Glad Group's Mutual acquisition a natural 'fit'

Dateline: 24.06.2010
Author: Alan Hardcastle

In one of the industry’s most significant service provider acquisitions in recent years, the Glad Group has purchased Melbourne-based Mutual Cleaning and Maintenance Pty Ltd. In what is a natural ‘fit’, Glad has markedly expanded its presence in Victoria while Mutual will bring to its clients Glad’s expertise in adding value through delivering integrated services.

Mutual will continue to trade under the Mutual brand while also maintaining the ethos on which its success has been built.

The Mutual purchase adds 850 employees and about $30 million worth of business to Glad, which largely through organic growth to-date, will turnover some $135 million per annum in the 2009/2010 financial year.

Significantly, this latest service provider rationalisation sees one family company buying another family-owned company.

“In buying Mutual we were not simply buying a company but a family operated organisation and the highly skilled and valued people in that organisation,” emphasised Glad’s managing director Nick Iloski. “In Mutual we have a partner that’s passionate about the industry.

“The Mutual team will take its business to the next level supported and nurtured by Glad’s resources,” he added.

For Mutual’s owners and directors Tony Naggar and George Angel, the sale recognises the increasingly sophisticated environment in which cleaning contractors operate need to operate.

Naggar and Angel established Mutual in 1984 and have been singularly successful over the intervening 26 years in building their business up to employ about 850 people.

“Now, Mutual can offer its clients the expertise that Glad offers,” noted Naggar. “To-date Mutual has been primarily a Victorian business with a cleaning services’ focus and now our team can embrace Glad’s integrated services’ philosophy,” he added.

Angel pointed out that, “in-line with the ever changing marketplace and increasing numbers of national accounts, Mutual is now in a position to offer its major clients national services.”

Both Naggar and Angel are staying on with Mutual, a reassuring move for clients. The Mutual management team includes executive chairman John Chubb, general manager operations Marco Castilo and Francis Angel, general manager business development and administration.

It was no great secret that Mutual was being courted by a number of suitors; such is its high profile and sound reputation with Victorian property owners and managers. Certainly, Glad recognised Mutual’s attributes.

“Glad’s strategy is to grow its business nationally,” stated Glad executive director Doug Henry. From our perspective, Mutual was a stand-out business to buy.

“Glad Group had looked at a number of other businesses with a view to acquisition but Mutual offered so much more than the others,” he added.

Glad is a truly national player today. It established its own Victorian business two years ago and from its Melbourne office manages Tasmania and South Australia. In January this year Glad opened up a Western Australian branch.

Henry stressed that a heavy investment in Glad’s internal resources including IT, risk management and sustainability gives the organisation robust platform on which to engineer further growth.

Both Henry and Glad’s CEO Peter Turner come from a property management background. “We understand the fundamental service provider issues and the need to present a very transparent interface to property owners and managers,” said Turner.

“We believe that both Mutual and Glad bring to the party values and assets that are greater than the sum of their parts,” he stressed.

www.gladgroup.com.au

Maximising the opportunities that integrated services deliver… standing John Chubb (left) and Tony Naggar. Seated George Angel (left) and Nick Iloski

Glad Group's Mutual acquisition a natural 'fit'