The company was chosen following a competitive tender process, with the contract award based on MITIE’s “detailed understanding of key security risks” associated with the aviation industry.
Birmingham Airport is one of the UK’s foremost international airports and is home to 50 airlines flying to over 140 direct global destinations.
The site necessarily requires a detailed management operation to safeguard the security and integrity of the facility and help support the airport company, airlines, tour operators, tenants, handling agencies, passengers and other customers alike.
The new contract will see MITIE controlling airside access at the staff gates, immigration gates at the UK Border, airside vehicular access control and airside patrols.
Additional duties will also be covered when needed, such as resources for passenger search, aircraft and building search, airside escort duties for VIPs and emergency vehicles and the management of building evacuations, bomb threats and other emergency procedures.
Commenting on the contract award, Tony Medhurst (managing director of MITIE’s aviation and transport security business) said: “We’re delighted to be providing security services to Birmingham Airport. Our experience in the aviation and transport industry makes us the perfect partner for this project.”
David Winstanley, operations director at Birmingham Airport, added: “MITIE has great experience with airports around the country, and we look forward to working with the team to provide security services for Birmingham.”
Support services industry “vital” to UK economic growth, states MITIE Group CEO
MITIE Group CEO Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE delivered the guest speech at this year’s Think FM Conference, held in central London.
McGregor-Smith stressed the significance of the FM industry to the UK economy and also highlighted the importance of people, entrepreneurialism, innovation and sustainability to MITIE.
Her speech follows the recent release of MITIE’s annual results which showed strong revenue and earnings growth, with revenues up 5.9% to GB pound 2,002.5 million and operating profit before other items increasing by 7.2% to GB pound 111.7 million.
Here are some of the key quotes from the speech…
“The support services industry is still a relatively new industry in the UK, yet is now almost as big as the financial services sector, generating around 8% of the UK’s total economic output and employing roughly 10% of the British workforce. All of us have a job in communicating the importance of this sector to the wider public and showing how it plays a positive role in the UK economy.”
“I think that outsourcing has a huge role to play in the ongoing recovery of the UK economy. Providing better quality, more innovative services in a more efficient way is what outsourcing does – or at least, should always try to do.”
“Outsourcing is a people business and, with 63,000 employees, MITIE is passionate about providing every individual with the opportunity to grow and succeed in their careers. We operate a number of schemes, including MITIE Stars and MITIE Awards, to encourage people to fulfill their potential whether they are a maintenance engineer or a graduate on a management scheme.”
“Entrepreneurialism and equity incentivisation is at the heart of what MITIE is and how it grew into a GB pound 2 billion company. Our start-up model, which involves investing in budding entrepreneurs with an idea, keeps us young, fresh, non-corporate and is a central tenet of our growth strategy.”
“Businesses must be willing to take risks – on ideas, people and time – in order to realise the potential benefits. Encouraging an entrepreneurial culture where everyone’s ideas for growth are considered and given the opportunity to be explored is very important at MITIE. For example, we recently hosted an event called MITIE Millions in which we invited all 63,000 of our staff to put forward their ideas for growth and pitch for millions of pounds worth of start-up capital.”
“Facilities management may be a new industry, but it’s highly competitive and we must constantly innovate in new areas such as energy services in order to stay ahead. This goes beyond service delivery for our clients. Something as simple as social media is already playing an important role in how MITIE’s staff communicate with one another.”
“We’ve always thought doing the right thing provides tangible value to our clients, and also wider society. Our energy services are not only saving our clients millions of pounds, but they are also preventing hundreds of tonnes of carbon filling the atmosphere.”
“But it’s not just about the environment. New technology in areas such as de-centralised energy is allowing us to save our clients’ money and contribute to the well-being of wider society through district housing energy schemes that provide cheaper fuel to those in energy poverty.”
“MITIE’s vision is to be a company of world class people delivering world class services. We want to be the best outsourcer in the UK, saving our clients energy and money while also contributing to a more sustainable environment, making a contribution to wider society and developing our employees as individuals. To achieve this we need to stay ahead of the game, and as we look forward we will continue to innovate and come up with better solutions for our clients.”
