For most retail parks in the UK, on-site management is limited to employing a car park operator to look after the surface car park.
But for The Junction, a division of Capital & Regional and owner of a large retail park portfolio in the UK, on-site management as well as a clearly defined FM role has been key to its high level of customer service over the last four years.
Head of operations Peter Collinson was brought in to find a solution for the portfolio, which was at the time using about six different managing agents - equating to 10 or 12 different individuals managing the whole portfolio. "The service was inconsistent," says Collinson. "The tenants on site are our customers so if there is a B&Q on one site, you expect them to have the same service on another site, so we decided to bring the management in-house and that's when they brought me in.
"We had more than 180 contractors all on different types of contract and different service agreements. There were different costs so the service charges were running at different levels. So we looked at how to make that more effective and at regionalising, nationalising and localising contracts so that we could deliver a better level of service at a lower cost."
Collinson explains that three separate regions within the portfolio were created - North UK for Scotland, Mid UK from Hull down to Oxford, including Wales, and South UK for everywhere else. Services such as security, cleaning and car park management were regionalised with Town and City Parking taking the contract in Scotland; Euro Car Parks, trading as ECPfm taking Mid UK; and AEJ Management taking the South UK. The landscaping contracts were localised to individual retail parks, while services such as M&E maintenance, electrical maintenance, pest control and drainage were put on a national contract, so that each retail park has the same national contractor for each service. As a result the number of sub-contractors was reduced from 180 to about 50.
"What that equates to is getting more control and working closer with contractors, as they understand what you require," says Collinson. "We work in partnership; we grow together and we're more cost effective, so our service charge budgets reduce significantly. We run 10 per cent below the Jones Lang LaSalle Retail Park OSCAR recommended service charge level for our sector.
"Also, we've been able to set longer-term contracts. A lot of our prices are fixed so our customers know what they're getting for the next three years. As the market is more difficult that helps them because that cost will remain the same or similar for that fixed period."
As part of its drive to improve service delivery, The Junction has been moving towards achieving the Park Mark award for all the car parks in its portfolio.
"We're just about to complete getting that on every site across the estate," says Collinson. "I'm pretty confident we're the first out-of-town landlord in the UK to achieve that. It's great because it's something we've all been working towards and it's a stamp of approval that we've been creating safe, secure, clean and tidy environments where the crime figures have been directly reduced through our approach."
The Park Mark award for The Junction's Morfa Shopping Park in Swansea was a key accolade, as for years Swansea has been a blackspot for car crime. Working with its on-site car park management consultant, ECPfm, The Junction put measures in place to proactively deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour at Morfa, including urging shoppers to ensure their vehicles are left secure and that no valuable items are left visible inside the vehicle.
ECPfm will also be exercising greater control over the car park on match days, in order to ensure that there is space for shoppers. In addition, a CCTV system installed across the estate utilises a PA system with sensors linked to a control room, and has greatly improved the security of each site.
However, when it comes to measuring performance, it's the tenants views that count, so The Junction introduced an independent customer (tenant) survey at both head office and store level to measure all levels of service charge budget and delivery - for example what tenants thought of security and whether the park is clean and tidy. This was carried out before the changes were made and has been implemented each year since then. The initial survey set the benchmark level from which to work from.
"We have just had our fourth survey back, and year-on-year the service has improved," says Collinson. From a base level of 5.5 out of 10, the level rose to 6.4 in year one, then to 7.0 in year two and then up to 7.3. It is now sustaining that level.
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=== Simple, sensible synergy ===
CP Plus has recently broadened its car park management service to include all cleaning, security and, where necessary, landscaping of the car park.
This facilities management service is designed particularly for retail parks. Development director Grahame Rose explains: "Retail parks tend not to have a centre manager but they require service providers to carry out various duties, such as emptying litter bins, sweeping up, default reports and gritting in the winter. It's something we've started to provide. Where we are helping customers with the car park there's a synergy with cleaning services, so we'll provide a manager that will direct staff to do the duties.
"We're currently working closely with British Land's Borehamwood retail park and Prospect Place retail park in Dartford. They've found that it's a service that makes sense. If you need car park management services of some sort then that provider might just as well supply simple FM services. Then, there's just one management fee for the whole lot."
