Property services firm picks Birmingham for regional headquarters

Property services specialist Fortem has chosen Birmingham as it Midlands operational hub through from which it will manage the repairs and maintenance of thousands of homes in the West Midlands.

It means Birmingham will be Fortem’s base to oversee activities, which also include refurbishing public buildings, schools and leisure centres, in neighbouring authorities such as Dudley and Walsall alongside its long-term role providing repairs and maintenance to 21,000 homes owned by Birmingham City Council (BCC).

The move has led to an extra 22 jobs being located to Fortem’s Birmingham base for a variety of office and site based roles, including commercial and operations managers, framework and supply chain administrators, plus 17 apprentices who join this week to complement the 38 already learning their trade working on the BCC contract.

The company has been a strategic partner for BCC since 2008 in delivering maintenance to many of its homes, and also works with local housing associations such as Midlands Heart and Orbit on a programme of work to repair and maintain a further 20,000 homes in the Midlands.

Fortem managing director Mick Williamson said: “Making the city our regional hub underlines our long-term commitment to play a key role in creating jobs and stimulating regional economic growth. We currently employ nearly 100 people in the city, while over 96% of our SMEs are Birmingham-based, helping to further sustain local jobs.

“In our ten years working in Birmingham, our focus has always been on how we keep improving the value we provide the council and the service their residents receive. The Smart Hub will give residents a better experience when they need our engineers to visit and fix an issue with their house or carry out statutory checks as the centralised approach makes getting in touch a more efficient process with our state-of-the-art system.”

The company also has a national academy in Electric Avenue, Aston, where six employees oversee training to over 4,000 people each year.

In a sign of further collaboration with BCC, Fortem this year migrated its internal mailing activity to the council’s in-house mailing business to allow it to expand and generate revenue.