Category: Uncategorised

Westgrove Group records another strong year of growth

Posted on March 5, 2019 by - Uncategorised

Facilities management specialist Westgrove Group has recorded another year of strong growth.
The Warrington based company saw turnover rise from £20 million to £25 million – and profits increased by almost 30% – in the 12 months to the end of December 2018. The colleague centric business also added a further 200 to its workforce.
It says it remains firmly on course to become a £40 million turnover business in the next five years and has exciting expansion plans forecast for the South UK later this year.
Westgrove provides its security, cleaning and PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) services to shopping centres, corporates, business parks and airports across the UK.
Recent successes have included the launch of a Specialist Cleaning Division and a move into aviation, providing cleaning and PRM services to two regional airports.
Westgrove were appointed by managing agents CBRE to provide the security for Birchwood Park in Warrington, the region’s leading out of town business location.
They also enjoyed a number of new contract wins in Bracknell, Bristol, Liverpool, Dagenham, Swansea and Leamington Spa.
The company, which recently celebrated its annual Reward and Recognition Awards at The Village Hotel in Warrington, was recently shortlisted in the Finance Awards North West and has just been accredited as a Living Wage Service Provider.
Westgrove, which celebrated its 20th birthday by climbing Ben Nevis for charity, has also appointed its first Mental Health First-Aider.
Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “We are always striving to improve the business and to grow through innovation, quality of service and by recruiting the best possible people.
“Remaining independent has been a massive strength. It gives a much greater personal feel to our business and we can offer a level of flexibility and transparency without compromising on service.”
Over 50% of Westgrove’s clients are based in the south of England. The company will be announcing exciting expansion plans for the southern region later in the year.

Westgrove Group appoints Mental Health First-Aider

Posted on February 15, 2019 by - Uncategorised

We have appointed our first site based Mental Health First-Aider.
We are working with one of our key partners, Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton, to champion awareness of mental health.
As part of the service to shoppers, the Centre was keen to ensure that they identified a mental health first aider, something which is being called for by many companies in the UK to be mandatory as part of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign
Following a very successful mental health awareness week in 2018, Changing Minds, the Centre and Westgrove worked together to train over 80 staff in mental health awareness.
Following the training, a member of the team, Paul Ogden, one of the Centre’s Guest Service Ambassadors, took on the role as mental health champion.
Paul is now available to offer support and advice to vulnerable customers visiting the Centre as well as to the Centre’s tenants.
As part of his training, Paul completed a mental health first aid course through St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity, and a NCFE CACHE Level 2 certificate qualification in Mental Health Awareness.
Nikki Wilson-Cook, Centre Manager of Market Place said: “With mental health in the workplace being such a burning issue nationally, we are proud to be setting an industry precedent with the introduction of our first Mental Health First Aider at Market Place.
“Paul Ogden is equipped with all the skills required to help someone, be it a colleague or a member of the public suffering mental distress, which is all too common an occurrence today.”
The Westgrove Group, based in Warrington, specialises in providing security, cleaning and security services in high footfall destinations from shopping centres and corporate businesses to retail environments.
Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “As a company, we take mental health extremely seriously so we are very proud to be one of the first facilities management companies in the UK to appoint a mental health first-aider.
“We are fully on board with the ‘Time to Change’ campaign, supported by many UK businesses, to take mental health more seriously in the work place as we believe that mental health needs to be given the same weight as physical first aid.
“Since starting in the new role, Paul has rolled out his training to the Westgrove team onsite and to the tenants within the Centre.
“He has already identified a number of vulnerable customers and offered them advice and support. We will be looking to appoint mental health first aiders at many more centres across our UK portfolio during 2019.”
The Westgrove Group was founded in 1998 by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. Based in Warrington, North West UK, it employs over 1,000 colleagues across the UK and has an annual turnover of £25M.

Paul Ogden, the Westgrove Group’s first Mental Health First-Aider

Westgrove Group launches Specialist Cleaning division

Posted on January 31, 2019 by - Uncategorised

Westgrove Specialist Cleaning

 The Westgrove Group has launched a new Specialist Cleaning division on the back of continued growth in soft services.

The company, which provides services to over 100 sites across the UK, has grown by 21% in the past two years.

The new division will help drive sales to a target of over £40 million in the next five years.

The Specialist Cleaning Division will move Westgrove into self-delivery of window cleaning, pressure washing, steam cleaning, roof and gutter cleaning, cladding cleaning and other high-level cleaning.

The company hopes its current portfolio of Partners in the retail property, corporate buildings, warehouses, leisure, mixed-use environments and external public realm sectors will see the benefits of the new division as well as targeting brand new Partners.

The division will be headed up by Daina Parker, Westgrove’s Specialist Cleaning Manager, who has years of experience in high level cleaning.

Daina, who worked for High Access Maintenance Ltd for 10 years, will lead the new team to deliver services across the UK.

She said: “Westgrove is a fast growing company and this is a great time to join the business. I’m looking forward to providing our Partners with our brand new service, all delivered by our highly experienced team.”

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, which employs over 1,000 people, said: “We are very excited to announce the launch of this new division which demonstrates our continued growth and supports our plans for the future.

“Westgrove have an exemplary health and safety record and. with years of experience and knowledge in the industry, we are delighted to be able to offer an even wider range of cleaning methods suited to our customers’ needs.”

