single shareholder.
 
The easyGroup profits by either selling shares in the businesses or by licensing or franchising the brand to reputable partners. The easy brand currently operates more than a dozen industries mainly in travel, leisure, telecoms and personal finance.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou – who prefers to be known as Stelios, the Serial Entrepreneur - is best know for creating easyJet in 1995, at the age of 28. In 2000, he floated - on the London Stock Exchange - the low-cost airline that revolutionized European air travel. Nowadays, the company has grown into one of Europe’s leading airlines with some 170 aircraft flying over 400 routes between 103 airports in 26 countries. Approximately 45 million people a year fly with easyJet enjoying more value for less!
 
Stelios is the son of a highly-successful Greek shipowner, the late Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who provided the seed capital for Stelios’ independent business career, which started when he created a shipping company - Stelmar - at the age of 25. Subsequently, Stelios floated Stelmar on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001; the company was successfully sold to a rival in 2005, creating significant shareholder value.
 
Today, Stelios remains the biggest single shareholder of easyJet PLC and a non-executive director. In parallel, before the IPO in 2000 - and true to his beliefs in serial entrepreneurship - he consolidated the ownership of the easy brand into his private company, easyGroup, and launched several easy-branded businesses. The group currently includes easyCar (car rental), easyHotel (budget hotels), easyBus (airport transfers), easyOffice (low-cost, serviced office rental for small businesses), easyPizza and easyCruise - all dedicated to offering more value for less to millions of consumers.
 
In 2006, at the age of 39, Stelios received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship. Since then, Sir Stelios has expanded his dedication to making a difference to society by launching a number of philanthropic initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, higher education and environmental sustainability.