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Year: 2024

New premises for Q3 in Guernsey

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3’s fast-growing business in the Channel Islands has moved to new premises in Guernsey.

The new location overlooks the marina in St Sampsons, providing a far more suitable base for serving the growing number of commercial and domestic contracts across the island.

You can find us next to Vets for Pets, by the Bridge, in the building previously occupied by YESSS Electrical.

The full address is:

Mont Crevelt House
South Quay
St Sampson
Guernsey
GY2 4LH

If you have any questions feel free to give Ken or one of the team a call on 700600 (our number is unchanged).

Personal and professional development strengthens the team

Posted on by Ian Adams

At Q3, we have always supported lifelong learning, training, apprenticeships, and personal and professional development. We believe it’s important that people across the business, in whatever role, can pursue their ambitions and realise their career and life goals.

All the directors have pledged their commitment to supporting any individual who makes this choice, and we will provide the time, freedom and mentoring support necessary, for them to take up the challenge.

We see it as an investment not only in the person but also in the company. After all, learning and development underpins Q3’s values, helping to create the quality people who will deliver the quality services, to ultimately create quality workplaces that keep the client happy.

We believe that Q3 has a remarkable record of taking individuals from one role and creating new career opportunities for them, sometimes in a completely different discipline. Across the business, we have a growing cohort of individuals in a wide range of roles who are already on that journey.

Here’s an interesting personal experience from Paul Courtney, our HR Advisor, who has successfully taken the academic route to CIPD qualifications and is already working on the next step and a new goal.

Paul Courtney graduates with CIPD L5 Associate Diploma in People Management.

Paul Courtney graduation

“I had started my L5 5 CIPD as a paid course, however, the experience I received was not a great one, so I discussed with my HR Director about undertaking my L5 CIPD as an apprenticeship. I was slightly apprehensive about starting My L5 CIPD apprenticeship, especially as I was the first employee to start an apprenticeship with Q3 Services, as I felt all eyes would be on me. However, having spoken to Debbie from Chichester College on how they deliver the qualification and also my HR Director Lucy Hayes, all my reservations were addressed. A positive impact for the business, is that I was able to broaden and strengthen our apprenticeship provision across all Q3’s businesses.

“During the qualification, I attended Chichester College most Thursdays to learn various topics. I really enjoyed the employment law subject, especially as this would help me further within my role, for example dealing with TUPE arrangements, as this is a part with my role at Q3. The topics were delivered through the skilful teaching of both Debbie Tizzard and Louise Breinholt, and this enabled me to work closer with the support of Q3 to think outside the box in the delivery of HR, through the embedding of theory into practice.

“It would be silly not to mention my hopes for the future from completing this qualification. I hope that as the business to continues to grow, so I can move into a strategic element of the role or even into management.

“I want to mention a few people on the Q3 Services board, especially Lucy, and thank them for their support and allowing me time to step away from the business to learn in an environment that best suits me.

“Friends and family, thank you for your patience when I had to kindly decline the invitation to go out with you all.

“Adam for checking my work, as I do like to waffle and would often find myself over the word count.

“Marco, my faithful four-legged friend, who would sit with me until 2am, whilst I wrote my assignments or had moments of self-doubt.

“What now? Well… having completed my L5 and graduated I have started my L3 apprenticeship in Payroll Management!”

 

Twinkle of Christmas!

Posted on by Ian Adams

The Q3 housekeeping and engineering teams at Chelsea Harbour have been working full-on in recent weeks, preparing for the official opening of the “Twinkle of Christmas” festivities at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour.

The spectacular, official opening on Tuesday 1st December featured readings, music and the generous support of a host of exciting names, adding to the Christmas sparkle, including a few of the Q3 team!

Tuesday 3rd December includes a programme of special Christmas experiences, creative workshops and inspiring demonstrations. Book online, and come on down to enjoy the kind of special day that only the Design Centre offers!

This year the team was assisted in the build programme by engineering apprentice Ronnie Bellew, who was completing his work experience and is the son of our Chief Operating Officer, Stuart Bellew. Ronnie enjoyed working at such an iconic London location and was delighted to be part of the Twinkle build up.

 

Putting a sustainable shine on The Square

Posted on by Ian Adams

Putting a sustainable shine on The Square

As part of Q3’s commitment to working sustainably, the company has adopted an environmentally friendly cleaning technology across many of its large contracts, including The Square shopping centre in Camberley.

