PROFILE NJC (NOT JUST CLEANING)
LONDON CALLING
Paul Crilly, Managing Director of NJC, talks to Sara Bean about the
rationale EehinG the relocation of its heaG oƝ ce to /onGonƉs 9ictoria
anG Zhat it signifi es for the fXtXre of the coPpany
NJC (Not Just Cleaning) specialises
in providing commercial
cleaning and support services including
window cleaning, rope access, specialist
cleaning, public realm cleaning, waste
management and janitorial to mainly bluechip
clients. The company recently made
the bold decision to relocate its head o ice
to Central London, retaining a regional
support facility in Wokingham, Berkshire.
It’s unusual to hear about any organisation
heading into the capital, and even more
surprising to find a service company take up
residence in such a glamorous location as the
Zig Zag building. The development, which is
part of Landsec’s £2 billion transformation of
London’s Victoria, opened in 2015, and went
on to win the best o ice building at the World
Architecture Festival 2016. We sat down with
MD Paul Crilly to ask, what prompted such a
move when the majority of service suppliers
tend to opt for out-of-town locations such as
business parks?
24 APRIL 2019
The impetus, he says, was deciding to
take advantage of building lease breaks
to completely rethink its plans. “We had a
desire to do something quite di erent, and
once we started on that journey we had a
perfect storm of opportunity. Our space in
London was pretty basic, and not the best
environment for colleagues. The lease in
Winnersh was up for renewal, and with 80
per cent of our revenue coming from Greater
London customers, we decided there was a
compelling reason to be in London, as close
as possible to many of our key customers.
“That’s why we decided to switch things
around, and have a regional support
business, based in Wokingham, while
moving our head o ice to London. We’re
really fortunate to have very large contracts,
within which the bulk of our workforce is
embedded. The head o ice operates as a
support function to them and we need to be
as e ective as we can be – and simply get
smarter.”