The North East’s largest independent contract cleaning and facilities management firm is aiming to create around 250 new jobs over the next 18 months as it heads towards reaching its long-term growth ambitions.
Maxim Facilities Management’s annual turnover has passed £15m for the first ever time – and the Sunderland-headquartered firm is now on track to achieve its strategic goal of becoming a £20m turnover company by the end of 2025.
The company has taken on more than 250 staff over the last 12 months, taking its total workforce up to 1,500 people, and is expecting to create the same number of new jobs by the end of next year, with half of them being within the North East and the remainder across the UK.
Maxim picked up new contracts worth more than £500,000 per annum in the first quarter of the year, with its strong reputation in the education sector leading to substantial recent growth in that area.
Large multi-academy trusts in Birmingham, Bradford, Middlesbrough, Oldham and Sunderland have all chosen Maxim to deliver their cleaning services over contracts between three and five years in length.
The Maxim management team is also currently working on building the firm’s presence in the Scottish education sector as a key part of its future growth plans.
Maxim FM provides commercial contract cleaning and facilities management services to public and private sector clients, and operates in every part of the UK, aside from London and the South East.
It has branch offices in Leeds, Swindon and North Lanarkshire, and works with a range of well-known firms and organisations, including Quorn Foods, Kromek plc, Salford College, Durham Cricket, TRW and the Scottish Prison Service.
Alongside education, it has particular strengths in the health, social housing and manufacturing sectors, and was recently shortlisted as a finalist in the Offices Under 10,000 square metre category of the industry-leading Golden Service Awards 2024.
It has achieved a five-fold increase over the 11 years since securing an initial investment from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, who remain an investor today.
Graham Conway, founder and managing director at Maxim FM, says: “Our stated aim this time last year was to hit an annual billing rate of £15m, and having reached that landmark, our long-term target of £20m now feels well within reach.
“We’ve been consistently able to create significant numbers of new jobs on the back of this growth, with continuing to build our expert team remaining central to being able to meet demand from new and existing clients.
“We have an especially strong track record in successfully delivering flexible, tailored services within the education sector, which currently represents around half of our contract cleaning turnover, and this is helping us compete for and secure major new seven figure contracts with institutions right across the country in competition with some of the industry’s biggest national names.
“We are well established as the North East’s largest independent cleaning and facilities management firm and have a clear strategy in place that will take us to the next level by the end of next year.”