The Toucan Eco system is used for virtually all hard surface cleaning across the shopping centre, replacing several conventional, chemical products that were used historically.

The cleaning solution is created on site using a special Active Plus device which produces 20 litre batches of water-based cleaner, at a time. This is then distributed around the site in re-usable bottles or containers – an approach that drastically reduces both the use of single-use plastics, and the carbon cost normally associated with shipping ready-mixed chemicals to site.

Once mixed, the solution has a shelf life of about a week, cleaning and sanitising surfaces and killing up to 99.999% of all germs. The same solution used for wiping hard surfaces is also used through the scrubber-drier that operates along the floors of the shopping centre. One product does everything, so there is no opportunity for someone to accidentally using the wrong product for any particular application.

The cleaning operatives like Miriam love it too because it’s virtually harmless, so there’s no risk of chemicals being inhaled or spills causing skin conditions. It’s made the wearing of PPE superfluous.

Speaking about the benefits of Toucan Eco, Q3 Operations Director, Luis Lopes, said, “This innovation has delivered a revolution in the way we work, reducing costs, improving health and safety, while reducing carbon emissions and plastic waste. It’s a winner all round!”

Top marks from the mystery shopper!!!

Posted on by Ian Adams

Mystery shopping is a technique used extensively in the retail sector to help organisations understand their customers’ experiences and identify potential areas for improvement in the quality of service delivery.

It’s a process that the Praxis Retail Management Team at The Square shopping centre in Camberley have been deploying across the site for some time. The third-party mystery shopper embarks on a series of approaches each month, to test the reaction and response of the centre team via The Square’s phone service, website, social media accounts and through personal site visits.

From Q3’s perspective, it’s the site visits and face-to-face encounters that present the big challenge. The mystery shopper can turn up at any time and will be checking the centre surreptitiously for cleanliness, safety, wayfinding, availability of facilities, sources of information, and visibility of staff.

The mystery shopper may also approach one of the cleaning or security team randomly for help, information or assistance on any manner of subject. “Where are the toilets? Where can I get something to eat? What time do you close tonight?”

So, our team needs to be well briefed to have the right answers and trained in a way to ensure that requests are dealt with politely and efficiently. Recent result have proved very encouraging. During August and September, overall scores have exceeded 96% across all the channels tested by the mystery shopper, with some scores of 100% achieved for the face-to-face encounters.

Commenting on the positive feedback from the mystery shopper programme, Gavin Vidler Shopping Centre Manager said, “The Q3 cleaning and security staff out on the centre floor are our front-line partners responsible for personal, customer engagement. These results indicate that everyone is working as a team to ensure that customer experience at The Square is being delivered to a high standard, that will keep people returning time after time.”

Q3’s sustainable business model pays dividends

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3 is reporting another successful year’s trading, having finalised its 2023-24 annual accounts and completed its sixth year of successive growth in the facilities management sector.

During this period, the combined UK and Channel Islands business has met all its operational and financial KPIs, in relation to turnover, gross margin, profit and EBITDA.

Q3 secured a number of substantial new contracts and contract extensions in the twelve-month period, which have contributed to the company’s significant growth. These include new business wins with Fort Cumberland (Historic England), the Gateway Academy in Westminster, video game developer, Double Eleven and an extension to the nationwide IFM contract with Maximus. A new island-wide cleaning contract in the education sector in Jersey, has similarly boosted the company’s operational presence in the Channel Islands.

The company’s record on retention is also remarkably strong, with no significant losses reported, and the company reporting an NPS score of 50, a measure of the levels of customer satisfaction being achieved.

The organisation, which originally described itself as a boutique FM company, now has revenues well in excess of £20m, and for the first time, finds itself operating amongst the Top 50 UK FM companies. Q3 recently moved to a new head office facility near Reading to accommodate this expansion and to satisfy anticipated, future growth ambitions.

Despite this rapid company expansion Q3 also continues to make great strides towards achieving its Net Zero target, with reported CO2 emissions in 2024 reduced by 65% over the previous year.

Commenting on the results, CEO Martyn Freeman, said, “I am delighted with our progress. We established Q3 to operate on the principle that Quality People, will deliver Quality Services to create Quality Workplaces. It’s a sustainable business model that has underpinned our approach and allowed us to continue our successful record of growth, year-on-year. If we continue to attract new clients and retain and enhance existing contracts on this scale, we will realise our ambition to establish Q3 as a major player in the UK facilities market.”

