FM Weekly: Takeovers, New Contracts and the Changing Cost of Outsourcing

Ownership changes, a new government framework settling in, fresh estates data and a busy month for employment law: the week’s FM and procurement news, with a view on what each story means for those who buy the services.

This week’s theme was who owns the supply base. Four acquisitions were announced in five days, and the largest deal of the year, OCS’s takeover of Mitie, is still waiting for the competition regulator. Alongside that, two notable contract awards, more suppliers joining the Government Commercial Agency’s new FM framework, useful published data on university and NHS estates, and a run of Employment Rights Act dates that will shape labour costs on FM contracts into the new year.

Market and ownership

OCS and Mitie: still waiting on the CMA

The Competition and Markets Authority’s invitation to comment on OCS’s £3.1bn takeover of Mitie closed on 29 September. Its case page, last updated on 30 September, still showed the inquiry at pre-notification, with the formal phase 1 launch and decision deadline yet to be set. Mitie shareholders backed the scheme on 16 September with 99.74% of votes cast at the court meeting, and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027. OCS’s offer document says service arrangements and account relationships are expected to continue unchanged, while some overlapping corporate roles and sites may be consolidated.

FM Talks view: Mitie holds around 3,000 contracts, including FM at more than 40 NHS trusts, so a large number of clients will have a new ultimate owner within six months. Now is the time to read your change of control, key personnel and data clauses, and to record a baseline of cost and performance from your own contract data before any integration begins.

Sodexo buys Olive

Sodexo has acquired Olive, a Warwickshire independent caterer founded in 2004, with about 1,000 staff and around 150 contract clients. Sodexo describes the deal as strengthening its UK workplace offer. No price was disclosed.

FM Talks view: Clients often choose an independent caterer for its size and the founders’ personal attention. Those clients should ask early, and in writing, what will change in management, purchasing and menus over the next two years.

WPS, Cardo and EverGrowth: consolidation in the mid-market

WPS has bought Calibre Building Services, a Surrey-based provider of about 200 people, taking WPS to roughly 3,400 staff. Cardo Group has acquired Aspect Group Services, a Norfolk roofing, renewables and building maintenance firm founded in 1972. A new buy-and-build platform, EverGrowth, has secured a £22m senior debt facility from OakNorth, alongside investment from Four Leaf Capital, to acquire founder-led FM businesses across hard services, soft services, waste and critical services.

FM Talks view: The regional and specialist firms that many smaller public and private clients depend on are being drawn into larger groups. That can bring investment, but it can also reduce the number of genuine bidders at retender. Buyers should know how many credible alternatives they have before their next procurement, not during it.

Contracts

Elior takes on catering and retail at Whittington Hospital

Whittington Health NHS Trust has appointed Elior UK on a multi-year contract covering the hospital’s food court, a new staff restaurant, coffee and deli outlets, a retail shop, smart vending and a courtyard refurbishment for staff, patients and visitors. The design builds on the hospital’s existing dementia-friendly approach. Neither the value nor the term has been published.

FM Talks view: NHS retail catering is increasingly bought as a staff and visitor experience, which makes the specification and the measures of success as important as the commercial model. Trusts letting similar contracts should define what good looks like in their own terms (footfall, staff use, satisfaction, income share) and record a starting position so that performance can be judged against it.

Mitie wins Airbus security contract

Mitie began a multi-year integrated security contract for Airbus UK on 1 October, covering seven sites and around 300 staff. The service includes aviation and site security, emergency response, vetting and control room operations, intelligence support from Mitie’s security operations centre and a 13-month Level 2 apprenticeship for security officers.

FM Talks view: Mitie continues to win significant work while the OCS takeover is pending, which suggests clients should expect business development and bidding to carry on as normal. The apprenticeship element is worth noting: workforce development commitments are easy to include in a bid and harder to track afterwards, so make sure they appear in the contract’s reporting.

Procurement

Churchill joins the GCA’s FM and security framework

Churchill has been appointed to the soft FM lot of the Government Commercial Agency’s Facilities Management and Security Services framework, RM6378, covering cleaning, front of house, waste, grounds maintenance and hygiene services. The framework went live on 19 August, replaces RM6232 and RM6257, and runs under the Procurement Act 2023. It is an open framework of up to eight years in total, with 11 sub-lots across total FM, hard FM, soft FM and security, and buyers can run competitions or award directly. Prices are not published and must be requested from the GCA.

FM Talks view: Public buyers now have a broad new route to market that includes many regional and specialist suppliers as well as the large names, which partly offsets the consolidation described above. A framework only helps if the call-off specification is clear, though. Buyers who arrive with good data on their current service (volumes, costs, asset condition and performance) will get sharper, more comparable bids than those relying on the framework to do the work for them.

Estates evidence

University estates: bigger, but using less energy

Bidvest Noonan’s analysis of HESA estates data for 95 UK higher education providers finds that estates were 9.7% larger in 2024/25 than in 2015/16, while total energy use was 5.8% lower and reported scope 1 and 2 emissions were 37% lower. The analysis also notes that reported cost per square metre varies widely, even between providers in the same region.

FM Talks view: That variation is the most useful finding for estates directors. A regional average tells you little about whether your own FM contract offers value, because estates differ in age, use and specification. The better question is how your own costs and performance have moved over time, and why.

Medway NHS FT brings its fire risk records together

Medway NHS Foundation Trust is using BIS Consult’s BIS Lens system to bring fire risk assessment information, previously held in many separate documents, into estate-wide dashboards for its Fire Safety Group. The trust says early analysis showed that a single estate-wide approach to cabling issues would cost less than several individual repairs.

FM Talks view: This is a practical example of the golden thread at work, and of better investment decisions coming from information the client already owned but could not see as a whole. Most estates hold more evidence than they use. The first step is usually to organise what is already there before commissioning anything new.

Regulation watch

Employment Rights Act: the October to January run

Several Employment Rights Act 2025 measures are now arriving in quick succession. Employment tribunal time limits rose from three to six months for acts on or after 1 October. From 30 October, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, protection against third-party harassment widens to most other protected characteristics, and new trade union measures take effect. Regulations reinstating the two-tier workforce code for outsourced public services are expected this month, although no date has been confirmed. From 1 January 2027, the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls to six months and the compensation cap is removed.

Right to Work reaches further

Changes to the Right to Work regime took effect on 1 October, extending employer responsibilities to additional working arrangements. For FM providers, the practical question is whether they can see everyone working across client sites, including agency, temporary and subcontracted staff who may have arrived by informal routes.

FM Talks view: FM is a labour-intensive service, so these changes will find their way into suppliers’ costs, risk allowances and price review requests. Clients should expect the conversation and prepare for it: understand your contract’s change in law and price adjustment mechanisms, ask suppliers to show the specific cost impact rather than a general uplift, and check that your contract gives you visibility of the full supply chain on your sites, including subcontractors.

The week in perspective

One thing links almost every story this week: the value of knowing your own position. Clients whose supplier is changing hands, trusts specifying a new catering service, public bodies calling off from a new framework and estates teams facing labour cost pressures will all be in a stronger position if they hold clear evidence of what their current contract costs and delivers. Experience has taught me that this evidence, drawn from your own contract rather than an industry average, is the most reliable benchmark you will have when the market around you is moving.

Questions to reflect on

1. If your FM provider changed ownership in the next six months, what would your contract allow you to require of the new owner?
2. How many credible bidders would you realistically have if you retendered your main FM contract next year?
3. When your supplier raises the cost of new employment legislation, will you have the data to test the figure?