Business Services

Building service contractors industry: Fighting recession by increasing service offerings

In the last three years, the building service contractors (BSCs) industry has witnessed significant growth in the U.S. market. While contract pricing may have increased marginally, the industry has expanded with continuing outsourcing trends, according to the SERVICE magazine’s annual industry survey conducted on building service contractors.

The increasing outsourcing of building services by education and manufacturing sectors has helped expand the market in the recent past. Although the businesses in general have slashed their workforce due to the current economic crisis, there has been a considerable surge in outsourcing of facilities that have conventionally been in-house. The major reason for the increased outsourcing may be the expansion of business and addition of offices and building space. Yet another reason could be the surge in the number of services provided. In the current scenario, the contractors are asked to do more than trash removal, and they are expanding their portfolio of services by including services such as parking lot maintenance, drain maintenance and light duty construction, etc.

The biggest trend that has emerged out of the survey is the increasing interest in green cleaning and developing ways to minimize cleaning’s impact on the environment. While many industry professionals are of the view that money is the reason behind the increase in this trend, some argue that new viruses such as MRSA, C Diff and flu pandemic have overshadowed the need to cut budgets. ‘Green cleaning’ has become the new mantra. It has radically changed the mindset on how the industry has to function.

As regards the outlook for the industry, majority of the survey respondents opined that the sector would start growing at a rapid pace once the economy stages a complete recovery. Competition in the industry is expected to remain stiff and demand for building service contractors would increase. “Clients will be looking to BSCs to see how they can clean more efficiently and effectively while maintaining costs at the current level”, said one contractor.