Lenexa-based City Wide Facility Solutions ended 2020 on a high note, with about $390 million in systemwide revenue — a roughly 34% increase from the prior year.
The revenue boost also facilitated the need to hire about 4,500 contractors.
“Our biggest accomplishment is not just the increase in revenue, but it’s the impact we have on those families,” City Wide CEO Jeff Oddo told the Kansas City Business Journal.
City Wide, which started franchising in 2001, is a management company for commercial facility maintenance. It handles a variety of facility services, such as janitorial, roof repair, mold remediation and electrostatic disinfectant spraying.
Oddo credited last year’s success to the company’s “amazing business model” and ability to attract top-notch talent. Because it contracts out facility services, it can focus on a client’s big-picture needs.
“Our business model is myopically focused on saving people time and solving their problems,” he said.
Encountering hurdles
Early in the pandemic, the company faced challenges as a number of commercial buildings temporarily shuttered. To ease the burden on franchisees, City Wide deferred expenses for several months, including royalties, national advertising fees and call center costs. City Wide also put a premium on communication and held weekly virtual calls with franchisees to keep them abreast of “the good, the bad and the ugly,” Oddo said.
The transparent communication and deferred expenses also prevented franchisees from laying off employees, he said.
Finding growth
Despite offices closing, a number of businesses remained open during the pandemic and faced a heightened need for keeping employees and customers safe. City Wide was ahead of the game because it already offered electrostatic disinfectant spraying, thanks mainly to its medical facility clients. It also previously disinfected schools.
Before the pandemic, the average building owner wasn’t accustomed to electrostatic spraying, Oddo said. Outside of medical facilities, the demand for the service stood at a 1, the lowest on a scale of 1 to 10. Now, that number has jumped to 10.
Last year, City Wide gained new clients that realized they no longer could stay with a base service janitorial company, he said. Existing clients also started using City Wide for additional services.
Coming next
The company’s priority moving forward is to not rest on its laurels. Oddo doesn’t want revenue to significantly retract.
This year, City Wide also plans to introduce master franchise agreements for the first time. The master agreements would be available for places outside the U.S. and Canada and would teach others to become a City Wide franchisor. It’s a timely offering, Oddo said, and would add revenue via a onetime fee to start, plus ongoing royalties.
By Leslie Collins | Story originally appeared on Kansas City Business Journal. Excerpts have been pulled from the original article, to read the full story click here.
