About Us

About Pure Offices

In The Beginning.....

Pure Offices was founded in September 2007 by Nick Smith, with backing from Highcross Strategic Advisers. The plan was to develop  a portfolio of purpose built serviced offices. Not just any old serviced offices, but ones designed from the inside out to match occupiers requirements.

Whilst hardly a revolutionary approach, it is fairly unique in the serviced office sector, where the majority of offices have been created from existing buildings, whose layout and/or  air conditioning systems are usually designed for open plan use, not for the typical highly compartmentalised design of a multi let serviced office.

The plan also focused heavily on occupiers needs.  Nick had observed that companies, whilst appreciating the deluxe character of many serviced offices, didn't actually need many of the services offered, and as the recession gathered pace, didn't want to pay for them either.

By carefully designing the buildings around the optimum office layout,  maximising light and using natural ventilation, the aim was to create excellent workplaces for small businesses, that were economical to run, and so could be let out at affordable rents.

And finally the way the Centres were to be managed was thoroughly reviewed, based on a "keep it simple/stupid" mantra, and focussing on what businesses needed and were prepared to pay for.  If we could keep the running costs down, and just focus on the services businesses really needed, we could pass on the benefits to our customers, and as a result stay in business ourselves!

What happened?

The Recession unfortunately.

We designed and built our first two centres at Swindon and Leamington Spa, opening these in 2009, following our original concept, and we were delighted (and relieved) that despite tough market conditions, the combination of a quality layout and enhanced finishes, excellent telecoms, and reasonable pricing had a ready market.

We followed these with a third development at Oldbury, West  Midlands which opened in 2011.

The recession, which hit the commercial property market particularly hard, meant it was challenging to both value and  fund new development. At the same time other operators were having problems, which we were able to capitalise on, having a ready supply of funds for attractive opportuniites.

Between 2010 and 2012 we purchased 8 well run serviced office properties in 4 seperate transactions, 7 of these from companies in Administration. These properties had all been run as traditional serviced properties, and were built to a high standard, but with commensurate fees being charged.

Because we purchased them for substantially less than their original build costs, we have been able to remodel the offers, and market them at similar pricing to our own purpose built designs.

As the property market has settled at a new lower level, and is now relatively stable, we have also taken the opportunity to acquire 3 more excellent development sites at Cheltenham, Weston Super Mare and Warwick. Construction is underway,  and these centres will be opening between April and October 2013.

We have also set up smaller Pure Offices in two exiting Highcoss owned properties at Leeds Broadgate and Leith, Edinburgh, and manage two more for Highcross at Yardley, Birmingham and Croydon.

The company now trades from 15 seperate locations with 3 more opening in 2013.

The future

We are making a significant investment in the properties we have recently acquired, and will be working hard to give the "Pure Office Experience" to a whole new group of customers.

The company is part of Highcross Strategic Advisers Ltd and was 5 years old in September 2012.

We are still interested in expanding the company, but only with significant "special opportunity investments". If you would like to discuss this or any other aspect of Pure Offices, then please contact Nick Smith, Managing Director, Pure Offices Ltd, St Catherines House, Oxford Street, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 1JQ.