Westgrove, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, specialises in providing security, cleaning and security services in high footfall destinations from shopping centres and corporate businesses to retail environments.

The £22 million company was founded in 1998 by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives.

Here’s a link to the story as it appeared on FMJ

Westgrove Super Colleagues!

Posted on September 10, 2018 by - Uncategorised

We are super proud to announce our 20 Super Colleagues as voted for by their team mates and managers. To celebrate our 20th Birthday in August we set about finding 20 people who represented the best in service excellence day in day out. Every day they are consistently a team player and a credit to their site in whichever part of the business – cleaning, security, customer services, administration and head office.

We were overwhelmed with the nominations and had a very hard time choosing just 20…but here they are! Well done to all Super Colleagues who receive a certificate, and gift from the company and are VIP Guests at our annual Reward & Recognition Awards in February 2019.

Andrew Cooper – Lion Yard

Bob Perry – Queens Shopping Park

Sunny Idiaghe – MediaCityUK

Paul Bratby – Peel Dome

David Brooks – Grosvenor Shopping Centre

Dave Shaw – Hardshaw Centre

Paul Bird – Runcorn Shopping City

Eric Roye – Spindles Shopping Centre

Scott Hazlehurst – Handforth Dean

Michael Beharry – Haymarket Shopping Centre

Jaspal Singh – Old Square Shopping Centre

Waqas Maroof – Mobile Support Officer

Kaasim Khan – Skydome

David Tanner – Broughton Shopping Park

Andrew Smith – Cornbow Shopping Centre

Rufai Hydara – The Lexicon

Gavin Jones – Ropewalk Shopping Centre

Roger Smith – Maylord Shopping Centre

Gemma Healey – Head Office

Emma Munroe – Head Office

Happy Birthday to Westgrove!

Posted on August 17, 2018 by - Uncategorised

Yes it’s officially our 20th birthday tomorrow.

On Saturday, it will be 20 years since the start of our first contract at Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club when we had a team of six – including both of the Chairmen!

A lot of time has passed since those early days and we now operate on over 100 sites across the UK with over 1,000 colleagues delivering cleaning, security and now PRM at Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

To celebrate we chatted to both the Chairmen, Simon Whittle and Steve Fives, at Westgrove HQ about their memories, the Westgrove Community and what the future holds for the company.

In this first interview with Steve, he starts to look back on the past 20 year and where the company is today. https://youtu.be/w99K9colyek

Westgrove flies into New Sector with Airport Win!

Posted on June 2, 2018 by - Uncategorised

Westgrove Flying High

We are delighted to announce a new contract award at Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), the first airport in the Westgrove portfolio and the start of a new chapter in the history of the business.

Westgrove were appointed as the Cleaning and PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) provider in April with a start date of 1st June 2018. The contract win is a huge step forward for the company moving not only into a new sector, aviation, but into a new service provision, PRM.

Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “We are all really excited with this new contract award and look forward to working with the team at DSA.

“We worked very hard to show the airport that our knowledge and experience in retail, delivered through Synergy by Westgrove, were well suited to the airport environment and that our colleague centric approach would benefit and motivate the whole team.

“We are pleased that this shone through and has resulted in this fantastic contract award.”

The PRM contract signals a new level of experience for the business with specific requirements and targets set by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

PRM passengers are made up of many different classifications of disabled passengers with a variety of needs. Their journey and customer experience through the airport is of critical important to DSA. From the moment they arrive to the moment they board the plane, it’s the job of DSA and Westgrove to ensure that this transition is seamless and hassle free.

The CAA require targets to be met by every airport to ensure that the PRM journey is not held up or delayed and passengers are moved through the airport efficiently. It is key for Partners such as Westgrove to provide the right equipment and well-trained and motivated colleagues to be able to deliver this successfully.

With the new contract underway it’s the responsibility of our Operations Director Luanne Hall and her team to make sure that all elements are delivered successfully and the service delivery exceeds expectations.

Luanne said: “We are working hard to support the team as DSA and both our service lines are important – cleaning to make sure that the airport environment is of a high standard 24/7 and the PRM to deliver this vital service to disabled passengers.

“Westgrove are very focused on customer service delivery with all our colleagues being trained as ambassadors for this. The team at DSA will support each other across both service lines to deliver a great customer experience.”

Rob Cooke Operations Director at DSA said: “We are delighted to award the cleaning and PRM contract to The Westgrove Group and look forward to working with them as the airport continues to grow its passenger numbers in 2018 and beyond. We pride ourselves on delivering an excellent level of assistance and all round passenger experience.”

In addition to the in-house experience within the business, Westgrove are also calling on the experience of consultant Andy Wright to provide PRM advice and training for both the team on site and head office colleagues.

Andy, who is the Managing Director of travel company Accessible Travel, is a wheelchair user who has experienced the challenge of travelling with a disability. He combined his travel experience with his personal knowledge of disability and founded a tour operator to provide trustworthy accessible holidays for others with reduced mobility.

Accessible Travel and Leisure has provided holidays for disabled holidaymakers, wheelchair users and less-mobile travellers, and their family and friends, since the 1990s.

The contract award is another significant win for Westgrove and is part of an exciting time for the business. With new shopping centre and mixed-use scheme awards in 2017 and 2018, the airport is a great addition to the portfolio and underlines the importance of Synergy by Westgrove.