Member Article

Sunderland contract cleaning company set to expand

Sunderland-based contract cleaning and facilities management business, Maxim Facilities Management Limited (Maxim FM), is set to expand nationally following a second six-figure investment from The Finance for Business North East Growth Fund.

Founded by managing director Graham Conway in late 2010, Maxim FM is on track to achieve annualised revenues of around £5 million, and is aiming to increase this figure to around £15 million within the next five years.

Maxim FM provides services to public and private sector clients, as well as working with a growing number of blue chip corporate clients.

Late last year, the firm worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, which administers the Growth Fund, to secure an initial investment.

This has been used to help grow and develop the services Maxim offers to both existing and new clients, both within and outside the North East, whilst strengthening its sales team through the appointment of a new sales director.

The Maxim management team has returned to NEL for a second cash injection, aiming to invest in new technology systems, which will streamline the way in which contracts are managed and enhance the information available to clients about the standards being achieved at their premises.

In recent months, Maxim has acquired both Glasgow-based commercial cleaning and window cleaning contractor Ross Cleaning Services, and the contract cleaning division of New Life Cleaning Systems (North) Ltd, which has taken the total number of people it employs past the 500 mark.

New clients have been secured this year in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands, as well as within the North East, and with further management structures being put in place, Maxim is set to establish a footprint right across the UK.

Maxim FM were advised on the Growth Fund investment by Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance and Square One Law LLP

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 £125 million 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.

Graham Conway said: “Our intention has always been to grow a national contract cleaning business offering wider facilities management services, and we’re well on the way to achieving that ambition.

“We’re growing the business both inside and outside our home region, and while we already have clients throughout the UK, we’re now putting the nationwide structures in place that will help us consolidate what we’ve already achieved right across the country.

“Our relationship with the NEL team has been very positive since their first investment, with the input they’ve had into the business proving extremely useful, and it was a natural step to go back to them for further funding.”

Investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, David Thomas, said: “The progress that Maxim FM has made over just nine months has been extremely impressive, and the opportunity presented to us to invest in the next stage of their development looked very sound.”