Get to know CJ Micallef
Meet BFA HSBC British Franchise Awards finalist CJ Micallef.
Martin and Sarah Steinman purchased ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services Manchester South in 1991, operating their franchise from their conservatory.
In 2008, they expanded by acquiring a Manchester North territory, growing their empire to cover Greater Manchester.
Martin and Sarah’s daughter CJ joined in 2004 as a Key Account Manager.
Today, she is Managing Director, having taken the reigns of the family business.
CJ has been instrumental in expansion through the growth of the business’s turnover, capacity, and efficiency, and has been shortlisted for the HSBC Best in Class: Multi-Unit Single-Brand award at the BFA HSBC British Franchise Awards 2024.
The franchise also boasts one of the brand’s largest local market shares, achieved through organic and local sales growth, and only eight national accounts, despite only covering one major city and competing with approximately 440 cleaning companies.
CJ’s story is one of great personal and business development within a thriving family business, which also saw her achieve Great British Franchisee status in 2023 and two prestigious cleaning awards this year.
Here’s everything you need to know about her journey.
Innovation and development
Vital to the business’s success is its strategy for growth and innovation.
In 2019, CJ created a five-year plan for the next five years.
When she formulated these goals, the business was primed for growth but was halted by COVID-19.
They have since expanded both licenses to have much greater coverage across Greater Manchester and Cheshire through a fleet of branded vehicles, which have grown by 17 cars in the past 12 months, improving the business’s operational capacity and efficiency and the size of the franchise operation through our market share and brand visibility locally.
The franchise now serves 200 clients across 850 sites in vital markets like offices, schools and housing associations.
This includes a key account portfolio that covers anything above £50,000 p.a., which has grown by two-thirds this year.
Management: Steering a bright future
The expansion of this portfolio has been facilitated by restructuring key management roles.
Where the business used to have Area Managers, an Operations Manager and one Key Account Manager, the operations team has doubled in the last year to ten employees.
Moreover, in hiring 100 staff last year, CJ brought in an Operations Manager and three Area Managers and made promotions internally to support and recognise the people who have dedicated time to the business’s success and help bolster the employment opportunities available in their community.
She created an Independent Auditor role for existing staff to support key accounts and promoted multiple cleaners to manager roles.
This now eight-strong team of managers – which has also doubled in the last year – has allowed for superior manager efficiency and freed up capacity for the business to take on new key accounts.
This also means managers can be assigned to larger jobs, and Area Managers prioritise customer relationships and satisfaction for customer retention.
The latter is particularly beneficial as it allows them to build a partnership based on regular on-site auditing where frequency is based on hours.
This staff of 360 employees safeguard the legacy of Martin and Sarah’s family business and while CJ and her growing team have injected it with the energy of a younger generation’s ideas and drive to innovate while staying committed to the brand and history that has helped the business be what it is today.
Pioneering brand direction
While expanding its portfolio, empire and reach in its community, ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services Manchester have long been a strategic pioneer in the brand.
They have been ISO compliant since 2010 and have adopted technology through Clean Link since 2000, a key partner who now works closely with the brand to streamline and digitise our business practices like site management, quality control and performance reporting.
Furthermore, CJ has helped shape environmental policies across the brand, helping develop products and initiatives used by her and (or) other franchisees to drive the brand forward.
For example, they operate on a fully cloud-based system, optimising efficiency through paper and electricity usage in the office and allowing managers to operate fully – no matter where they are in the rota!
They also have an onsite warehouse to store and use products, which are supplied by ServiceMaster Ltd.
CJ’s advocacy doesn’t stop there.
She regularly attends network events, sharing her experiences and best practices with other franchisees and the franchisor.
She has a lifetime of experience supporting the brand and her family’s business. Her infectious passion, commitment, and trust for the brand bleeds into her management style to help reinvest in the business.
Her staff are involved in meetings to stay abreast of top-level information about the business and report on company objectives.
This gives heads of departments oversight and stake in goals and inputs into budgets, which she hopes may aid the succession of her business as people genuinely care about the franchise and take pride in working there.
This helps them provide superior support to clients as they are well-informed on how the business operates from the highest level.
The journey so far
Through the growth of an ever-expanding portfolio and increasing market share spearheaded by a rigorous management structure of senior leadership and 360-strong staff, ServiceMaster Clean Manchester is a well-oiled machine, united under the franchise brand, shared values and enthusiasm for business development of the family that continue to make ServiceMaster Clean their lifeblood.
They have helped them achieve impressive, organic and sustainable growth through exceptional service and brand consistency to clients, who are retained through the business’s brilliant management, care and passion for the brand, which they have achieved through an unwavering commitment to the brand.
The care for their clients, brand, and staff has created an empire that continues to grow its influence in Manchester and contribute to developing our franchise brand, going above and beyond to achieve award-winning business excellence.
Need a new cleaner?
If you’re in Manchester and the surrounding areas and would benefit from professional contract cleaning services from a multi-award-winning business, contact the team on 0800 1958 490 or find your nearest ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services business to see how we can help you today.
