Mitie Group plc has said it has made a ‘good start’ to the 2023-24 financial year. Notable new wins included the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to provide FM services for UK armed forces in Germany and nearby, and in the UK the Home Office, and Phoenix Group. As for renewals and contract extensions, they included another UK Government department, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Lloyds Banking Group, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Network Rail (featured in the ‘spending the budget’ part of the August print edition of Professional Security Magazine) and Stellantis.
As for acquisitions the FM firm points to Linx International Group (bought in April), a risk management and consulting business, and RH Irving Industrials (in May), an installer of security and access control, for a total of £21m, with an eye ‘to support customers’ ahead of the proposed Martyn’s Law, a ‘Protect Duty’ that would require sites and venues to take steps to counter terrorism.
In the ‘business services’ arm of the company, which security and guarding come under, revenue of £360m was broadly in line with the same quarter last year (Q1 FY23: £361m). Mitie points to contract re-pricing, increased variable works and the contribution from the two most recent acquisitions being offset by the completion of covid-related contracts, the winding down of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance contract and the reduction in scope of the Brexit security contract at UK ports.
Cleaning and security made up some £302m of that £360m, compared with £304m for the same period the financial year before. Group revenue for the three months to the end of June was £1053m, a rise of 11pc on the figure a year ago of £945m.
The results show Mitie’s continued strategy to turn to ‘intelligence and technology-led security’ rather than purely security officers, as being more high-margin; and more generally to do more to be ‘green’, such as by de-carbonisation, both in the way it does things and by offering services to customers. Internally, the plc says that it’s done more ‘margin enhancement initiatives’; Mitie Shared Services has outsourced various HR support functions, including ‘right to work’ vetting and processing of joiners and leavers , ‘with the transferred services already delivering productivity improvements’, the company reported.
