Cleaning firm plan to sweep up new business

A North East cleaning firm is hoping to sweep £1m into its annual turnover as NEL investment supports its ambitious growth plans. .

MJF Cleaning Services is currently based in Darlington but is now initiating a drive to bring in business from Teesside and Tyneside.

The company, which provides both daily and specialist cleaning services, is also planning further business development work in North Yorkshire.

MJF has turned to regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers for a £250,000 investment from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund to help provide the working capital required to support its development plans.

Part of the investment will aid the recruitment of business development personnel in its two main target markets to help secure new contract opportunities.

David Thomas, investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, said: “The MJF management team has a clear vision of how it is going to translate a strong locally-built reputation into wider commercial success, and it’s a vision that offered us a strong investment opportunity.”

The cleaning firm currently employs more than 100 people and delivers services to a wide range of commercial and industrial clients in both the private and public sectors.

Set up in 2006 by managing director Martin Ferguson, MJF was originally established as a domestic window cleaning business.

After widening its services the firm have now worked with Shepherd Construction on a number of high-profile projects such as the Rockcliffe Hall hotel complex and the new national football headquarters, St George’s Park in Burton.

Martin Ferguson said: “We’ve established strong foundations in and around our home area, and have everything in place to widen a successful business model right across the region and beyond.

“Unlike many of our national competitors, our reputation has been built on fully delivering the quality services that we promise to our customers, with an additional guarantee of local accountability to back up everything we offer.

“We know that adding a £1m a year to our annual turnover, and creating a substantial amount of new jobs in the process, is an ambitious target, but the opportunities are out there in what we know is an expanding market and we have the resources and expertise in place to make it happen.

“NEL saw what we’d done on the St George’s Park project and initiated a discussion which has been both seamless and very efficient.

“They’ve taken the time to listen to and understand our plans for taking the business forward, and working with them has been a very positive experience.”

Aimed at regional businesses which are at a development and growth stage, the Growth Fund forms part of the wider Finance for Business North East Fund.

Managed by North East Finance, it will see £125m of investment capital injected into the region by the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13 over a five year period.
NEL is looking to make around 130 investments over the five-year life span of the Growth Fund, and is actively looking to speak to ambitious north east companies with robust business plans.