Orega eyes 50 UK centres by 2031 after Apiary Capital-backed management buyout

British flexible workspace operator Orega has completed a management buyout backed by UK private equity firm Apiary Capital, which has taken a majority stake in the business. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is intended to accelerate Orega’s national expansion while keeping the operating team that built its model in the driving seat. CEO Alan Pepper is leading the buyout alongside the executive team — including CFO Chris Toon, COO David Kinnaird, Chief Revenue Officer Sophie Turnbull and Real Estate Director Ben Hutchen — who are also taking a stake. Founders Zach Douglas and Paul Finch remain investors, with Douglas stepping down as executive chairman to become a non-executive director. Apiary Capital specialises in backing owner-managed businesses; investment director Isabella Boman-Flavell said Orega is well placed as companies move away from rigid long-term leases toward space that fits hybrid teams and real-estate risk. Established in 2001, Orega is one of the UK’s best-known flexible workspace brands operating under management agreements — running centres in partnership with landlords and sharing revenue, rather than taking conventional leases. It now operates 25 centres across the UK, eight of them in London, covering around 675,000 sq ft and serving more than 10,000 customers. Recent openings and expansions include 80 Strand , City sites at 51 Lime Street and 70 Gracechurch , Ingenuity House in Birmingham, an expansion at 20 Old Bailey , and Brookfield’s Citypoint in central London, which opened in June 2026. With Apiary’s backing, Orega aims to roughly double its network to 50 sites by 2031, focused on London, the “big 6” regional cities — Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester — and selected smaller markets, still via management agreements. Advisers on the deal included Rothschild & Co, Pinsent Masons and Grant Thornton for Orega, and Alvarez & Marsal, Browne Jacobson and others for Apiary. Browne Jacobson noted the investment may also support selective acquisitions alongside organic growth. The move lands against a constructive sector backdrop: forecasts of roughly 8–10% compound annual growth for flexible offices through 2031, and CBRE projections that flexible space could reach about 20% of London’s office stock by 2030, up from around 12%. Orega also cites its own landlord research suggesting more than 80% of UK landlords, advisers and asset managers plan to increase flex exposure over the next three years, and industry figures that around two-thirds of flexible workspace deals in early 2025 were structured as management agreements. For UK businesses, the signal is clear: institutional capital is still backing mid-sized specialists, landlords remain open to partnership models, and growing teams outside a single London HQ should see more high-quality short-commitment options in the cities that matter. FlexWorkspace helps UK businesses shortlist flexible workspace that fits how their teams actually work.