Posted February 28, 2001
Growth and reorganisation for Regus
The turnover of serviced office provider Regus grew 110% (1999 80%) last
year to £421.1m. The company has also turned last year’s operating
loss of £43m into a profit of £12.4m.
Movers not shakers
ROC has been awarded the Commercial Mover of the Year award, presented
by the Commercial Moving Group (part of the British Association of Removers)
at its annual conference, held this year at the Hilton, Coventry.
A star is born?
A new consultancy focused on interim management and change management
has been formed by two experienced FM professionals.
CBPP profiles Featherstone
The Construction Best Practice Programme (CBPP) has issued the second
company profile in its series of 15 – construction company Featherstone’s
profile - which demonstrates how best practice can be implemented successfully
within an organisation...
Posted February 27, 2001
Portcullis House official opening
The Queen opens the new parliamentary building Portcullis House this
morning as the Government attempts to counters what it describes as "recurring
inaccuracies" in media reports regarding the building's cost, defects
and facilities.
Citex signs agreement with Brixton
Estate
Citex has expanded its relationship with Brixton Estate through an agreement
to supply project management, planning supervision, quality control and
quantity surveying services.
Case law - service charge and improvements
The recent case of Fluor Daniel Properties Ltd and others -v- Shortlands
Investments Ltd considered an attempt by a landlord to pass on hefty substantial
service charges to its tenants for works that were considered by those
tenants to be both unreasonable and premature.
Posted February 26, 2001
Joint venture wins £10m Ericsson
FM contract as Chesterton repositions
A joint venture, Matrix Facilities Management, formed by Skanska and Chesterton
Workplace Management is to provide FM services at Ericsson’s entire
UK portfolio under a two year deal.
Cabinet Office tenders FM
The Cabinet Office is tendering a facilities management contract for services
currently carried out in-house as well as by FM provider Serco - which
provides services such as security and cleaning for the Cabinet Office.
UNITE preferred bidder for Portsmouth University
accommodation
UNITE has been named the preferred bidder to build and manage the £44m
Portsmouth University portfolio of student accommodation.
Legal pitfalls of recruiting
There are 30% more legal actions through employment tribunals today than
two years ago.
Posted February 23, 2001
We put profits before health, say Britain’s
business leaders
Company bosses care more about increasing profits than the health and
safety of their employees, according to a survey by MORI on behalf of
the British Safety Council.
Business wasting £1.8bn
on document management
Europe’s large to medium sized businesses could save a total £1.8bn
annually in hard costs by controlling their office document output, says
document outsourcing and facilities management provider Xerox Business
Services.
FM company offers technical services to compete
Facilities management company LCC Support Services has launched a technical
services department to deal with specialist electrical and mechanical
services.
New executive VP in charge of
FM at C&W
Cushman & Wakefield has elected John C Santora as the executive vice
president of asset services, covering facilities, property and project
management, as well as strategic agency services.
Posted February 22, 2001
Sulzer Infra sale continues apace
Despite a bid by Swiss financiers, InCentive Capital, for the entire Sulzer
Corporation of 4.4bn Swiss francs (£1.8bn), Sulzer Infra CBX MD
Mike Cairney maintains that the sale of the division of which his company
is a part, is continuing in a “business as usual” scenario.
New procurement process to save
£m for front line services
A new government procurement technique which will affect construction,
IT and PFI projects is to save millions of pounds for front line services,
says Andrew Smith, chief secretary to the Treasury.
Clerical Medical outsources FM
for the first time
Clerical Medical has outsourced its facilities management services for
the first time in a £1.75m three year service contract awarded to
Honeywell’s Enterprise Service Solutions business.
Posted February 21, 2001
Serco maintains growth
Serco’s 2000 prelims show increased growth as the company announces
plans for expansion in North America in partnership with US corporations.
The company’s turnover and pre tax profits rose by 20% to £967m
and £38m respectively.
Weston moves to Digiplex
John Weston, formerly a director at Sulzer responsible for key account
management and marketing across the Group’s facility management activities,
has joined Digiplex, a provider of colocation facilities.
IFMA to host London – Innsbruck
web link
The UK chapter of IFMA is to host a web link between the World Workplace
Europe event this June and a gathering at the Steelcase Worklife Centre
in London.
Jarvis finalises University of York accommodation
Jarvis has reached financial close with the University of York for the
design, building and 30 year maintenance of 742 new post-graduate study
bedrooms.
BA FM – a clarification
British Airways has asked us to point out that in yesterday’s news
item we referred to the airline’s review of current workplace service
provision and whether other services “should be brought under property/facilities
management control.”
