Property Care, based in Witney, Oxfordshire, has mastered the art of competing against the bigger boys - quality and a focus on the tenant is the secret of its success

Knowing your niche might be one way of putting it, or perhaps an alternate and more appropriate way is to know your local market. That’s certainly how Property Care (Complete Maintenance) Ltd has managed to steadily grow in the face of stiff competition from larger companies out there.

Property Care is a small to medium sized enterprise (SME), that has been doing rather well in carving out a strong presence in its operational territory in the North and West of Oxfordshire. As a small company, working in such an intimate territory, it might be seen as somehow under siege from larger operators looking to poach its patch, but far from it.

Over the last 20 years of its existence, it has fostered a good reputation for quality work and has turned its localised focus into something of an asset, allowing it to more intimately know the geography and the people where it works.

That’s certainly proving its worth given the current climate in the industry. While the wider building industry is struggling in today’s economic climate, Property Care has been able to buck the trend - and are looking to continue its process of controlled growth.

“We’re actually expanding in a period when the building industry is clearly experiencing some difficulties,” said managing director Derek Beesley. “We are growing despite the current trend.”

Last year it reached a turnover of some £3.2 million, whilst this year they are on course to reach a turnover of £5.8 million.

This might suggest that the company is going for growth come hell or high water, but that is a false impression; the company is no believer in growth for growth’s sake. Therein lies the risk of overstretching one’s capabilities with the inherent risk of reducing quality. That is something the company is not prepared to do - quality is paramount to its success.

The leap ahead rests on the contracts it has secured with several housing associations operating in the area. These were won despite stiff competition against bigger players. As Beesley explains: “We’re two years into a £15.1 million contract with Charter Housing of a five-year programme of works. Part of the tender involved what they called a ‘Pathfinder’ - a pilot programme - where [Charter] measured the performance and delivery in eight key areas. We were up against the big boys throughout the OJEU tendering process and we outshone the four bigger companies.”

In addition to Charter Housing the company is also working in partnership on homes belonging to Shaftsbury Sanctuary Housing, and Cottsway Housing. The work is planned maintenance as part of the clients’ respective Decent Homes programmes.

“We’re currently working on about 30 properties per week on a rotational basis,” Beesley said. “We’re doing approximately 18 to 24 kitchens per week and around eight to 10 bathrooms a week. We pride ourselves on doing that work to a high standard taking no more than eight working days to carry out a full renovation of the kitchen.”

In terms of delivery, Charter is expecting Property Care to complete some 640 kitchens and 360 bathrooms per year. In total, the company is contracted to deliver around 1,000 new kitchens and 480 bathrooms per year.

The company employs around 60 staff, including both tradesmen and office staff. The former covers all the
trades, such as joiners, carpenters, electricians, plasterers, Corgi-registered gas fitters and plumbers.

As you might expect, it offers a full partnering service and works closely with tenants to ensure they are satisfied with the work. The company also maintains its own design and survey team who work in conjunction with its tenant liaison officers to ensure that the tenants get a product and service that suits.

“The most important person to us is the tenant,” said Beesley. “They are the people who we are working for, so we are totally tenant focused. Our tenant liaison officers work very closely with them to ensure that they are well looked after. In recent satisfaction surveys, we’ve been scoring 94 per cent. This is an excellent overall achievement.”

In addition to the planned maintenance work that Property Care carries out on behalf of its clients, the company also specialises in aids and adaptations refurbishments, making homes more accessible for people with special needs, or more general mobility issues such as those experienced by the elderly. On average it is carrying out around three special needs refurbishments a week.

Obviously, this kind of work requires particular focus and attention to detail, not to mention a particularly sensitive approach. Property Care handle these from start to finish to ensure the needs of the resident are met.

“We both design and install disabled kitchens and bathrooms,” Beesley said. “We have our own special team of designers who work closely with occupational therapists. We have a good working relationship with them and have gained a good reputation for the quality of the work we deliver. No two tenants are the same; they all have different special needs. Each individual tenant is unique.”

Away from the home, Property Care also does its bit as a responsible employer in the community, looking to provide suitable opportunities for both work experience and employment in the local area. It maintains good relationships with careers officers in local secondary schools, who refer interested pupils the company’s way for possible work experience. The company also maintains apprenticeships, with five apprentices on the books this year. The company’s staff also visits local special needs schools, where they provide informative sessions to pupils about carrying out tasks safely around the home.

It is this local focus, this local concern, which has kept the company grounded and in touch with the communities that it is itself a part of. In that way, it has maintained a secure footing that has allowed it to grow - carefully and constantly to the present day - and to look ahead with a degree of confidence to the future.

“To sustain the company it’s always been our goal to grow slowly. This year will see a significant but controlled growth,” said Beesley. “We can go out and take on lots more work, but we will only take on enough work where the level of quality will not be compromised. This is important because without this level of service we will not be able to expand. We are definitely not a company that is into growth for the sake of growth.”

And that attitude - born of a desire not to shirk on quality - goes a long way to explaining the growth in Property Care.