Susan Gordon, Business Reporter
The Eureka Road headquarters of Manpower and Maintenance Services Limited. The company which employs 1,800 is moving to deploy better technology throughout its operations. - File
Jamaica's largest office-cleaning service, Manpower and Maintenance Services Limited, is designing a new operational structure under a $200 million plan to drive efficiency and boost income and profit.
Chief Executive Officer, Audrey Hinchcliffe, says she has already pumped $50 million into the company - a combination of loan financing and equity from family members - to kickstart the 'path to profit' programme.
Financial adviser Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) is looking into the local and overseas market to raise the capital, Hinchliffe told the Financial Gleaner.
The company, which employs 1,800, has not only rearranged its internal departments and organisational structure but is also beefing up its investments in the two year old Institute for Workforce Education and Development (IWED) - considered an affiliate company - to to tap the corporate training market, starting yearend.
IWED, said Hinchliffe, is meant to be an income earner and a major source of revenue for Manpower.
"We are cleaning up our act because this is the 21st century," Hinchliffe told the Financial Gleaner in an interview at Manpower's head office on Eureka Road in Kingston earlier this week.
"The departments and things were all over the place so now we have discreet groupings," she said.
Some positions have been weeded out to simply what Hincliffe called the company's unwieldy structure.
"We have progressed to the point where we had to halt because the business started to drag us along and we were losing focus."
Manpower is a 17-year-old company, but was barely known in its nascent years.
The company started being noticed by corporate Jamaica after its relocation to Eureka Road several years ago.
Now it grosses a little under $500 million in revenue, having expanded beyond its core business as a cleaning service. Monthly earnings is about $40 million, but expenses, including high labour costs keeps profits elusive, says Hinchcliffe.
Manpower's offerings include janitorial consultancy and trainers, pest control, office maintenance, carpet cleaning, building maintenance, placement agency, and provision of handymen, housekeeping and porters. Hinchcliffe said the company receives up to 80 calls per month both locally and from overseas and has had to set up a small call centre in the 14,000 square feet head office to screen potential clients and subcontract jobs to other companies.
But now Manpower sees revenue potential in its training arm. Seven more classrooms are being added to the existing four at the IWED centre, which is located on the company's complex.
IWED, which Hinchcliffe believes can grow as fast as its parent, Manpower, is going after the training and corporate meetings market, with bigger and better facilities and courses certified by HEART Trust/NTA and its associated agency NCTVET, the City Guild, and Life Long Learning, formerly JAMAL.
IWED is also recognised by the Ministry of Education as an independent school, which allows it to offer high school courses, including those set by CXC.
"We train people to put in jobs," said Hinchcliffe. But the company also provides space for institutions and companies to run their own courses.
"We'll be renting space to UCC and others who have already expressed an interest to use our classrooms. We are aiming for masters level programmes and corporate meetings."
Lecturers for the school are contracted.
Meantime, Hinchcliffe said the bulk of the $50 million now being spent is going into the upgrading of the company's fleet and equipment.
"We have 13 vehicles, but it's not so much the size of the fleet but quality we want to change," she said.
"Our pest control equipment is very old. These two areas are where most of the $50 million would go."
Beyond seeking out bigger incomes, Manpower's aim is also to modernise.
"We are revamping the way we do things. Mop and broom are done with. 3M is here," said Hinchcliffe. "We are getting away from that and it costs money."
To this end she has had consultants Glen McLeish, the former managing director of JMMB Securities Limited, working since February on a plan to reorganise the company's finances, while Dr. Henley Morgan has been assisting with the organisational structure.
Manpower's eight client service units have been cut to five, while customer service managers, formerly site administrators, have been put in charge of servicing large client accounts.
Hinchliffe said this would ensure that clients are not subsumed in the operation, which has 240 service locations islandwide, but would have direct contact with a representative for a more personalised service.
Some of Manpower's larger clients include Cable and Wireless Jamaica, Spanish Town Hospital, Jamaica's two international airports, Nestlé Jamaica, APM Terminals Limited, and the United States Embassy - each with different type of contracts.
Hinchcliffe, whose face is synonymous with her company, says she is trying to make the company less 'me' focussed.
Maintenance and logistics are also under one unit. The human resource division, which was formerly the portfolio of the site administrators, has been strengthened and the department now includes payroll. That change is meant to foster greater internal control of finances.
"The biggest area of fraud is in payroll. We have persons who have left who are still getting paid," said Hinchcliffe.
"Last year alone, Manpower grew by 19 per cent in terms of clients and revenue and we still are not profitable because the cost of labour is high," she told the Financial Gleaner. Manpower, which cut 14 positions last year, now has some 1,800 staff on payroll.
Hinchcliffe has been planning to take the company public and list on the stock market.
But that, she said, is a $150 million project that has had to be shelved, but is not too far from the front burner. She said the company would not go public until it becomes more profitable.
susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com
