Tag: facilities management

Westgrove Announce BSIA Nomination List!

Posted on March 28, 2023 by - Uncategorised

Westgrove are delighted to announce that we have put forward 25 nominations for this years 2023 British Security Awards for our Colleagues across the country.

The British Security Awards are a National Event that recognises the talent and commitment from the industry’s finest. The awards are organised by the British Security Industry Association and celebrate the achievements and bravery made by members of the Security Industry.

We were pleased to nomnate the following colleagues for a BSIA Award and would like to wish them the best of luck in the regional rounds!

BSIA Service To The Customer Award

Antony Yates & Christopher Ashley – Birchwood Park

Steve Allen – Haymarket Shopping Centre

Asa Abraham – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Damon Kosmalski-Pearson – Riverside Shopping Centre

Sandra Perry – Templars Square

BSIA Security Manager Of The Year Award

Muhammad Younis – Royal Priors Shopping Centre

Paul Lavery – St Johns Shopping Centre

BSIA Best Newcomer Of The Year Award

Jack Davenport – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Kyle Farrelly-Reid – Spindles Town Square

BSIA Outstanding Act Of The Year Award

Hameed Smith, Imran Younis, Jonathan Chandler, Owen Jarrett – Castle Quay Shopping Centre

Castle Quay Shopping Centre Security Team

Haider Hussian – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Damon Kosmalski-Pearson – Riverside Shopping Centre

Jason Baker, Tony Cairns, Brain Heeney, Jane Gerrard – Spindles Town Square

Kyle Sands – Telford Centre

Martin wain, Jack Davenport, Mohammad Ali – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Martin Wain, Sandra Perry, Nar Gurung, Darren Harris – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Rodney Gould – The Galleries Shopping Centre

Angela Crawshaw – The Moor Shopping Centre

Imran Hanif – The Moor Shopping Centre

John Whitford – Willow Place Shopping Centre

Ryan Griffin – Willow Place Shopping Centre

BSIA Best Team Of The Year Award

Ryemarket Shopping Centre Team

Templars Square Shopping Centre Security Team

Touchwood Shopping Centre Security Team

Colleague Commended By Merseyside Police

Posted on March 13, 2023 by - Uncategorised

We’re extremely proud of our colleague, Paul for receiving a commendation from Merseyside Police in recognition of his outstanding service in assisting the Police over the last few months with regards to his remarkable use of CCTV.

Paul Lavery works as a Security Officer at St Johns Shopping Centre, the largest of Liverpool’s covered shopping centres, located in the heart of the City.  With the support of Paul, the Police have been able to prevent crimes and made a number of arrests of wanted individuals.

Paul is being recognised for a number of incidents where he has provided CCTV footage to the police.  One incident, during Christmas 2022, a gang of youths committed over £1million worth of damage throughout the city centre. Paul was vigilant and noticed one of the individuals walking through the shopping centre and provided footage to the police, leading to an arrest.

Dave Crawford from Merseyside Police wrote to Paul to “thank him for his help, work and keen eye on the matter”.

Paul has also been nominated for a number of Westgrove Reward & Recognition Awards and National Industry Awards for his impressive use of CCTV.  

Congratulations to Paul on his commendation, keep up the fantastic work!

From left; Dan Richards (St Johns Shopping Centre Security Manager), Paul Lavery with his commendation letter, Neil Ashcroft (St Johns Shopping Centre Site Manager)

Marketing & Community Engagement Appointment

Posted on March 10, 2020 by - Uncategorised

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.

Photo©John Cassidy The Headshot Guy® www.theheadshotguy.co.uk 07768 401009

Westgrove Group wins new three-year security contract

Posted on April 29, 2019 by - Owner

Facilities management company The Westgrove Group has won a new contract in the Midlands.

The fast-growing soft services provider, based in Warrington, has been appointed to provide security services to Queens Square Shopping Centre, managed by property management partner Lee Baron, in West Bromwich

Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “We are delighted to announce this new contract win.

“The management team at Queens Square and Lee Baron were impressed with our bid which included our bespoke real time patrolling system, extensive shopping centre experience and the colleague centric nature of our business.

“Our people are what makes us special and we are looking forward to developing the on-site team through our training and development programs.”

Aaron Powell, Centre Manager for Queens Square said: “We are delighted to award Westgrove the Security Contract for Queens Square. We pride ourselves on delivering an exceptional level of customer service alongside on-going support for our retailers and are excited to partner with a national leading service provider who shares these same values as us.”

The Westgrove Group is expanding rapidly across its core service areas of security, cleaning and customer service teams, increasing its market share in shopping centres as well as moving into new sectors. The company is on track to grow its turnover to £40million by the end of 2021.

Westgrove’s mental health first-aider wins award

Posted on April 5, 2019 by - Uncategorised

Paul Ogden, The Westgrove Group’s first site based Mental Health First-Aider, has won a prestigious industry award.

Paul, who is a mental health champion at Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton, has won a Revo ACE Award.

The awards programme showcases people and places that achieve excellence customer service.

Paul was presented with his award at an event at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole last night.

Also shortlisted for an award was Handforth Dean Retail Park and St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool, both of which Westgrove provides services for.

Westgrove has been working with one of its key partners, Market Place, 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, 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.

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “As a company, we take mental health extremely seriously so we are delighted that Paul has been recognised for all of his hard work to champion mental health in the workplace. We are so proud of him.

“He 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”

“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.”

 

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.

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