Hospitality company Queensway have appointed Expansive FM as their CAFM partner. EFM will help Queensway power the growth of their Starbucks and KFC franchises in the UK, Austria and Slovakia.
Queensway are a hospitality group managing major hotel, coffee house and restaurant brands across Europe and East Africa. They operate 21 Starbucks shops in the UK and 19 KFC restaurants in Austria and Slovakia, with an ambitious plan to add 15 new outlets every year across these regions.
Queensway needed CAFM to streamline Starbucks operations.
In early 2022 Shakeel Jivraj (Head of Operations for Queensway Coffee Houses) began looking for a CAFM to support their UK Starbucks outlets:
We were running FM in our business using spreadsheets and email. A lot of data and knowledge was stored in the heads of our teams. We were distracted by the constant manual admin of reactive and preventive maintenance. We needed to digitise and automate to save time and money."
KFC franchise support for Austria and Slovakia
Meanwhile, Heike Thalhofer (Head of Operations for KFC) was experiencing the same issues in Austria and Slovakia. She told us:
We were at the limit of what we could handle manually. We needed a digital solution to give us full transparency of our FM operations. We needed to automate our processes to meet all our brand standards while controlling costs."
Queensway go to tender for CAFM partnership
After running a competitive tender, it was clear that Expansive FM was the right solution for both teams. As Shakeel says:
Expansive was the only software partner who could support the European coverage we needed with a powerful platform that operates in multiple languages, currencies and across different time zones."
Expansive will deliver new efficiencies for both teams
For the first time, the Queensway teams will have digital control over their:
- Helpdesks
- Work order management
- PPM and compliance
- Budgetary oversight
As Shakeel points out, this will drive better decision-making:
The CAFM will empower our people on the ground, showing them what they are spending and helping them solve problems more quickly and effectively. This is important because FM is a massive part of P&L in our business. Giving our workers the digital tools to work smarter will contribute to cost savings, profitability and drive growth."
Queensway's vendors welcome CAFM
As Shakeel notes:
Our vendors are also excited because they can see the efficiencies both parties will gain from automation. With improved communications, they will be able to diagnose problems remotely, improve their first-time fix rates and minimise downtime."
EFM promise rapid implementation
Expansive are excited to work with Queensway as they plan to rapidly mobilise their CAFM. Joshua Griebach, CEO of Expansive Solutions, said:
Expansive work in a very agile way, and Queensway have been extremely engaged with the process. The solution will be in place by the end of October. That's an eight-week mobilisation, designed to help them scale faster and support their long-term growth plans."
"Expansive have been excellent partners."
Shakeel says Expansive have been an excellent partner throughout the process:
I was highly impressed with Josh's presentation alongside his COO, Tom. We had many conversations as part of the sales process, and they were never pushy or impatient. They were always professional and committed to finding a solution that really worked for us."
The Expansive solution is vital to Queensway's growth plans across Europe. The digital transformation of their FM operations will improve customer service, efficiency and cost control. It will liberate the whole team to concentrate on strategic growth.
