Bruntwood launches a trio of new businesses

Bruntwood is expanding its service offering with the launch of three new businesses.

Unify will provide fully integrated facilities management encompassing mechanical and electrical repairs and maintenance, energy, cleaning and specialist cleaning.

The business has already secured 30 new contracts, and enters its first full financial year with an £8m contract value order book, as it seeks growth among occupiers of commercial office and public sector buildings, national retailers and the industrial and logistics industries, alongside Bruntwood’s 2,600 customers.

Unify aims to leverage its client-side background and understanding of property management to deliver an excellent customer experience.

Employing 350 people, 250 of which have transferred into Bruntwood from existing FM suppliers, Unify is a Living Wage employer and committed to improving lives for its colleagues and driving a personable service for its customers.

Bruntwood’s chief operating officer, Richard Burgess, will assume the role of chief executive of Unify.

Unify Energy will offer energy as a managed service and sub-metering to Bruntwood customers and to other building landlords and property agents.

It will offer an alternative model to the single meter system typical to multi-tenanted buildings where landlords and agents have to split energy bills with occupiers based on square footage. Instead Unify Energy, as a fully licensed supplier, can provide metered energy bills directly to each occupier giving customers and landlords a more accurate and compliant managed energy service.

Unify Energy is committed to purchasing fuel from renewable sources and will offer support to customers exploring on-site generation, this stems from Bruntwood's drive to generate 30% of its energy on site by 2030.

Sarah Martin, currently Director of Utilities at Bruntwood has been appointed CEO of Unify Energy.

CubicWorks is not your average construction refurbishment and fit-out company, they will want to rip up the rule book, they don’t see themselves as a contractor, more like a construction partner. It will adopt a consultative and partnership-led approach to deliver end-to-end project management.

The firm has already been appointed by developer Bywater Properties to refurbish its £2m Northstar office scheme in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and will also become a supplier to Bruntwood Works and Bruntwood SciTech.

More than 50 employees from Bruntwood’s project contracting team have transferred into CubicWorks.

A three strong team of directors Shan Khambata, Mark Spavin, and Mark Wright, will lead the new business.

Chris Oglesby, Bruntwood’s CEO, said: “We’re excited about these three disruptive new ventures and their potential to shake-up the provision of FM and contracting services right across the UK.

“Organisations of all shapes and sizes expect more from their property than ever before and we know what it takes to deliver not just excellent spaces, but excellent experiences and services within them. So for us, Unify and CubicWorks are very much a part of our on-going evolution as a group.

“We’re especially proud of what Unify represents in that it will provide those working in cleaning services the chance to shape their career at an ethical and responsible business, allowing them to thrive through access to support and development opportunities while earning a fair wage.”

Unify and CubicWorks will both share the same values and purpose of ‘Creating Thriving Cities’ as the Bruntwood Group.