“Technology offers a huge opportunity to transform the services industry”: James Bradley, Churchill Group

“Sustainable growth is our priority for 2025,” says James Bradley, CEO of Churchill Group. "We are planning to achieve that organically by championing the quality of our services, which comes down to how we take care of and invest in our people, and by focusing on how we enhance our services with innovation and technology. We see huge potential there.”

Unlocking potential has been a part of the group’s culture since its inception. What started out as two enterprising young people cleaning local pubs and emptying bins in 1980s Hertfordshire is now a business turning over £400m and employing 17,000, with ambitions of double-digit year-on-year growth.

The group provides ‘soft’ facilities management services, which are people-led, as opposed to infrastructure focused, to the public and private sectors. That means cleaning, managing, protecting and maintaining offices, stations, shopping centres, social housing, buses, schools and leisure destinations.

Acquisition drives diversification

The services sector is still relatively young, having developed from the outsourcing trend that became popular in the 1980s, where previously businesses would employ their own cleaners, security guards and engineers. People add complexity to any organisation, so outsourcing facilities management allows greater focus on the core business, whether that’s running trains, educating children or selling products.

“At first our growth was driven by scale and geographic presence. More recently our focus has shifted to entering different service sectors and strengthening those specialisms, with security services being our second largest business,” Bradley says.

Having made 15 acquisitions in the past 35 years, Churchill Group’s seven sibling brands now deliver facilities services in the cleaning, security, environmental and guest services sectors. Despite their size, maintaining the human touch is a core value.

Bradley says the business’s founders, Joel Briggs and Phil Moxom, recognised from day one that customers valued a personalised, localised service.

“This makes us a part of nearly every community across the country, which is why our goals are designed to give back to communities through local employment and supporting regional economies with buying choices that boost local supply chains.”

Data and technology bring competitive opportunity

With such a vast workforce comes a vast amount of data, the analysis of which Bradley feels can bring in a real point of difference for the group.

“Typically, facilities management contracts are three to five years and left to run,” he says. “But the world continually changes, so using data will allow greater understanding of evolving client needs.”

“That might mean for example, it isn’t necessary to clean the office on a Monday because it’s a ‘teams work from home day’, but actually on a Wednesday let’s clean it twice because the office is at full occupancy. This affects the quality output positively at the same price point to a customer,” he explains.

This “dynamic contracting” approach provides a better outcome for clients as there is limited benefit in cleaning a clean office and prevents Churchill Group’s people on the ground feeling disillusioned by illogical tasks.

“One of the reasons why the industry hasn't advanced as much as others in this area is because the technology hasn't been able to give everyone the confidence in the right steps to take. Technology offers a huge opportunity to transform the services industry, for both clients and staff.”

Employee ownership brings empowerment

In 2023 Churchill Group became employee-owned, a decision driven by a desire to find the right ownership model that also fitted with the founding ethos of ‘doing the right thing’.

“Employee ownership is a win-win as it aligns perfectly with our social impact values while also supporting our approach to sustainable growth.”

At a basic level, employee ownership enables staff to have both a stake and a say in the company they work for. Churchill Group went for an Employee Ownership Trust model, which means shares are held on behalf of employees rather than directly. Churchill is now among the largest employee-owned businesses in the UK, second only to the John Lewis Partnership. “It means everyone in the company benefits from their own hard work. Our colleagues are what makes Churchill’s specialist businesses so successful.” 

A further focus of the business is its social impact, through creating equality around employment opportunities, as Bradley explains: “We’re a big employer with jobs ranging from entry level, flexible hours, all the way through to executive roles.”  

He says: “We want to enhance our social impact by employing people from different walks of life, whether we're thinking about care leavers, veterans or those with disabilities or the long-term unemployed. The working world gives people structure, it gives people purpose and morale, and we feel we have a role as an employer to help our communities in that way.”