Warrington business centre welcomes reports of returning tenants
Warrington based Portal Business Centres have welcomed early indications from officebroker.com, the UK’s leading internet broker of serviced office space, that businesses are returning in greater size and volume throughout the North West during the first few months of 2010.
These early indications, which will form part of a region wide review published in April, point toward a renewed confidence amongst business owners as they once more seem prepared to expand their operations, a change welcomed by Sallie Maskrey of Portal Business Centres who understands the full impact of such a return.
“Offices such as ours are used by both larger corporate organisations and many local SMES” explains Sallie, ”For Warrington this is extremely important as these businesses bring a diverse range of skills and employment opportunities to the local area which in turn feeds into the region as a whole”
The return of businesses with larger requirements, if sustained, would allow the medium to large offices offered by centres such as Portal to finally come back into demand, after often falling victim to downsizing activity during 2009, the same activity which helped drive economic worries throughout the UK.
“The biggest issue we faced in 2009 as a business community here at Portal was the lack of confidence and negative news in the economy” continues Sallie, “The data from officebroker.com helps to underline that confidence is now stronger – but it still has some distance still to go”
While the return of such companies will bring a much needed boost to both Warrington and the region as a whole, those businesses based at Portal which weathered the economic storm of 2009 have continued to work together as a community to ensure they are well placed for recovery.
“The business community here at Portal counteracted the issues faced in 2009 by having intelligence sharing sessions” explains Sallie, “Understanding how each company was handling the problems they faced helped immensely”.
While cash-flow is identified by Sallie as all important for businesses in 2010, the small but steady increases in business activity provides hope that the resources consumed in order to survive recession may be able to be recovered – all be it slowly and over an extended period of time.
Whether these early signs of recovery continue is yet to be seen, but with the indications from officebroker.com suggesting growth and business communities such as Portal working together in such a positive way, 2010 could lay the solid foundations for future growth.
