by THO
Managed office space provider, Smartworks, is expected to touch 10 mn sq ft by the end of the financial year and hopes to increase its footprint to 25 mn sq ft by the next four to five years. Besides its diverse clientele, the company is looking at doubling its exposure to global capacity centre clients that currently occupy almost 14 percent of the total customer base, the company’s top official told Hindustan Times Digital.
“We hope to achieve a footprint of 10 mn sq ft across 44 centers in 14 cities by the end of the financial year. We are currently at 8 mn sq ft across 42 centers. We hope to add two more centers in Bengaluru, Chennai or Pune,” said Neetish Sarda, founder Smartworks.
The company targets big enterprises keen on taking up large assets in what is called ‘campus’ managed spaces that are large campuses as opposed to independent floors in buildings. The company has such ‘campus centers’ in Noida and Gurgaon that are spread across an area of more than 2 lakh sq ft, 4 lakh sq ft in Pune and over 7 lakh sq ft across Bengaluru.
Also Read: Bengaluru no. 1 city across APAC in flexible office space stock; Delhi-NCR 3rd: CBRE
“We currently have 12 centres that are more than 3 lakh sq ft,” said Sarda, adding “We generally get large enterprises to commit to these campuses and many of them have even moved their corporate and regional headquarters to such centers. We currently have close to 700 unique customers.”
Company targeting a revenue of ₹1200 crore this fiscal
The company’s revenue in FY 2023 was at around ₹750 crore; ₹390 crore in FY 22. The company hopes to close FY24 with revenues of ₹1200 crore.
“We are also looking at closing the year at 10 mn sq ft. Next year, we may achieve 13 mn sq ft. By adding 3 to 3.5 mn every year, we hope to touch 25 mn sq ft in the next four to five years,” he said.
The managed space operator currently has close to 42 centres across the country spread across Tier 1 cities such as Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. It has opened centres in Tier 2 cities such as Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Kochi and Coimbatore. These are generally between 50000 and 60000 sq ft.
What differentiates the company from co-working players?
It curates a hotel experience for office goers, said Sarda.
Large enterprises have been “shifting 90 percent of their Indian real estate into our centres. We have become their infrastructure partners,” he said.
With the footprint getting bigger – ranging from 3 lakh sq ft to 8 lakh sq ft, the lock in period has also increased.
Also Read: IT SEZs now allowed to lease space in major real estate reform
The tenures for large enterprises is typically for a period of 36 months, he explains.
Tenant mix
Almost half of the company’s clientele comprises IT/ITeS (46%), Manufacturing (11%), finance and consulting (11%), BFSI (7%) and healthcare players (4%).
The Global Capability Centre pie has increased over the years. GCCs, also known as global in-house centres or captives, are offshore units of large multinationals performing technology operations.
“Our biggest opportunity in India is to do with GCCs. They typically enter India with 100 seats and touch 1000 seats as they scale up. This segment may currently be at 14 to 15 percent right now in the top nine cities across the country but may double in the next few years,” said Sarda.
Work from Home
The current trend among companies is to open managed offices close to where their employees live. “The emphasis has shifted from work from home to work from anywhere,” he said.
On Start-ups
Last one year we have been witnessing that start-ups that have the ability to scale up occupy close to 8 to 9 percent of our portfolio.
Expansion plans
The company is contemplating replicating the model overseas . “While there is an opportunity for us to create a similar ecosystem in South East Asian countries or for that matter in the Middle East, we may want to do that once we have achieved a certain scale in India,” added Sarda.
