Next chapter for Emprise at British Library

17 December 2008

The British Library has renewed its support service’s contract with Emprise for the next five years to provide cleaning and associated services across its portfolio of sites in London and Yorkshire.

The British Library decided to re-award the contract to Emprise after a rigorous tender process. The new contract offered fixed costs for five years.

The partnership with The Library began in 2003 and this contract renewal extends the relationship to 2013. Emprise supply 50+ members of staff, across all sites. Services provided include; daily cleaning service, window and exterior cleaning, waste management, hygiene services, specialist cleaning and the provision of daytime housekeeping services.

“Emprise has consistently provided a professional service and has enthusiastically partnered with The Library to put into action some great schemes, such as better recycling facilities, which have improved recycling from 25 per cent to 58 per cent in the last 12 months”, said David Read, Head of Customer Services at The British Library. “Emprise’s excellent tender submission that was clearly ahead of its competition, coupled with continued competitive pricing were the key reasons why we re-awarded the contract when it came up for tender this year.”

Lesley Shearman, Managing Director – Retail and Leisure Division, at Emprise commented: “As part of the tender process we offered some new and exciting ideas. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with The British Library and building on our work so far.”

“A significant feature of the new contract is extending a daytime housekeeping service to all locations with a move away from the traditional late evening clean. A new range of performance requirements and management measures are also being introduced to reflect the change in the needs of The Library since the existing contract was put in place five years ago.”

Founded in 1986, Emprise is an independent support services company offering a range of integrated services built around a core offering cleaning and security. They have a turnover in excess of £65 million, and employ over 5,000 colleagues delivering multiple services to clients on a national basis.

Clients include Waitrose, M&S, E.ON, David Lloyd Leisure, Herbert Smith, AIG, The British Library and Eurotunnel.

In May 2007 the company restructured and now operates three divisions, each supported by its own Managing Director.