Welcome to the 2026 FM Brands Survey report
Let me first state - and also repeat from last year - that I find the i-FM Brand Survey absolutely fascinating; not because it's the only one of its kind in the sector, but because I feel that getting to the heart of brand recognition is crucial to the advancement of FM and its growth overall.
It is important to understand and use brand proactively, as it is an area that can make all the difference to visibility, profitability and viability for all service providers, large or small – as well as ensuring that we attract the talent we need to make the sector sustainable and, of course, entice customers in and retain them, too. It is unfortunate that not all boardrooms seem to understand how business-critical brand really is or that investing in their people (a critical underpinning of brand) will ultimately create more profitability, not less. Reputations and strong brands take time to establish, but they can literally be undermined or destroyed overnight.
The i-FM Brands Survey aims to get to the heart of a question that matters to the advancement of FM as a whole: does this industry truly understand, invest in and benefit from the power of brand? I think the answer to that is still ‘yes and no’. There are some companies that clearly do, but too many pay lip service to it. Too many don’t really understand the fundamental differences between sales and marketing, or the true value that a successful brand can secure for them.
Brand is more than a logo. It is the expression of an organisation's culture and values for both internal and external audiences – the promises made, and the consistency with which they are delivered. In a fiercely competitive marketplace, where contracts are often short and margins low, a clearly defined identity can be the difference between making a tender list and being overlooked; between attracting the talent the business needs or having to pay a premium for it.
This year, we have again fine-tuned the questions and invited respondents from every corner of the industry to have their say. We have also added new questions on the importance of personal brands – the reputation of key individuals. The results are quite striking and should be noted. In addition, for the first time we have used AI to help evaluate the data, and in particular to help level the playing field so that all companies get fair assessment. So please read and consider – there is much to think about here.
Brand: what it means and how we use it
The FM Brands Survey has an established formula that works well: we start with a test of market views around the concept of brand, move on to some of the elements within that concept, and then turn to perceptions of implementation and performance.
The traditional starting point has been a basic question: is brand important?
In 2026, 85% of respondents said yes, it is important. That is in line with 2025 (85%) and continues the elevated level reached over recent years (84% in 2024, 80% in 2023). The trend here – rising and now holding at a high level - suggests this view has hardened into consensus: in a market defined by stiff competition and continuous M&A activity, an established identity is now simply expected.
Brand is, of course, a concept we are all familiar with. In a business context, it is (or should be) a part of the conversation in marketing and sales, as well as internal and external communication strategies. In this connection, we asked our respondents for their views on the factors that go into client decision-making. We asked them to rank seven factors in order of importance based on their direct experience.
Cost, as ever, comes top – and by some distance. Brand appears in fourth position, ahead of technology, CR commitments and customer references. One shouldn’t perhaps not read too much into it, but there is an interesting difference in this chart compared to the results found last year. In 2025, technology was at the bottom of the list. The fact that it has moved up certainly seems to reflect the level of discussion the topic attracts these days.
In any case, we have argued in previous reports that all of the factors listed here, with the exception of cost, are components of how a company is perceived, and thus aspects of its brand presentation. Notably, knowledge and skills and reputation – the two factors closest behind cost – are precisely the things a strong brand exists to communicate.
Melanie Duffett, Brand & Corporate Affairs Director, Sodexo UK & Ireland
"Brand can be a decisive factor in FM. As the i-FM survey highlights, clients, colleagues and communities judge the value we create every day and that shapes our reputation as providers. When we deliver operational excellence, we connect this often invisible but tangible work back to the brand. This is what shapes perception, creates trust, influences buying decisions and turns great experiences into long term partnerships and growth.”
Clearly, the concept of brand is important in FM. So, do practitioners think it is well understood in the industry? Our respondents remain less than fully convinced.
Just over half (52%) said yes – a shade below last year's 54% – while 29% said no and 19% were not sure. Pursuing this a bit further, we asked about the industry's success at implementation.
Only around one in five (21%) described implementation across the industry as 'very successful', down from 27% last year, with well over half (56%) labelling the results 'mixed' and 19% saying 'not good enough'. But if there is a problem it does not seem to be a lack of board-level understanding.
