-23/01/2019-
Since BRS was born, our mission was to become one of the leading Builders cleaning companies in London and the south of UK. BRS started as just a humble husband and wife venture and so to begin with, trying to put our micro company on the map was a bit of a challenge. However with a lot of hard work, passion and commitment, combined with the growth of a fantastic and dedicated team along the way, we have finally started to get our feet through the doors and to begin working with some of our dream clients. We can now proudly call ourselves an award winning cleaning company – an established business with an annual turnover of over £1M and a fleet of vehicles. We are taking positive steps in the direction of fulfilling our quest to become one of the preferred suppliers of Builders cleaners in London and surrounding areas.
In this review, we are going to focus on some of our company highlights from 2018 and consider the steps we have taken towards achieving our goals in the last year. We will conclude by reflecting on where we anticipate that we will be by the end of 2019.
2018 was a very positive year for BRS and a year of change in both our business and personal lives as we welcomed in a new addition to the family with the birth of our first child. The end of 2017 saw us move to our first office at the M25 Business Centre in Waltham Abbey meaning that following the arrival of our daughter we were able to take on 2 additional office staff members to help us to continue to grow. We are sure that we will need to increase our office team further as we continue to expand in the near future but we are excited about our new office team. This year we also recruited additional site supervisors and promoted some of our experienced operatives to supervisor roles. We are really lucky to have a team of fantastic supervisors who continually lead by example, never shying away from hard work and always going the extra mile for our clients.
As well as continuing to grow our fantastic teams, another major achievement in 2018 was the number of new construction clients we have added to our expanding client portfolio and the subsequent number of new exciting Builders clean contracts in London, Essex, Hertfordshire, and many other areas nationally. 2018 got off to an amazing start for BRS when works began early in the year at Hinkley Point C Power Plant in Somerset where we were appointed to carry out the Builders cleaning to 1496 studios. Click to read more about this project. This is one of the biggest projects we have had to prepare for, with robust health and safety policies to adhere to and thus plenty of paperwork to complete, drug and alcohol testing for our teams and many other protocols. It is also one of the biggest sites we have worked on – the project itself is worth £23B to the main contractor. Our Builders cleaning contract at this site was for Caledonian Modular, a good client of ours who we have gained repeat business from over the last few years.
The efforts of our teams of Builders cleaners on-site at Hinkley Point meant that we soon caught the attention of the main contractor, Laing O’Rourke, which led to us being awarded Builders clean contracts directly for Laing O’Rourke of additional accommodation and amenity buildings. In turn, this led to us gaining another Builders cleaning contract for Laing O’Rourke – 
The Post Building, just off Oxford Street in London, another really exciting project to be a part of. Laing O’Rourke is in the top 10 construction companies in the UK (according to https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/market-data/top-100-construction-companies/2018) so to be working on 2 large projects with them is a fantastic achievement that we are really proud of – definitely a highlight of 2018.
In 2018 BRS cleaners also continued working with another top 10 UK construction company, Kier Construction, carrying out Builders cleans on projects such as Aureus Primary school in Oxford and Wren School in Reading, with further projects lined up for 2019. To gain repeat business from such a key player in the construction industry is a tremendous achievement.
2018 also saw us start working with some key players in the house building industry. First, we were awarded a Builders cleaning contract for Telford homes, a leading and fast-growing London residential developer, of a primary school and 12 new build residential plots in Bow, East London at the start of the year. https://www.brscontractors.co.uk/news/builders-cleaning-in-bow/Following the successful completion and handover of this project, we were then awarded the second and third phases of works for the same site which consisted of Builders and Sparkle cleans to an additional 112 residential units. It is great to begin working with such a prominent influencer on the current London house building scene.
2018 ended on an even more positive note than it started with us signing a contract for leading national house builder Countryside properties. The contract is for Builders and Sparkle cleans of 172 residential units at their Newhall development in Harlow, Essex. We are delighted to be able to add a top 10 UK house builder to our rapidly growing client list.
Although gaining new clients is, of course, a significantly exciting and fundamental part of our business, our business wouldn’t continue to grow if we didn’t value and look after our existing clients.
One such client is Essex based Readie Construction, a longstanding client of ours. We continued working with Readie in 2018 on several of their main projects including Builders cleaning of 44 commercial units at their site in Beam Reach, Rainham, 10 large industrial warehouse units in Chelmsford, Builders cleaning of warehouses in Canvey Island and more in Bedford and Wolverhampton, among others. The fact that Readie are continuing to choose BRS builders cleaners in Hertfordshire year after year and trust is with their largest projects, is a testimony to the continued hard work and commitment of our teams.
We also gained repeat business in 2018 from another valued client of our’s, Hertfordshire based developer HG Construction, which involved our teams of Builders cleaners in London working on vast student accommodation developments in areas such as London, Kingston, Richmond, and Cambridge.
In 2018 we also celebrated our fifth birthday which led us to reflect further on where we are and how far we have come since start-up. Overall we are proud of our growth, especially to say that it has been organic in that we have had no investment. We are beginning to put ourselves on the map as a quality Builders cleaners subcontractor as we begin to work with key players in the construction industry and build our reputation. We are proud of the fact that most of our business is gained via recommendations/word of mouth and repeat business and we have not had to do any form of paid advertising. 
While growth is positive and exciting, it also comes with its challenges such as the need to recruit additional staff, an increase in responsibilities and also additional overheads (additional staff, vehicles, insurances, office costs, etc, etc) and so 2019 is set to be an of equally exciting albeit challenging year as we strive to cover our increasing costs while still making a profit and continuing to deliver the high-quality Builders cleaning service that BRS cleaners are becoming renown for.
We ended the year on a high with a team building day of go-karting followed by our staff Christmas party which was enjoyed by all who were able to make it.
2018 really was what I would call a ‘Game changer’ year and we can’t wait to see what 2019 brings!
