Nviro sparkles in extended run at The Brighton Centre

Hosting concerts, conferences and other high-profile public events creates significant challenges for venue managers. From foyers to auditoriums and washrooms, cleanliness is usually the first benchmark of a visitor's experience. Nviro explains how it is helping The Brighton Centre to polish its performance by delivering flexible, responsive and highly efficient cleaning services in the seaside town's bustling events complex.

Brighton is one of the South-East's most iconic places. This seaside town is well known for its landmark 'pleasure' pier and Royal Pavilion, its network of lanes with antique shops, and its vibrant nightlife.

The Brighton Centre is an integral part of this lively cultural scene, hosting events and concerts ranging from political party conferences and trade exhibitions to pop stars Paloma Faith and Lily Allen and top comedians like John Bishop.

Every aspect of the visitor experience is of paramount importance for venues in the highly competitive world of entertainment. The centre's management has overseen a rise in its popularity, and the quality of cleaning was one highly important element in its strategy to restore the venue's sparkling reputation, not just in Brighton, but across the region.

Attracting discerning audiences and promoters means that a second-rate performance just won't do, either on or off the stage. All areas must be pristine so the centre projects the right image and visitors feel welcome.

"We've seen a marked improvement in how the building is kept, how the facilities are cleaned," said Don Hurley, operations manager at The Brighton Centre. "The building has to be cleaned to a very high standard, and we see that day after day."

A major venue, hosting 5,500 visitors a day at peak times, The Brighton Centre requires frequent, responsive and highly efficient cleaning. It's a contract that demands a specialist provider with experience of delivering the highest cleaning standards in high-profile, public venues.

The beachfront complex presents a variety of cleaning challenges that include tiered seating, large foyers and conference rooms, heavily used washrooms, and also 'back office' areas. Since Nviro took over the contract in 2004, the contract cleaning company specialising in London and south-east, has continuously re-assessed how the service is delivered and adapted to drive improvement.

As the contract has been extended and successfully re-tendered, Nviro's role will continue until 2018 at least. In addition to consistently high standards of cleaning, flexibility and the ability to clean reactively have been key factors in its success. Core cleaning activities are timed to fit around the events being hosted, but tend to be concentrated in the mornings or late evenings. Nviro provides additional support after events, concentrating on communal areas that can be heavily littered and soiled as crowds mill about the venue.

Investment in the right equipment has helped boost efficiency. The building has some wide expanses of carpeted flooring that can be time-consuming to clean with traditional equipment. Nviro deployed a wide-track vacuum that has streamlined this work without any compromise in quality.

"Nviro has added real value through its services, and it's all down to their commitment and skills and good communication," Mr Hurley added. "I work very closely with the Nviro team here but so do the other managers. For each event we liaise directly. We have weekly meetings, where we walk around the venue to assess standards and discuss upcoming events and possible issues."

Mr Hurley also pays tribute to the cleaning staff. Again Nviro, which boasts an excellent staff retention rate, places great emphasis on communication. One element is an annual employee satisfaction survey that involves everyone - from those working on the ground to senior managers. The results help shape service improvements as well as personnel policy.

Eight full-time cleaners are employed within the centre along with a site manager who, under Nviro's management structure, reports to an area supervisor who, in turn, is accountable to a service manager.

Monitoring is essential whatever the size of contract, and it needs to be systematic for such a complex venue. Nviro operates an electronic auditing system. This allows performance against key indicators to be analysed monthly, helping managers and supervisors to ensure the service stays on track and identify scope for further efficiencies and improvements.

Given its rave reviews and commitment to ongoing improvement, Nviro is set to be a star performer at The Brighton Centre for years to come.

For more information about Nviro please contact 0800 032 1334, email [email protected] or visit the newly revamped website: www.nviro.co.uk