Matt Chapman, FM sector leader and CEO
"Brand matters in FM as much as it ever has… arguably more. As a marketer-turned-CEO, I've always seen 'brand' as the articulation of everything a business stands for: the proposition, the vision, the mission. Done well, it captures the eyes, hearts and minds of a whole plethora of personas - clients, talent, suppliers, consultants, the press and market influencers, even competitors. It gets the conversation going. It gets you to the table. It gets you through the door. I've seen its pull first-hand: companies with brand footprints many times the size of any FM provider, household names in entertainment, leisure and retail, drawn in not by scale or price, but by the belief a brand sets out. That's the power of the 20%.
Because that's what brand is: 20% of the task. The other 80% is the substance behind it - the product, the follow-through, the lived reality of what you promise, and it's the part our FM market too often lacks. I'm sceptical of brand theatre; I know exactly how it's made, and I've seen how damaging it is when the bold promise isn't backed up. The bigger the claim, the harder the fall. In FM, more than ever, the 80% deserves the focus. Articulating purpose is one thing, but creating genuine belief can only be achieved through reality: that's originality, authenticity and delivery and impact that people can actually touch, feel and see.
And that reality is built by people. The strongest brands in our sector aren't created in marketing departments; they live or die on-site, every single day, through the frontline colleagues who deliver them. That's why brand has become inseparable from recruitment and retention: people increasingly choose where they work based on what a company genuinely stands for, not what its website says. When your people believe in the brand, they become it; and when they become it, clients and others can see, touch and feel the difference."
However, consistency of brand implementation is an issue, according to respondents. Survey participants rate their own organisations considerably more generously than they rate the industry as a whole – a familiar pattern – but even here, fewer than half describe implementation as ‘very successful’.
As we have seen from past surveys, some of the limitation may arise from taking things for granted, a kind of ‘one and done’ attitude to brand. How much ongoing or periodic market testing – internal and external – goes on is open to question. Once again, we asked respondents whether there had been any brand perception surveys recently at their organisations.
Companies appear somewhat more inclined to test their brand with their own people rather than with their customers – but in both cases, the large 'not sure' share is telling. If a meaningful proportion of the workforce doesn't know whether you have ever asked customers what they think of your brand, the findings of any such exercise are clearly not being communicated widely – raising the question of whether there were any lessons to be learned and whether they were indeed learned.
Simon Ball, Work Winning Director, NG Bailey
"At NG Bailey, our brand is far more than a name or visual identity; it’s a reflection of who we are, what we stand for and how we work together every day.
Our business is built on a strong set of values: passion, integrity, responsibility and excellence. These values guide our decisions, shape our behaviours and define the experience we create for our clients, partners and colleagues.
We are united by a shared purpose and a long-term perspective, working collaboratively across our businesses to deliver exceptional outcomes. This commitment extends beyond the work we do, influencing how we support clients, invest in our people and contribute to the communities in which we operate.
Because of this, our brand is not something we simply promote; it is something we live. It builds trust, drives performance and creates a genuine sense of belonging across our organisation."
Brands in the marketplace
Having set the scene on the importance of brand in the FM marketplace and to some extent how the principles involved are implemented, the survey moved on to explore how different brands are perceived. As always, many of the same names appear in these lists – not surprising, as they tend to be the largest and/or most active in a commercial and communication sense.
Each question below drew a remarkable spread of proposed names – typically between 70 and 140 different brands per question. This year we have extended the resulting charts to 12 names, opening the way to a wider view of the marketplace. Nevertheless, there remains a list of 'near misses': companies cited multiple times but not quite enough to make it into the final charts. In 2026 these include, in alphabetical order: ABM, Andron FM, G4S, Macro, NG Bailey, Samsic and Serco.
At the top, 2026 is a two-horse race. Mitie edges ISS for the most enviable brand in UK FM by a narrow margin, with CBRE completing the ‘top three’ – then the gap between third and fourth place is the largest in any chart in this report.
Customer focus is ISS's most decisive win of the survey – more than double the score of any other brand. This suggests the company’s 'people first' positioning is having an impact.
David Melnick, Head of Content & Brand, ISS UK & Ireland
"Just a few years ago, FM was at a turning point. In order to truly take its place at the boardroom table, the industry needed to grasp some of the strategic levers within our reach: managing the post-pandemic return to the office, creating better workplaces to attract and retain top talent, navigating the route to net zero, and finding new ways for technology to make our world work better.
