Broadening our horizons
Paul Thrupp reflects on how the BCC’s remit is widening to meet changing industry needs.
If you follow the British Cleaning Council on Twitter – which I hope most of you do – you may have seen a tweet in August which linked to an interview by BBC Business with Rune Sovndahl, co-founder of Fantastic Services.
It described how Rune started Fantastic as a modest home cleaning business in London 2009, but that now they offered over 25 different domestic services – including cleaning, gardening, waste removal, building, repairs, pest control and removals – across many parts of the UK.
"The more joined up and
aligned we are as a sector, the more everyone will benefit in the long run."
However, Rune himself admits that despite the successful growth and diversification of the business not everything has always gone to plan, and that a move into babysitting was scrapped after just six months because it didn't work.
But despite that slight bump in the road, what Rune has created is a thriving, sustainable business which has grown by recognising the synergies between different services, and through the realisation that similar customer needs could be met efficiently via a ‘one stop shop’ approach.
Around the same time as Rune was sharing his fascinating story with the BBC, the British Cleaning Council made two announcements which were also about a widening of scope and a broadening of remits.
First off, we were delighted to reveal that the British Services Association (BSA) had officially become the 22nd BCC member.
The BSA is the industry body for the UK’s business services sector which works across facilities management, construction and infrastructure services, and managed public services. The BSA also has a specific Cleaning Committee, chaired by Sodexo’s Head of Cleaning Lauren Kyle, and it will be Lauren who will represent the BSA on the Council.
As our chair Stan Atkins said at the time, there is a natural fit between the work of the BSA and work of the Council,
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and that we are greatly looking forward to seeing how Lauren’s insights and experience can help inform our own work going forward, especially in areas where the BCC has had little involvement historically.
Not long after the BSA news was announced, we issued a second piece of news – the establishment of a new trade exhibition to run alongside The Cleaning Show in London next year.
Called The Resource Management Show, the new two- day event will be a platform for recycling and waste management equipment manufacturers and distributors, product suppliers, and other related service providers.
The show will also create a networking opportunity for decision makers from both the public and private sectors who are involved in FM, waste management, utilities, recycling and environmental health.
As with The Cleaning Show, The Resource Management Show will be co-produced by The British Cleaning Council, and it will build on the relationship we already have with the waste, recycling and resource industries via Council members such as Keep Britain Tidy, the CIWM, the CIEH and WAMITAB.
Also, what’s increasingly clear is that decision making with regards to procuring waste and resource management services, especially in the public sector, are often now handled by the same teams which manage cleaning tenders. Therefore, the idea of a having both represented under one (albeit very large) roof at Excel next March seems to make a lot of commercial sense.
We also believe the more joined up and aligned we are as a sector, especially in terms of issues like skills, procurement practices, professional development, operative safety and raising standards, the more everyone will benefit in the long run.
So, just like the way Fantastic Services started by focussing on cleaning – before realising there was a clear overlap between other disciplines and the demands of their customers – the BCC is also always evolving to keep up with changes in the marketplace.
Or, as the great actress Lauren Bacall once said: “Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world.”
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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