Doncaster FM firm set to expand and recruit with new contract wins

The facilities management division of the Doncaster-based commercial and residential agents Barnsdales, is targeting the social housing and charitable sectors to sustain the growth achieved in of its first six months.

Launched in January as a one-man operation, Barnsdales FM is set to increase its workforce to nine in the coming weeks.

Clive Chippindale, managing director of Barnsdales FM, said the recruitment drive is the result of the company delivering a new contract to the Camphill Village Trust, and the addition of new national account manager Mike Stott.

Clive said: “Mike becomes the sixth member of our team. We will add an administrator at the beginning of August, followed by two more people to work on the Camphill Village Trust contract.

“We will need more people by the end of the year to deliver our services and we may need additional office staff to support them. The last six months have shown that we are fully capable of securing new, exciting, one-off contracts on top of our planned expansion.”

Clive merged his own business, Leeds-based Compact Property Solutions, into Barnsdales at the beginning of 2016.

The Grade-II listed St Paul’s House in central Leeds, which was sold earlier this year for £23.7m, appointed Barnsdales FM to manage the combination of ornate 19th century features and modern, Grade A office space.

That was followed by a deal with the Science Museum Group, which saw the company support the management of the National Railway Museum in York, the National Media Museum in Bradford, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham.

The new project with Camphill Village Trust (CVT) gives Barnsdales FM responsibility for managing the maintenance of properties at CVT’s Delrow Community, an estate near Watford which includes a 300-year-old mansion and surrounding estate.

The site is home to a number of people with learning disabilities, mental health problems and other support needs living in supported living-style properties as part of a Camphill community.

New recruit Mike Stott gained experience with a major local authority before moving into the private sector as contracts manager for a company which met the gas and heating requirements for 22,000 homes across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. More recently he was operations manager for a gas and heating services company responsible for 17,000 social housing units in Aberdeen.

Clive said: “Mike brings tremendous knowledge and experience of contract management and service delivery in the housing sector, which adds a new dimension to our business.

“We know from the work that we do that sometimes the job isn’t about the actual service, it’s about engaging with the clients and understanding the complexities and sensitivities of the people they are working with. At the Science Museum Group that’s the hundreds of thousands of people who visit their properties every year and with Camphill Village Trust it’s the community members.

“We carry out our duties with the minimum inconvenience to them and because we do that very effectively we think there are opportunities for us in social housing. Given our experience with local authorities, charities and government supported organisations we think we can really add value.”