These levers have done real good for FM's brand. They've broadened how the industry is understood and brought us into closer alignment with what our customers actually need from us. Somewhere along the way, though, this transformation shifted our focus onto buildings — but buildings don’t exist in isolation. Places have purpose, and that purpose comes from the most critical element at the heart of FM's brand: the people inside them. From the hundreds of thousands of people building careers in FM, to our customers who rely on us to achieve their strategic goals, to the millions who simply move through the spaces we look after each day.
This is, in many ways, what ISS has stood for over the past 125 years. A people-first approach means considering the way we design our service around those who actually deliver it and experience it. An organisation can boast sparkling workplaces, sustainability credentials or technology tools, but those claims only hold up if they translate into something real for the people delivering and experiencing them. That's not separate from brand - it is brand, in its most credible, tangible form. And it's what enables FM, as an industry, to continue making space for our people and our customers to thrive."
Technology has, of course, become a big discussion point in FM in recent years and potentially provides companies with an opportunity to differentiate themselves in this highly competitive market. Mitie, ISS and CBRE, in particular, are clearly perceived to be doing that well.
Lizzie Neave, Chief Marketing Officer, Churchill
"Brand is very important within Churchill Group because we operate as a group of specialist businesses, each with its own identity and purpose. This ‘house of brands’ approach is deliberate: we believe it gives each business the space to build real depth and strength in its area of expertise, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Our brand positioning is clear - we are there for clients who value a specialist partner with deep knowledge.
This approach also reflects our culture. By championing local autonomy, each business can stay close to its roots and the communities it serves, while still benefiting from being part of the wider group. Our brands work closely together, but they are not diluted; each keeps its identity and expertise. In this way, brand is not just about how we present ourselves externally, but also how we support our employee owners, attract talent and maintain pride in what each part of the group does best."
Another area in which Mitie dominates in the eyes of respondents, perhaps reflecting a mix of factors including its scale, diversity, involvement in a number of programme areas and its success at consistent communication.
Online presence is one of the tightest comparisons in the survey. Further down, the appearance of Pareto and Churchill – businesses a fraction of the size of those above them – demonstrates that size doesn’t need to matter in making an impact.
Which FM brand would you trust the most?
Trust is in many ways a subjective concept, but to some extent it is based on consistency (and to some extent, consistency in messaging). The names here are familiar and perceptions are uneven, but these brands all appear close to reaching FM’s ‘holy grail’ – being a trusted partner.
Perhaps it is time we changed the wording of this question: it was originally written in hopes of identifying lesser-known names coming into the mainstream but is consistently interpreted by respondents as businesses that are doing something different or moving on within a changed set of circumstances. Regardless, though, it is always informative. While perhaps not challengers in the outlier sense, these are companies respondents perceive to be ‘interesting’ and therefore worth watching.
Roya Babadi, Marketing & Communications Director, Anabas
"In facilities management, clients are no longer simply buying a service specification; they are buying confidence, expertise and a clear understanding of their environment. In a market where many providers can demonstrate similar technical capabilities, a strong brand helps communicate what an organisation stands for, how it behaves and the experience clients can expect throughout the relationship.
At Anabas, our brand is built around being a specialist corporate office FM provider. We have remained deliberately focused on this sector, allowing us to develop a deep understanding of workplace environments, customer expectations and the factors that shape successful workplace experiences. That focus influences everything from the services we design and the people we recruit, to the way we engage with clients and support workplace experience. For us, a strong brand should be a reflection of the experience delivered on-site every day, not simply the messages communicated through marketing activity.
As the FM sector continues to evolve, organisations with a clear identity, consistent values and a genuine understanding of their chosen markets will be best placed to attract talent, build lasting client relationships and differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace."
Finally in this section of the survey, we asked respondents to tell us which FM provider they would aspire to work for if circumstances were different.
We can perhaps assume there is an overall assessment here, reflecting all – or at least many – of the factors singled out in earlier questions. No doubt there will also be factors that relate to career building, security, perhaps individual challenge and more. This may be the chart that best reflects respondents’ collective views of the ‘top’ brands in UK FM.
Profiles on the move
Finally, we asked respondents to look at the direction of travel: which FM brands do they see as having a rising profile – and which a diminished one?
ISS comes top but with OCS in second place, its highest rating in this survey. Three years on from its ‘rebirth’ through the acquisition of Atalian Servest, the group is clearly registering its presence in the market. Equans, Pareto and Arcus further down the list also show marks being made.
