Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Four million employees in the FM sector

Facilities management covers the professional handling of secondary processes. These include those technical, infrastructural and commercial tasks which do not form part of the core business of an organisation but which do support it. The products, systems and processes required for infrastructural facilities management can be seen at CMS 2013.

According to current figures released by the German Facility Management Association (GEFMA), the economic importance of the FM sector as a whole is immense. This was the conclusion reached by the FM Industry Report 2010, which regards the discipline as an "absolute key sector". With a substantial gross added value of 112 billion euros and a 5.03% share of the gross domestic product, this added value sector has proved to be "more significant than that of many traditionally successful sectors". In comparison with other sectors, FM has been more successful than the construction industry (4.5%), mechanical engineering (3.3%) or the automobile industry (3.1%).

In terms of the job market, with a workforce of more than four million the FM sector makes a substantial contribution to the German economy. Generating business with a value of 176 billion euros, this industry is well placed to weather crises, according to the authors of an industry report, due to the fact that buildings always have to be managed - irrespective of whether the core business of the owner or user of the property is flourishing or struggling.

In June the Kaufbeuren-based market research organisation Lünendonk presented the findings of its Lünendonk List 2013 'Leading Facility Service Companies in Germany'. This revealed that, measured by domestic turnover, the 25 leading facility service companies in Germany grew in the business year 2012 by 4.3%, compared with the forecast figure of 6.3%. In addition to pricing pressures, this was also a consequence of a decline in the gross domestic product from 3.0% in 2011 to 0.7% in 2012. However, the forecast for the current business year is more positive. In 2013 the leading 25 companies are expecting their turnover to increase by an average of 5.8%.

26th September 2013