New appointment as Coventry company’s FM division grows

The Wigley Group’s new health and safety manager Claire Lynch (left) with insurance consultant Maurice Adams and facilities manager Alan Greenway at the new base for the company’s facilities management team.

A leading Midlands commercial property company has had to open a new premises to cater for the growth in its facilities management division.

The Wigley Group has moved its facilities management works division into a new facility at Sandy Lane Business Park in Coventry and also made a key appointment to offer a new service.

Claire Lynch has joined the group to lead on internal health and safety compliance as well as offering related services to other businesses and commercial property agents.

In her new role Claire will work closely with the group’s 10-strong facilities management team.

The Wigley Group Director James Davies said the move was essential after a spike in business for the facilities division which was only founded last year.

“Having very effectively managed our own portfolio of property for more than 30 years we launched the facilities management division in 2015 to offer this service to other property owners and agents in the region,” he said.

“At the same time our risk division works closely with clients to identify and advise on insurance, risk, legal and operational matters.

“The remaining gap in our services was therefore in-house health and safety expertise. From speaking to our clients and commercial property agents it was also clearly something The Wigley Group was well-positioned to offer.

“Common health and safety issues on commercial property sites include unsafe pedestrian walkways, speed limits, uneven floors and fire risks.

“Now for our company and for those properties we manage, we can offer a complete service which encompasses facilities management, health and safety and risk without needing to use external consultants.”

Claire, who lives in Daventry, joins The Wigley Group after 13 years at a chemical manufacturer which specialised in legionella control where her most recent role was health and safety, quality and environmental manager.

She said: “This is a great opportunity to build on the services The Wigley Group already offers working on properties both within the company’s portfolio and client properties.

“One of my first tasks will be to build a rapport with tenants so if they feel if they have questions about any aspect of health and safety they will get in touch.

“By having our own facilities management division it means that when issues are identified we are able to very quickly take action to ensure the site is safe and compliant.

“Whether that’s an asbestos roof, poor lighting or trip hazards around a site, we are now able to not only identify what needs to be done to put an issue right, our facilities management team is able to quote and complete the work very quickly.”