Broll by East Coast Promotions

COMPANY PROFILE

2014

Broll Facilities Management

+27 (0)11ÂŹ 441 4118 | www.broll.co.za

company profile

“Letting you focus on your core business”

Editorial: Harriet Pattison Production: Hal Hutchison

Broll Facilities Management has been using its technical expertise and innovative thinking to become one of the leading and best facilities management companies in South Africa. Responsible for the operation of prestigious educational institutions and world-class sports stadia, it is quickly becoming a hard act to follow…

Offering advice and consulting to clients on property and maximising value has classified Broll as one of the leading commercial property services groups across Africa.One of Broll’s growing business sectors in South Africa, Facilities Management (FM) is also joining in on its success. Facilities Management is becoming big business within Southern Africa and remains a very competitive industry. It is dedicated to numerous management responsibilities including the administration of schools, offices, convention centres and hotels and within these environments, FM is dedicated to the coordination of people, infrastructure, space and organisation.

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT Helping to manage and add value to core businesses, the competencies of a Facilities Management company involve numerous roles including helping clients with leadership, communication, environmental impact, finance, business, project management and technology. Broll sets itself apart from many other Facilities

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Management companies being one of only a handful of FM companies that is responsible for the dayto-day operation and care of prestigious education institutions and world-class sports stadia. IndustrySA speaks to Rowland Gurnell, Broll Facilities Management Division COO and Chris Aslett, Director Technical at Broll Facilities Management Division to find out just what is making this company such a growing success. “We manage all the technical services and soft services for our clients thus giving them a chance to concentrate on their own core business. “We also look after all the infrastructure around that, this can be a range of technical services such as electrical, mechanical, generators and Uninterupted Power Supply (this provides emergency power when the input power source, typically mains power, fails). We also look after soft services which can be your reception, security, landscaping, courier services and mail rooms,” Gurnell explains.

FROM WSP TO BROLL Both Gurnell and Aslett joined Broll from the

Broll Facilities Management

WSP Group after Broll acquired the company in December 2012. Gurnell explains that when they were working for WSP Facilities Management, Broll at that stage had a small FM Division. Broll then had to make a decision on whether to keep the FM business going despite its size or focus on its property management business. At that stage, Broll chose to have the FM Division as part of their business. At the same time, WSP FM was bought by a Canadian company, Genivar, who wanted to change it to a pure consulting engineering business. Broll happened to be at the right place, at the right time as they put in their offer and WSP FM was acquired and consolidated to its FM Division turning it into what it has become today. After leaving military service, Gurnell went on to gain an Electrical Engineering Government Certificate with Goldfields and went on to serve in top positions in the mining industry specifically in manufacturing before working for Siemens. He worked for WPS Facilities Management Division as

COO prior to joining Broll in 2012.

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH With 160 employees and contacts coming over from WSP FM, the Facilities Management business now has 280 staff members and looks after six million square meters of property in South Africa. Gurnell explains that overcoming initial challenges in the move has now seen its footprint increasing significantly: “Most of our staff came across from WSP to Broll. It took us about 12 months for the integration and getting the two businesses to work as one. There were differences, the culture and the FM methodologies, and so we had to look at both sides and set up a new FM business which we are in the process of learning.” Broll FM has presence in all major towns with technical teams covering virtually every major town in South Africa every quarter. “We have various clients of various sizes across the country. We work with Barclays and ABSA as well as various investment banks and mining houses,” Gurnell says.

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company profile THE BROLL ACADEMY

BEING GREEN

Broll’s employees are integral to the company and to bolster this commitment, it has introduced its own academy which is linked to the University of Pretoria. Gurnell explains: “Our staff do get opportunities to do FM courses and property management courses. We are starting our own training within the FM business, but it is more on the technical side so we’ve bought in an accredited training organisation. This will help us on our technical training that we envisage happening in the next few months and rolling into next year.” “When we present training to employees internally, it will have a national qualification framework grading, not just a certificate of attendance, but it will be an FM national qualification accredited achievement,” says Aslett. Aslett began his career in the telecommunications industry, and went on to study at the Pretoria University and later worked at the University of Witwatersrand for eight and a half years then ended up as the Deputy Director for the Facilities Management Portfolio. Aslett worked for five years at WSP Facilities Management Division then joined Gurnell at Broll following the WSP FM acquisition.

With sustainability and greening being a big business in South Africa, Broll’s Facilities Management focuses much of its business on keeping up with industry trends and participate on sustainability and green issues on a regular basis. Aslett explains that the company is registered with the Green Building Council of South Africa, an independent company that promotes green building practices across the Country. He says being a green company is about motivating clients too: “We advise our clients on the possibilities with regards to scoring on the Green Building score card and motivate their involvement too. The support from our client base also helps us to achieve the goals set by the Green Building Council of South Africa.” To continue being active green members, Gurnell explains: “I think it’s important for us to be involved - Our FM operations role is to look at sustainability. You’ve got buildings that are now certified green star buildings and if you are going to look after people’s buildings which are green star rated when they’re built, or have existing buildings which are now rated, you need to make sure your operations going forward maintain that green star. “For example, if a building has lighting which is signed off and installed and certified as green, when the

Rowland Gurnell COO Broll Facilities Management

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Chris Aslett Director Technical- Broll Facilities Management Division

Broll Facilities Management fuse blows, you can’t buy a bulb off the shelf you have to make sure that your staff and your processes take into account all those issues,” he says.

CONTINUING SUCCESS With such dedication and a strong work force, and despite a growing number of FM companies in South Africa, it’s easy to see why Gurnell places Broll Facilities Management in the top four companies. With an increasing global footprint, the company ensures that standards remain consistent so clients can expect the same level of service wherever they operate from. “For some of our global clients, the way they operate in the UK and in Europe or America, they want it done in the same way in South Africa. Whatever they are doing on sustainability in those countries we must incorporate in this country and into Africa as well,” explains Gurnell.

A BRIGHT FUTURE The future certainly looks bright and promising for Broll’s Facilities Management team. “We brought in all the technology which we started developing at WSP FM and that still continues so we’re very technology driven at the moment. I definitely think we’re the industry leaders in South Africa in FM technology at the moment; it’s not known yet, but it will be coming out in the next few months.” Aslett says the focus in the next coming years is business expansion into Africa: “We already have offices in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Our focus is now to increase our footprint in these countries in the next five years.” He points out that this is a long-term objective as they want to become a major FM role player in the continent. “We don’t necessarily want to the biggest but we want to be the best,” Gurnell adds. Using innovative techniques, Broll FM remains at the forefront of business in South Africa. Gurnell says they follow and are currently studying trends with regards to corporates and businesses in South Africa and how this impacts on similar operations in Africa. “One example is Barclays SA, they are already moving into Africa and we need to follow, we need to be at the cutting edge to actually service these clients wherever they go,” says Aslett. Counting technical expertise as its strongest point, Aslett says it is also vital to remain competitive and innovative in this industry: “One thing we also do differently from other FM companies is that our policies and procedures aren’t rigid, we customise them to whatever the client wants.”

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