2017 Report On The Building Service Contractor Market — Member Content
Log In

















Contracting Profits and Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI) surveyed building service contractors to develop industry averages for product purchasing and market share, as well as to determine key concerns for contractors.

Comparing the results to last year’s study, profits in 2016 were not as high as expected. Based on the “2016 Report On The Building Service Contractor Market,” 31 percent of contractors predicted that 2016 would bring significantly higher profits over 2015. But this was the case for only 18 percent of BSCs. For the majority, 2016 profits were only slightly higher than the previous year. For 17 percent of BSCs, 2016 profits turned out to be slightly lower than 2015, which surprised many, considering that only 5 percent of respondents expected this to happen.

BSCs remain optimistic, however, with 82 percent of this year’s respondents expecting higher profits in 2017. The majority — 52 percent — expect profits to be slightly higher than last year.

Another stand-out stat from the 2017 report is that despite the increases in cases of influenza, norovirus and even C. diff, cleaning programs are still designed around appearance rather than infection control.

When Contracting Profits previously surveyed facility executives in a separate study, they overwhelming claimed that “a healthy and sanitary environment” was the top cleaning priority. But according to this “2017 Report On The BSC Market,” contractors say “a clean appearance” is most important to their customers. Supplemental data supports appearance being the true priority. In other surveys, facility executives choose clean restrooms and entryways as more important than commonly touched surfaces and objects, which is where germs and bacteria lie. When examining cleaning frequencies, spot cleaning windows and entrance areas are performed more often than disinfecting high-touch surfaces.

BSCs continue to overwhelmingly purchase their products from jan/san distributors. Although giant e-tailers like Amazon Business cast a large cloud over the jan/san industry, BSCs only purchase 5 percent of their products through this channel. Even when just using distributors’ websites, online ordering still only accounts for 1 to 5 percent of product purchases for 21 percent of contractors. The majority of BSCs don’t buy any of their products online.

next page of this article:
Contract Cleaners Still Optimistic — Member Content


POSTED ON: 7/12/2017