Maximus helps solve Q3’s recruitment challenge

Posted on by Ian Adams

Q3 recently announced an extension of its facilities management contract with Maximus to 2028, extending across some 160 locations.

In an interesting twist, Maximus, the specialist health and employability service organisation has in turn, been supporting Q3 on its cleaning contract with the London Borough of Redbridge.

When our own recruitment efforts could not identify a suitable candidate for the challenging role of Cleaning Supervisor at Aldersbrook school in Wanstead, Rona Nicoll, Maximus’s Engagement Advisor for Adult Skills Funding, stepped in.

Working with Chris Finch the Q3 Contract Manager, Rona placed an advert for the role, screened suitable applicants and came up trumps with prime candidate Dorota Jazebek. Dorota has already settled quickly into her new role and is now a valued and much-liked member of the team.

Rona explained, “Maximus works directly with the London business community to open doors to meaningful employment for people with disabilities, by enhancing their skills through our fully funded courses. Over the past few months, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Q3, helping their employees gain new skills and access to opportunities. Q3 shows both a strong dedication to inclusion and disability support and a commitment to employee development, which suits us perfectly.”

Chris Finch of Q3 said, “Rona and Claire Roberts, Maximus’ Operations Director, have been so helpful and have a wealth of knowledge on the resources available to help disadvantaged people into employment. We have always sought to create a supportive and inclusive environment for our workforce, and this is a value that Maximus and Q3 share. This is certainly a partnership we want to build on!”

 

Amy Hossin promoted to Finance Manager

Posted on by Ian Adams

We are delighted to announce that Amy Hossin has been promoted to Finance Manager of Q3’s Technical Services business, starting 1st November.

Since joining Q3, Amy has demonstrated strong financial skills, analysis and technical ability on top of her excellent people skills.

Commenting on the promotion, Business Director Lian Kockelbergh said, “Amy is in the early stage of her career but it has been obvious from the outset that she had amazing potential and a very bright future ahead. We are delighted to see her progress within the finance team and congratulate her on her new role!”

New Head office for Q3

Posted on by Ian Adams

We are pleased to announce that Q3 has moved to new head office premises, based near Reading:

Q3
Merlin House,
Brunel Road,
Reading,
West Berkshire, RG7 4AB

The move has been prompted by the substantial expansion of our business in the last couple of years and will meet our anticipated future requirements, as we continue to grow.

All clients and suppliers should now have received letters confirming the new address for correspondence, and our website contact page has also been updated. Phone numbers remain unchanged.

Coinciding with this move, we are also announcing that we have changed the trading name of Newtons Group Limited to Q3 Technical Services Limited. We ask that all clients previously dealing with this legal entity, please update their systems with this new name and postal address if they have not already done so.

Please note our registered office remains the same:
7/8 Innovation Place,
Douglas Drive,
Godalming,
Surrey, GU7 1JX

A full list of all Q3’s trading businesses may be found on the privacy notice on our website.

 

Congratulations Fabio – Young Leader Award Finalist

Posted on by Ian Adams

We are pleased to announce that Fabio Goncalves, Assistant Contract Manager on our Salesforce contract, is a finalist in the Young Leaders Award 2024, organised by the Emerging Workplace Leaders Group and PfM magazine.

Fabio has worked hard to reach the final, first submitting a written summary of his career to date and his aspirations for his future in FM, and then facing a tough panel interview with representatives of the Emerging Workplace Leaders group.

Finally, Fabio and the two other finalists were invited to a further nerve-wracking presentation in London where, in front of an audience of 40 FM peers and professionals, they had to elaborate on their ideas for making FM a more attractive career opportunity for young people.

Fabio’s own route into FM is not untypical of many, who fell into FM by accident. While still a graduate studying for a degree in Computer Science (Games Programming), Fabio took a part-time job on the helpdesk of the FM team running events at Ascot racecourse. When he graduated, he kept in touch with the management team and developed in quick order through a series of full-time roles in Q3, to his current position.

Well, now all the hard work is done, and the judges have made their decision. All that remains is for Fabio and the Q3 team to endure the nervous wait until Wednesday November 6th, when the result will be announced at the prestigious PfM Awards in London. You will find Fabio on the Q3 table with his band of very loud, raucous supporters. Go Fabio!