Tag: facilities management company

Marketing & Community Engagement Appointment

New Marketing & Community Engagement Manager appointment for fast-growing Westgrove Group

Fast growing facilities management company, The Westgrove Group, has recruited a new Marketing & Community Engagement Manager to support their existing Brand & Development Team with a variety of marketing and community engagement projects to support the businesses circa 50 sites across the UK.     

Lucy from Warrington joins Westgrove with a wealth of marketing and communications experience from a number of popular brands and services.

Laurie Barton Wright, Brand and Development Director at The Westgrove Group, which employs over 1,200 people, said “We are delighted to welcome Lucy to the team.  She comes from a strong marketing and communications background and understands the importance of engaging with people.  Lucy will be an intrinsic member of our business as we continue to grow and develop.

A key objective for the company is to continue to focus on colleague engagement particularly as we grow and welcome new colleagues into the Westgrove Community. We have a busy calendar of activity for the year ahead including continuing to support mental health awareness and championing our colleagues within national recognised industry awards. We were keen to include community engagement within Lucy’s remit as our partners value our commitment to their own CSR agendas”

The Westgrove Group, which recently celebrated its 21st anniversary, was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. Based in Warrington, Cheshire, Westgrove specialises in providing security, cleaning and customer services in high footfall destinations such as Shopping Centres, Corporate, Mixed Use and Retail environments across the UK. With a number of new significant contract awards in 2019, the company is on target for £40M turnover by the end of 2021.

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Westgrove Group appoints Mental Health First-Aider

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