We are in the realm of respondent perception here, and the results of this chart may seem counter-intuitive, given some of the earlier results. Mitie is undeniably a force in the market, but with scale can come negativity – whether that is around size, culture, approach or multiple other possible factors. In any case, what this chart does do is remind us that brand needs to be defined, implemented and managed with care and consistency – and that market profile, once won, has to be defended.
Selling the FM brand
Brand remains a big and complex concept that needs understanding and management if it is deliver on its inherent promise. So, how is the market overall doing on brand? The answer, as above when we looked at implementation, is mixed.
Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, fewer than half of our respondents said yes, and a third simply don't know. The challenge – achieving solid brand recognition in the C-suite and in the wider market environment – are in a sense two sides of the same coin. They have been with the FM industry seemingly from the beginning, and they reflect a need for good, consistent, targeted communication.
The power of personal brand
This year, for the first time, we asked about the role of personal brand: is the reputation of a key individual – or individuals – significant in company perception?
The answer is emphatic. More than nine in ten respondents see at least some impact, and a majority (53%) describe that impact as considerable. In a sector built on relationships, the person in front of the client is, to a significant degree, the brand.
We then pushed the point further.
Almost half of respondents believe it can. That is a remarkable finding for an industry whose procurement processes often seem ever more structured and score-driven. And it cuts both ways. As one respondent put it: "it only takes one individual to bring a company to its knees". Companies that invest heavily in corporate identity while leaving the personal profiles of their key people to chance may be managing only half of their brand.
Respondent insights
Every year this survey draws hundreds of comments from respondents. Most are quite on-topic; some are remarkably insightful, showing a real understanding of brand and what goes into success in this area – which is occasionally surprising, given that our respondents are generally FMs with no direct involvement in or responsibility for brand strategy.
Some comments go beyond the topic at hand, into other areas important to the sector but not directly related to brand. This year these areas included technology, with a number of specific mentions of AI, a variety of people-related issues, and the need for greater education about and promotion of FM as a whole.
The majority of the many very relevant comments fall under several broad themes and are summarised below.
The importance of company brand
Brand in FM can still be seen as superficial, all about logos and shiny websites, rather than something that needs to show consistently through every customer touchpoint - and be backed up with authenticity and evidence.
A brand with a strong reputation already has an advantage over its competitors.
Companies that seem to be winning contracts are ones that understand brand is not just a logo. It’s a signal of trust, innovation, culture and capability.
Brand in FM is no longer just ‘visibility’ or ‘reputation’. It is becoming: a pre-procurement filtering mechanism, a trust accelerator, and a strategic positioning tool in C-suite conversations.
But the industry as a whole is still transitioning from being operations-led with a brand layer on top, to something closer to brand-led positioning supported by operations. The companies that will lead the next phase of FM are likely those that can make their brand promise feel inevitable in delivery, not aspirational in marketing.
Brand is so important, especially with social media and how quickly the FM industry is changing.
Brand is still poorly understood by much of the FM market. External initiatives are not reflected in tender documents or by the teams who actually meet clients/prospects in real life. Not much evidence to see any of these companies ‘living the brand’.
Clients want to be associated with good, honest brands. It is at the forefront on a decision on who wins the bids.
FM is still the invisible sector despite being one of the largest contributors to the UK economy. It seems that most FM organisations play it safe with brand and keep to the status quo. Brand isn’t just a logo or colour scheme – it’s the thoughts and feeling a company name invokes when mentioned and we need more disruptors in the industry to bring FM to the forefront. We keep the built environment going but we’re essentially ghosts.
The role of personal brands
Company brand is important to open a door. But personal brand and examples of success win business and retain clients.
In terms of personal brand, I think this can absolutely make an impact on commercial decision-making. If you are the customer, and there are senior representatives from a provider that you do or do not care for, you will be thinking: the buck stops with that person - am I really going to want to have to deal with that person when it really matters?
Individuals are leading the charge. They absolutely can bolster or seriously negatively impact a company's reputation. I have seen it happen where rumours about CEOs or high-level executives lead to a poor reputation in the industry, and that can easily bleed out into customer and wider supply chain relationships.
FM’s brand
Raising FM overall will make a considerable difference in companies choosing to outsource.
We need to work harder on influencing those in decision-making roles as marketing and comms is far more important than it is currently seen as within this industry. Not enough effort is made on public perceptions - it's still too B2B-focused.
Raising the FM industry is something everyone must play their part in.