May 10, 2002—The UK facilities management market is worth 16bn ($26bn) and will continue to grow by 10% every year, according to new research by the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA). This figure represents only outsourced FM contracts, as calculated by BSRIA.
Although the UK is seen as one of the most developed countries within the facilities management arena, only 37% of services that could be outsourced actually are. The research by the Building Services Research & Information Association also shows that services such as cleaning and building fabric are more likely to be contracted out as part of a multi-service agreement, whereas catering often is outsourced separately.
The German market is the second largest after the UK in Europe, but only some 26% of the potential market is outsourced. The industry is however on the rise with grouped contracts in particular growing at between 10-15% per year. A major growth area is buy-outs of in-house teams, which offer FM services to competitors of the original client.
In France, nearly 90% of contracts are still for individual services, but grouped contracts are increasingly popular in the health sector and are rising at 15% per annum. FM contracts are strongest in the financial and office sectors, and are growing by 26% each year. The trend is for non-French companies to outsource FM, although the market is still dominated by French suppliers.
It is difficult for French FM companies to break through in the public sector where theres a common view that a hands-on approach is required in all departments and that the public organizations therefore must not delegate services to the private sector.
The British public sector also relies more on in-house maintenance teams although a high proportion of waste management is outsourced as is financial management on an ad-hoc basis.
UK outsourcing of grouped services is expected to rise from 13% in 2001 to 25% in 2006, whilst full FM contracts will rise from 13% in 2001 to 27% in 2006. In the private sector, 20% of participating organizations said they would consider a leaseback type of contract from an FM company with the financial services, office and leisure sectors being most in favor of this type of arrangement.
For more information, contact BSRIA.
—Jessica Jarlvi
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2002 i-FM