Posted February 20, 2001
BA rethinks facilities management
British Airways is currently reviewing the way it provides workplace services
across its entire UK property portfolio, some 1m sq m (10.8m sq ft).
Surprise bid for Sulzer
The fate of one of Europe's leading FM companies may rest on the outcome
of a surprise bid for its parent company. Yesterday, Swiss investment
company InCentive Capital launched a bid for conglomerate Sulzer worth
an estimated 4.4bn Swiss francs.
McGraw Hill move confirms Canary
Wharf's success
Following the news that Lehman Brothers is to move to Canary Wharf, the
development has achieved another major letting.
Posted February 19, 2001
Lehman Brothers to move to Canary Wharf
Lehman Brothers is to occupy the 93,000 sq m (1m sq ft) office tower currently
under construction at Heron Quays, part of Canary Wharf. The 30 storey
tower designed by Cesar Pelli has large trading floors and a wintergarden
giving access to a retail mall.
TCS to provide FM at Manchester
Airport
Trammell Crow Savills has won the contract to provide facilities management
for the 4,500 sq m (50,000 sq ft) Manchester Airport British Airways executive
lounge and office areas.
Posted February 16, 2001
Government to spend £3.1bn on 29
new hospitals
The Government has set out its agenda for healthcare in the 21st century,
investing £3.1bn in the NHS with 29 new hospital schemes around
the country.
Occupiers canvassed on south-east
location decisions
Last month a number of MPs warned about 'a crisis of prosperity' in the
south of England, particularly the Thames Valley 'corridor', as unrestrained
growth contributes to a range of economic and social problems, including
transport congestion, public sector recruitment difficulties and excessive
housebuilding.
HBG pursues profit through restructuring
Another group with a history in construction has marked its transition
to a support services provider with a name change. Tilbury Douglas, which
acquired service company Interserve, formerly part of the How Group, in
1998 is to adopt the name for the entire business.
PEFRN seminar to discuss corporate
property
A seminar organised by the Property Economics and Finance Research Network
(PEFRN) on corporate property will be held at the University of Aberdeen
on the 9th and 10th April,
Posted February 15, 2001
Tilbury Douglas becomes Interserve
Another group with a history in construction has marked its transition
to a support services provider with a name change. Tilbury Douglas, which
acquired service company Interserve, formerly part of the How Group, in
1998 is to adopt the name for the entire business.
Morgan Sindall turns in another
record performance
Construction group Morgan Sindall reported record performance for the
sixth consecutive year with turnover up 26% at £655m and pre-tax
profits of £16m ahead 16%.
Posted February 14, 2001
News Extra Lee
moves to Brixton from Citex
Steve Lee, a main board director of Citex and the man who took the Bucknall
Group private through the buy-in-management-buy-out (or BIMBO) which created
Citex in 1998, is to leave the company at the end of this month.
Johnson Controls extends FM contract
with Roche
Johnson Controls has extended its facilities management contract with
Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) for a further three years.
Merrill Lynch signs agreement
with EMS
Merrill Lynch, has signed an expanded environmental auditing contract
with EMS. The agreement for another 13 of the financial services company’s
London buildings covers the repeat monitoring of indoor air quality and
occupancy comfort conditions, such as temperature and humidity levels.
Posted February 13, 2001
Global outsourcing a reality
says TCS
"For the first time we can talk about global outsourcing as a deliverable."
So said Ed Lyons, President and CEO of Trammell Crow Savills, at a briefing
for the UK facilities and real estate press last week.
Compass bids to buy remaining
shares of Selecta
Compass has offered Selecta £374m to buy the remaining two-thirds
of its food vending business. The group already owns a 33.3% stake in
the Swiss company.
PFI tender for £23m hospital
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust is tendering a services contract for the design,
finance, build and operation of a £23m extension to its Surrey hospital
as well as a 27 year contract for the facilities management and building
maintenance for the whole hospital site.
Posted February 12, 2001
Irish consortium pays £246.5m
for Goldman Sachs HQ
A consortium comprising Green Property plc (50%) and a syndicate of Irish
investors (50%) has acquired the freehold of the 40,000 sq m (425,000
sq ft) River Court in London's Fleet Street, from Itochu Corporation for
£246.5m.
Charles Birch Recruitment in
receivership
Specialist FM recruitment company Charles Birch Recruitment Ltd is in
administrative receivership.
B&P appointment
Building & Property has appointed Gavin Scarr Hall as general manager
for the delivery of housing maintenance services at Liverpool City Council.
