Support services and facilities management (FM) companies are facing stagnating profitability into 2018 amid increased competition from SMEs, rising cost inflation from the National Living Wage and Brexit. That’s according to a report from the audit firm EY.
The company says the available accounts for 22 facilities management firms with operations in the UK suggested that the average (EBITDA) margins has remained stagnant at around 7pc during the last three years. In comparison, revenues grew at an average of 14pc from last year.
Tim Wainwright, Industrial Products Sector Leader at EY says: “The facilities management sector has experienced low margins for some time, with no sign of picking up. As we look into 2018, the wider economic and geo-political environment will conspire, alongside competition and cost inflation, to pile the pressure on FM providers.
“Our analysis indicates that facilities management providers have not been able to take advantage of scale whilst growing and so we are likely to see new approaches to corporate strategy in the sector.”
Although the FM sector is not as heavily dependent on material imports, compared to the construction sector, for example, the lower value of Sterling following the EU referendum can make the UK market less attractive for labour force from the EU. The FM sector also employs a number of workers from the European Union (EU) and changes to immigration policies resulting from Brexit could impact labour availability from EU countries. A survey by the Social Market Foundation suggests that as much as 14pc of labour in accommodation and food services and 9% in admin and support services were born in the EEA. Depending on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, FM firms could face increased costs to hire labour.
Tim says: “The current uncertainty around labour rights is threatening to place an additional burden on a sector which is more reliant than others on EU labour. We expect the industry to be joining other labour-intensive industries for special visas or deals for EU workers in facilities management in order to mitigate this.”
The National Living Wage (NLM) begun in April 2016 resulted in a cost increase for FM companies since labour is a significant proportion of their overall cost structure. Official UK data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that Cleaning and Hospitality were the two service sectors most impacted by the National Living Wage prior to its introduction with 41.9pc and 33.2pc of the workforce affected. EY adds that the facilities management sector, by its nature, is extremely fragmented due to the variety of services offered such as security, building and grounds maintenance and cleaning. We are seeing a high number of recent SMEs entrants, particularly focussed on cleaning, which has created even further pricing pressure.
Tim says: “Adapting to regulatory changes on labour including the NLM, apprenticeships levy and auto-enrolment will add additional pressure on the cost base of facilities providers. For an industry so fragmented and reliant on labour, new entrants will have a disproportionate impact on profit margins for FM firms.”
