 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Facilities Management |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | Derek Mapp,Chairman Phil Bentley,CEO |
| Revenue |  £4.5107 billion (2024)[1] |
| £210.2 million (2024)[1] | |
| £130.9 million (2024)[1] | |
Number of employees | 72,000 (2025)[2] |
| Website | www.mitie.com/ |
Mitie Group PLC (pronounced "mighty") is a British strategicoutsourcing and energy services company. It provides infrastructure consultancy, facilities management,property management, energy and healthcare services. It has a head office atThe Shard inLondon and more than 200 smaller offices throughout theUnited Kingdom andIreland. It is listed on theLondon Stock Exchange and is a constituent of theFTSE 250 Index.
Mitie was founded byDavid Telling and Ian Stewart asMESL in 1987.[3] One year later, the company waslisted on theLondon Stock Exchange for the first time.[4] It merged withHighgate & Job in 1989, after which it was renamed theMitie Group.[5]
Throughout the 2000s, the company pursued a strategy of growth through the acquisitions of various other businesses. In March 2006, it acquired Initial Security, a leadingsecurity business.[6] During 2007, Mitie acquired Robert Prettie & Co. Ltd in exchange for £32.7m and incorporated the specialist plumbing, heating and mechanical services business into their Property Services division.[7] In 2008, Mitie continued its strategy through the acquisition of Catering Partnership[8] and DW Tilley; the latter purchase allowed Mitie to expand its roofing services nationwide.[9] During 2009, Mitie completed the acquisition of Dalkia Facilities Management in exchange for £130m,[10] which bolstered its Technical Facilities Management capability; it also expanded intosocial housing through the purchase of Environmental Property Services (EPS) for £38.5m.[11] During 2010, Mitie acquired the integrated facilities management business of Dalkia in Ireland.[12][13]
Mitie made its first acquisition in the health and social care sector in October 2012, when it spent £111 million on the homecare firm Enara.[14] In April 2013, Mitie's chief executive,Ruby McGregor-Smith, was made non-executive director to the board of theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport.[15] During February 2014, Mitie introduced its new visual identity.[16]
Between 2013 and 2015, cleaning staff employed by Mitie at various high-profile locations, including theRoyal Opera House, theHouses of Parliament, the law firmClifford Chance,First Great Western train services, and various NHS hospitals, held demonstrations against low pay.[17][18][19]
In February 2014, Mitie announced an eight-year contract with theHome Office, making it the largest provider of immigration removal centres in the United Kingdom.[20][21] Almost two years later, Mitie came under fire for its management of the immigration centres after theprison inspectorate stated that the facilities were "dirty", "rundown" and "insanitary".[22][23] Mitie has continued to be involved in the sector.[24][25][26]
The firm secured a cleaning contract withRoyal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust during June 2014 valued at £90m over seven years.Sick pay cost £1.2m in its first eight months, compared with £280,000 for the NHS in the previous financial year;UNISON blamed the rise on staffstress, which it claimed had been caused by mistakes on pay.[27] Such difficulties were not typical to Mitie's other NHS cleaning contracts,[28] although there has been some criticism over their higher cost than other providers.[29]
In November 2014, Mitie acknowledged that its homecare business was less profitable than had been anticipated and that it was struggling to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of care workers.[30] During July 2015,East Sussex County Council reportedly ended a £2 million contract with Mitie to provide home care over allegedly poor standards of care provided.[31][32]
During 2016, shares in Mitie fell to a four-year low after the company warned that an expected boom in outsourced services was not happening. Throughout both 2015 and 2016, it was reported that Mitie was one of the most shorted stocks in the FTSE 250.[33][34] McGregor-Smith announced in November 2016 that the company was withdrawing from the healthcare business (providing home care for the elderly) in response to spending cuts and rising employment costs that had made the sector unviable.[35][36]
In November 2017, theFinancial Reporting Council (FRC) announced an investigation into the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2016. This led to the disclosure in the Annual Report for 2017 that there had been errors in the impairment testing of healthcare goodwill and that, if certain judgements had instead been treated as errors, the amount of the prior year adjustment disclosed in the 2016 results would have increased by £44.0 million. This disclosure had addressed the FRC's concerns.[37][38]
During December 2017, following a string of three profit warnings in the space of four months,[39][40] McGregor-Smith stepped down from her role with the outsourcing group; she was replaced by former managing director ofBritish Gas and current Chief ExecutivePhil Bentley.[41]
In June 2020, Mitie announced it was to buyInterserve's facilities management business in a cash and shares deal worth £271m, later revised downwards to £190m.[42] The deal, following its ratification by Mitie's shareholders,[43] was completed on 1 December 2020.[44] The Interserve acquisition increased the company's exposure to public sector work from one-third to half of its overall business activities.[45]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, Mitie added a wide range of services, including running Covid testing sites, cleaning offices and major transport services, and providing security for new quarantine hotels.[46][47] The firm continued to work with Government departments such as theNational Health Service,Department for Work and Pensions, theMinistry of Defence, and education providers.[48] During 2021, the firm was publicly criticised over the management of several locations, including a Covid-19 testing site it ran under contract in Inverness and facilities atRussells Hall Hospital in Dudley, after several workers contracted the virus.[49][50] In 2024, Mitie also resisted paying a COVID-relatedbonus to its private nursing staff that public NHS employees were given, although it relented in the fact of industrial action.[51][52]
In July 2023, Mitie was awarded a four-year £280 million contract with the national railway infrastructure ownerNetwork Rail; the arrangement brought together four prior contracts and involved the delivery of a fully integrated facilities management service for the entire Network Rail estate, spanning 800 sites across the UK, including train stations, offices,rail operating centres, and other locations.[53] That same year, it acquired four separate security-related businesses, Biservicus Group, GBE Converge Group, R H Irving and Linx International Group.[54][55][56]
In February 2025, Mitie partnered with Elements Green, a solar and energy developer, to design their Staythorpe battery energy storage systems (BESS).[57] The signed deal was for £71.5m.[58]
The company announced the proposed acquisition of a fire safety services business, Marlowe, in June 2025.[59][60]
Mitie stands forManagement Incentive Through Investment Equity. The management of the business typically invested part of the capital alongside Mitie, and if targets were met, they were able to sell their shares to Mitie after a fixed period for a sum based on the profits achieved (anearn out). Payment was made in a mixture of cash and Mitie shares. The managers usually remained with Mitie after theearnout.[61]
In February 2022, TheSunday Mirror revealed a MitieWhatsApp group relating to immigration management paid by theHome Office that exchanged racist and offensive messages amongst colleagues since March 2020.[62]