Posted February 9, 2001
WS Atkins wins £28m LEA
contract
The core/non-core outsourcing concept has reached education as WS Atkins
takes on support services for the London Borough of Southwark.
More UK women are working than
ever
Almost three quarters of the female UK population today work - the third
highest women's employment rate in Europe and the highest ever in Britain.
Scandinavian deals for ISS
The vending activities of ISS Norge have been merged with Danish vending
operator House of Coffee in which ISS will own 51% of the share capital.
New deputy chairman at Amey
Sir Ian Robinson, formerly chief executive of Scottish Power, has been
appointed to the Board at Amey as deputy chairman.
Posted February 8, 2001
Hospital and school PFI deals
A Bouygues consortium has signed a £50m PFI deal with West Middlesex
University Hospital NHS Trust under which Ecovert Group will provide total
facilities management services for an initial period of 33 years once
construction is complete.
BCI sells property arm to Land
Securities
Blue Circle Industries (BCI) is to sell Whitecliff Properties - its wholly-owned
property arm - together with a 4m sq m (43m sq ft) portfolio of properties
in North West Kent and a site in Cambridge, for £60m to Land Securities.
Posted February 7, 2001
New FM contract for Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls has won a three year FM contract with Infineum UK Ltd,
a fuel and lubricants additives company jointly owned by ExxonMobil and
Shell.
FM intact at Boots
Boots has confirmed that up to 90 jobs will go from its 260 strong property
team but facilities management at its Nottingham headquarters will not
be affected.
Compass acquires US food services company
Compass Group is to acquire US healthcare and senior living/retirement
foodservice company Morrison Management Specialists for $563m (£382m).
TIPS appoints operations director
Technology & Internet Property Services the asset-backed support and
facilities management company, has appointed Anita Bevan as Director of
Operations.
Posted February 6, 2001
Eurica wins Liverpool Victoria
contract
Eurica, the property and facilities management subsidiary of ISG, has
won a 10 year contract with UK based financial services mutual Liverpool
Victoria for the management of its property, facilities and services.
Amec/Spie joint venture targets
drugs industry
A new joint venture company has been set up by Amec and its French partner
Spie to provide a broad range of services to the pharmaceutical industry
in France and other French speaking markets.
Contributors sought for services lifecycle
work shops
Building Performance Group and NIFES Consulting Group are to provide workshops
on the durability and reliability of plant building services and are looking
for contributions from product manufacturers and trade bodies, maintenance
contractors, building owners and managers.
Posted February 5, 2001
BRE to launch sustainability
website
The Building Research Establishment is being funded by the Department
for the Environment, Transport and the Regions set up a web-based repository
for projects that demonstrate sustainable design.
£25m to put local government
services online
In an effort to accelerate the slow progress towards online availability
of local authority services, the Government is making £25m available
in this financial year for around 15-20 'pathfinder' authorities.
Carwin wins Rentokil print business
Rentokil Initial has awarded a £1.3m print management contract to
Carwin. The three year contract covers the supply of all printed materials
to the 26 companies within the Rentokil Initial group.
Posted February 2, 2001
EU Environment Commissioner calls
for sustainable energy use
The EU is to bring forward proposals for a Directive on energy use in
buildings. The announcement came in a speech by Margot Wallström,
European Commissioner for Environment, to the Energieforum 2001 event
in Berlin.
FM and the net seminar
Will the internet have a major impact on facilities management? Much of
the running in this debate has been made by software vendors. Now an independent
group has put together a seminar to address the issues from an FM perspective.
Overworked UK managers less loyal
Most UK managers work overtime and many feel their companies have low
morale. This insight into managerial working life comes from a survey,
published by the Institute of Management and the University of Manchester
Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
Posted February 1, 2001
Challenges to PFI in Scotland
and Northern Ireland
Whilst outright opposition to the Private Finance Initiative and Public
Private Partnerships is fairly muted amongst the Labour hierarchy in England
and Wales, left of centre groupings in Scotland and Northern Ireland are
more vocal in their criticism.
New H&S responsibilities
plus new code of practice for legionella
The HSC has published a Consultative Document for a Code entitled Health
and Safety Responsibilities of Directors. This is intended to be 'guidance',
rather than a formal Approved Code of Practice with statutory effect.
The proposals are very short, comprising five "action points",
each with a brief commentary.
Pollution legislation will affect cleaning
companies
Members of the trade body the British Cleaning Council have been warned
that new pollution prevention and control legislation could substantially
affect all sectors of the cleaning business.