However, the company insisted that steps taken over the past12 months to halt the slump are paying off. For instance, average contract length has now ceased falling and was steady at 10.8 months in the first quarter. Regus has achieved this by offering customers cash discounts in return for signing up for longer terms.
The development programme has been virtually halted, with the number of workstations growing by just 1% over the quarter to 95,420 workstations across 414 centres in 50 countries, including joint ventures and franchises.
Chairman George Gray said: 'During the quarter, we intensified our focus on pricing, occupancy and cost and the fundamentals of our business. Recently, we have begun to see some modest stabilisation in price, especially in the US. Despite this, we remain committed to further reducing our cost base. We continue to cut overheads and fixed costs are being re-negotiated.'
At the same time Regus announced another slew of outsourcing contracts, worth £35 million ($51 million) on top of the £100 million ($146 million) deal with Nokia signed earlier this year.
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