Europe is considered one of the biggest outsourced markets for facility management services in terms of maturity and sophistication.
Key Highlights
- The small local companies focus on single contracts and single-service solutions, whereas the region's facility management businesses operate with integrated contracts from prominent vendors across continents and countries. These include multinational companies choosing service providers with a presence in multiple countries due to the convenience offered under a single contract for various branches. However, due to the regional dynamics, more options are cropping up to combine facility management and corporate real estate.
- Additionally, facility management (FM) covers infrastructure management for an organization, strategies, procedures for managing buildings, and general harmonization of the workplace. This system standardizes services and streamlines procedures for an organization, with the facility management service taking care of the rest.
- Over the past decade, many service providers that have operations in Europe have been concentrating on growing their presence to leverage the growing demand for FM services, particularly due the current trend of outsourcing non-core functions. In October 2023, OCS acquired Accuro, a UK company specializing in critical facility management services in education and healthcare. The group stated that the agreement allows Accuro to grow and develop, creating new opportunities for its staff when integrated with OCS, enabling them to improve their capabilities and provide better services.
- The COVID-19 pandemic had a mixed business impact on FM firms. The restrictions on people’s movement led to a decline in project work and activity levels across many client sites. The pandemic-related lockdowns negatively impacted key market players due to decreased physical contact and attendance for client requirements. However, post-pandemic, with offline work resuming, more European organizations are exploring service amenities for added hygiene, ensuring employee satisfaction, safety, and customer experience.
Europe Facility Management Market Trends
The Commercial Buildings Segment is Expected to Hold a Significant Market Share
- Investment firms mainly focus on the residential or commercial property markets in Europe. Commercial buildings are an appealing form of regional investment as they offer lucrative opportunities. This trend will likely aid the growth of the facility management market in Europe during the forecast period. Commercial investments lead to higher cash flow potential and often provide better ROI.
- The facility management market in Europe is observing many partnerships between vendors and commercial entities in the region. For instance, in April 2023, BT Group extended its agreement with CBRE to provide facilities and project management services to its UK portfolio of more than 7,500 properties to support over 80,000 BT Group and Openreach colleagues. The contract extension will extend the current partnership until 2026 to achieve a new and improved level of cooperation and service delivery.
- Similarly, in January 2023, ISS UK&I extended and expanded its facilities management contract with Virgin Media O2. It took the partnership through a new and exciting phase after the joint venture, supporting one of the United Kingdom's largest entertainment and telecoms firms to align the facilities service delivery. The contract allows ISS to provide total facilities management services in Virgin Media O2's UK infrastructure, with all national technical operations and a combined office portfolio being aligned to achieve operating efficiencies and enhanced service quality.
- The rising interest in establishing smart buildings and other IoT technologies provides various opportunities for market vendors to introduce IoT-based facility management and boost the growth of smart commercial buildings in Europe. In May 2023, Planon announced its strategic partnership with SAP to provide companies with a complete solution in real estate and facility management. As a result, optimized management of their real estate portfolios will benefit corporate organizations and commercial property firms and improve the sustainability of construction. This collaboration combines Planon with SAP's market-leading ERP capabilities to create a more comprehensive integration of processes and technologies.
- Such digitalization trends of transforming new and old commercial buildings into smart buildings help boost property values and support facility managers and property owners. Germany’s facility management service industry is growing due to the rising demand for customized solutions for different in-house and outsourced facility management. The growing number of commercial and residential buildings in major cities leads to the demand for facility management services nationwide. Rapid infrastructure development and the growing focus on integrated facility management services may influence the facility management market positively.
- Investors are highly interested in modern offices with long-term tenants despite the trend of hybrid working. The growing business acumen among industry players and economic diversification from automobile industries to other avenues will likely increase the demand for facility management services in the region.
Big Data is Helping Facility Management Teams Aim for Efficiency and Cost Savings
- Over the past several years, facility management has evolved rapidly, leading to widespread changes in the European industry. The region’s facility management market is undergoing a paradigm shift due to the growing popularity of trends related to data, disruption, evolving amenities, and new workplace concepts.
- Various sectors, including the public sector, retail, professional services, healthcare, technology, logistics, manufacturing, and education, have successfully used the outsourced FM. FM services focus on varied areas, depending on their type, the size of the company, and the sector in which it operates. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach. While some organizations only require a single service solution provider, other big organizations look for bundled services offering complete facility management solutions. These services also differ based on the type and amount of data generated by client organizations, with data analytics tools like Big Data helping almost all sizes of organizations and their contracts.
- The European market aims to shift from in-house delivery of services to bundled services and further toward the integrated facilities management approach with single contracts. This integrated FM approach offers a range of services and longer-term contracts, adding value, driving better quality and economies of scale, and boosting the demand for outsourced services that require specialist expertise.
- Future significant data investments by FM organizations will likely increase as they develop advanced and innovative technologies. The companies may enhance BDA investments by creating complete IoT systems, establishing analytical skills, and utilizing AR and AI. FM organizations need to partner with technology companies, consultants, and institutions offering higher education to scale up the applications for enterprise-level usage.
- As per Cloudscene, in 2023, Germany had 522 data centers, which accounted for one of the highest numbers of data centers in Europe. Germany’s internet literacy rate also accounted for 93.1%. Such statistics indicate the potential development of data processing capabilities, mainly driven by tools like Big Data. Facility managers ensure a data center is always accessible and secure and operates optimally. The emergence of technologies like Big Data necessitates the deployment of ample data center storage.
Europe Facility Management Industry Overview
The facility management market in Europe is fragmented, with diverse firms of different sizes. This market is expected to witness several partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions as organizations continue to invest strategically in offsetting the present slowdowns being experienced. The clients in this region are employing FM services to increase the ease of their business operations and tackle the energy crisis through energy-efficient facility management services.- December 2023: CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) and the United Kingdom’s leading rail manufacturer, Alstom, extended their long-term facility management partnership, consolidating Alstom’s extensive and varied national portfolio under one contract. Under the extended partnership, CBRE and GWS will provide a multi-faceted facilities management service for Alstom’s critical production and maintenance hubs across the United Kingdom, including technical services, cleaning, and waste management.
- July 2023: The G4S Fire and Security team announced their plan of working with Briggs & Forrester on three large, high-profile real estate projects in the United Kingdom. The Cocoa Works in York, 135 Park Street in London, and Phoenix in Leeds will provide a mix of office, retail, and residential space, which will be built based on sustainability and urban regeneration. G4S is the systems provider for the three projects to support these objectives by providing and installing fire and life safety equipment.
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Table of Contents
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- CBRE Group
- Mitie Group PLC
- Emcor Facilities Services WLL
- Atlas FM Ltd
- G4S Facilities Management UK Limited
- ISS Global
- JLL Limited
- Engie FM Limited Cofely AG)
- Andron Facilities Management
- Kier Group PLC
- Vinci Facilities Limited
- Compass Group
- Sodexo Facilities Management Services
- Aramark Corporation
- OKIN Facility (OKIN Group)
- Atalian Servesr ( Atalian Global Services)
- Apleona GmbH
Methodology
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