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The collapse into administration of coworking firm Central Working highlights just how difficult it is to make money in the flexible office sector.
When it fell into insolvency, Central Working was growing its membership and its revenue and had a strong brand, but was struggling to translate that into a profitable business, according to a report by the administrators to the company filed in the week before Christmas.
Ultimately the lack of profits from the company caused one of its shareholders and its main lender to lose faith and move to put the company into administration. As with the debt-fuelled administration of fellow coworking firm The Clubhouse at around the same time, it is a salutary lesson for operators looking to get into and scale up in the sector, and landlords deciding which brand to put into their building.
Central Working was set up in 2010 by former advertising and brand executive James Layfield, and opened its first flexible office in Bloomsbury in 2011. Between 2012 and 2014 it opened sites in Whitechapel, Manchester and Shoreditch, and at the latter it helped U.S. tech…
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