Rapid growth expected to double revenue figures

Daniel Dickson explains his chartered accountancy background, professional journey to his role of OCS chief executive officer and plans to further enhance the company’s bright future

One of the most notable areas of activity within the FM industry is that of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with deals of all types and sizes announced regularly throughout the year.

M&A is also attributed with introducing OCS UK and Ireland Chief Executive Officer Daniel Dickson to the industry, following his attainment of chartered accountancy status. Speaking exclusively to FM Director during Apprenticeship Week, he refers to the relevance of M&A to his journey, having joined an accountancy firm in 2003 at the age of 18 as opposed to attending university.

After achieving his chartered accountant status at the age of 21, he then joined his employer’s M&A team. “I thought M&A sounded a little more interesting than auditing,” he recalls with a smile, “and one of my clients was Servest, which at the time was a £20m revenue cleaning business.”

Having assisted the company with the purchase of another cleaning company in 2008, the effects of the financial crisis at the time saw a dramatic reduction in M&A activity, resulting in Mr Dickson providing businesses with constructive turnaround advice to help them deal with the recession.

The Servest progression continued, however, leading to another acquisition in 2011 and expanding the business to an organisation with a revenue of circa £40m.

The company then decided to establish its own in-house M&A team, resulting in Mr Dickson joining the business in 2012 as the head of the new division.

“The company was owned by Servest South Africa, and I was the first joint employee at the time, with my time divided between the two countries, which was really interesting,” he recalls.

In addition to fulfilling his ambitions for international travel, the position provided experience with acquisitions throughout the African continent, including Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa, as well as leading its UK deals.

Looking ahead

More highly relevant experience was provided by the company’s desire to develop into a total FM service provider.

“We acquired security and catering businesses in 2012, then a hard service and a pest control service provider in 2013, and I also moved into the financial director (FD) role, as well as managing the M&A division. In addition to the acquisitions, we had really good organic growth, which saw the company achieve revenues of around £400m.

“I’ve always seen growth as being part of our DNA, which includes being really good at winning and retaining contracts, as well as completing acquisitions,” he continues.

“With Mr Dickson’s personal ambitions driving him toward the chief executive officer (CEO) role, he took the advice of OCS group CEO Rob Legge (see FM Director May 2023 for Mr Legge’s interview) to gain more operational experience to support his promotion.

“I was then appointed managing director of our hard services business, and shortly after that, we acquired the Arthur McKay hard service business, as well. I then moved to Edinburgh for 12 months to reverse our existing hard service operation into the Arthur McKay business,” he says.

His next area of focus involved assisting the merger of the company with Atalian, which saw Rob Legge move into his global role “and that’s when I became CEO of the UK business in 2018”.

Less than two years after this, Mr Dickson was faced with the “really interesting” challenge of steering the business through the Covid pandemic, quickly followed by more unique challenges such as Brexit and the various issues seen throughout the UK and globally in the years following.

Speaking to FM Director 12 months after the merger with OCS, creating a UK business with a combined revenue stream of £1.5bn, Mr Dickson says this has been further boosted with more acquisitions that have resulted in today’s company having a revenue of £1.6bn.

“Having started working with Servest 12 years ago and now leading the UK business of its current size has been a fantastic journey, and my career has clearly benefited from joining a growing and ambitious company,” he states.

“OCS is a fantastic UK brand, and next year will be our 125th anniversary since it was set up in 1900 as a cleaning business. All the work that has been ongoing since the merger has led to our rebrand, with all the back-office systems, etc, in place, and we’re well prepared to take OCS to the market with a new look, new feel, new logo, new values and new vision,” he says.

“Our ambition is to double the size of the business over the next five years, and I think we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to make that happen. It’s not going to be easy, but given the success we’ve enjoyed over the last 10 or 11 years, I think we can look forward to more good years ahead.”

Mr Dickson states that although the company is now in a much better position to deliver large contracts, it remains dedicated to serving single-service deals and retaining its agile approach to serving customers.

“We’re not going to be arrogant and offer a one-size-fits-all all service provision that doesn’t work in our industry.

“We’ve always been very flexible and agile, and that means we can do what the customer wants. You see some companies that are not interested in contracts under a certain size, but that’s not us at all. We just want really good customers with whom we can work in partnership, add value and make a difference,” he says.

“We’ve got some strong divisions for delivering single-service services, and we’ve got two really strong divisions to deliver either public or private sector FM contracts.

“It’s all about having the right internal resources and the right structure and people, and that will then lead to more growth,” says Mr Dickson.

He further explains that the company will continue to devote effort to delivering more work within the sectors that it is particularly familiar with, including retail, manufacturing and both public and private sector. “We know the areas where we’re really strong and we’ll continue to work to our strengths to further expand the work we do in those,” he says.

“OCS has also been particularly strong in delivering soft services, so another of our strategies is to look at some of those contracts to see if we can speak to the customers and start to provide hard services, as well,” he continues.

“That’s something we can definitely do as we now have a national hard service division, and that’s also why we’ll be continuing to tender for TFM contracts.”

With many options available to deliver the company’s organic growth ambitions, Mr Dickson further states that it will continue to consider more acquisitions, as well. “We like to buy good quality businesses, and you won’t see us carrying out distressed acquisitions.”

Expansion

OCS has recently acquired the Profile Security and Accuro FM businesses, which are described as typifying the strong companies with good management, infrastructure and customer base that the company prefers to purchase. There are also at least two more acquisitions in the pipeline, and these are likely to be followed by others.

“We aim to complete around four or five a year, and, given my background, that really excites me,” he continues. “Our historic success has been based on a blend of organic growth and retaining contracts, supported by strong acquisitions,” he says.

Having recently organised its Apprentice of the Year awards during National Apprenticeship Week, Mr Dickson states that the company plans to increase the number of apprentices it employs from the current 350 to 1,000 within the next year. “We’re a people business, and it’s all about helping our people develop further.

“We don’t want to be the biggest in the industry, but we definitely want to be the best, which also means that we need to employ the best people.

“That means we must help them develop into leadership, via management and support of all our apprentices. If the business is investing in its people and is continuing to grow, that means there are more opportunities for our staff to progress their careers, which is ultimately what we want to see happening,” says Mr Dickson.

He further states that both he and Mr Legge agree that they should have sufficient numbers of people within the business to avoid employing senior management candidates from other companies. While OCS will continue to upgrade its technology and improve its use of data, it will combine this with the core value of looking after all employees.

“One of the many things we are developing at the moment is our new head office in Ipswich, which will be a state-of-the-art smart building that is being designed to provide the best workplace experience where people are going to love to come to work. It’s been a very busy nine or ten months, but we’re passionate about continuing to drive the business forward to achieve even greater things,” he states.

“There’s a very positive culture at OCS, and that starts at the top. You have to have a very energised leadership team, and that then flows throughout the business.”

Looking at the FM industry as a whole, Mr Dickson feels that it should continue to strive to maintain the focus placed on it throughout the Covid pandemic, where it kept buildings open, secure and wellmaintained.

“This is where things like the new cleaning apprenticeships are helping while also showing everyone that cleaning isn’t just a job; it’s a career.

“Too many people still tend to fall into FM rather than choosing it as a career. But then once you’re in, you can’t leave because you love it,” he states.

“There are so many exciting and interesting things happening around FM, and I think we really need to show it as a definite career option, so I think as one of the largest businesses, it’s only right that we do our bit and promote the industry,” Mr Dickson concludes.