This throws further doubt on the figures Mike gives as, when taking these peripheral costs into account, we would be lucky to break even!
It would be interesting to get the accounts of the big 4 to establish what profits they do return.
Musicman
Hi
Sorry, I've missed the last couple of days activity which seems to have raised an interesting issue about the profitability of contract cleaning in general.
The figures I quoted were from the report I had to hand which, it has to be said, is not the latest version. However, I'm sure that the most recent version is not much different but I'm getting a copy to confirm that. I've also asked for better definitions of what is and isn't included.
With regard to being 'lucky to break even' I think most large contract cleaners are lucky to break even - isn't that why they are all diversifying?
I'll get the latest figures and let you know how profitable the top 4 'appear' to be but sometimes the figures can be genuinely misleading. As an example, the figures I have on Rentokil Initial (who at the time had a 6% share of the market) show an overall 17% net proft. But what you have to bear in mind is that 'hygiene services' only represented 31% of their overall turnover with the rest being personnel services, pest control, security, transport etc.
Looking at the others (OCS, ISS, MITIE, etc,) it appears that the more proportional contract cleaning they do the less profitable they are. At best these financial figures are almost 2 years old but you can be sure that contract cleaning is getting more competitive all the time.
I'll let you know when I have more info from MSI
Regards
Mike