B+N Referencia Zrt. is the market leader FM (Facility Management) service provider in the Central-Eastern European region. The company is active in 6 countries: Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republic, Romania, Slovenia and Hungary and has 100% ownership in these companies. Its highly extensive service portfolio fully covers the Central European region. The company is covering 15 million square meters of managed areas, with almost 20.000 employees.
It took the company almost 3 decades to establish its market leading position in this extremely competitive segment in Hungary. Its customers in Hungary include large companies and prominent participants of the business sector as well as for the public sector also.
B+N Referencia has been holding a steady position in the list of the TOP 500 Hungarian companies for years.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
B+N Referencia: We are an integrated FM services provider. Our portfolio covers all types of the facility management: installation, maintenance, operation and repair of building structures, electrical equipment and machinery; operation of surveillance system. Construction and contractor work, such as technical counselling, design, implementation, technical management and monitoring. Energetics and energy management.
One of the leading segments is the fit-out. Cleaning and hygiene also massive service. Company ha a dedicated healthcare cleaning department. B+N is a market leader in the textile management sector also. Gardening, landscaping and forestry also worth to mention.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
B+N Referencia: FM industry in Europe is dominated by the West-European companies. 61 % of the revenue, 57,3 % of the staff cover this region. Followed by North and Soutd Europe. There are very few integrated FM provider in Eastern Europe, small and medium size companies are typical in this region. B+N Referencia Zrt. is the 13rd biggest in Europa, based on the revenue. Concentration is also a new trend in Europe: the 5 dominated company earn the 73 % of the total revenue.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?
B+N Referencia: As we had successfully good years during the COVID, mainly because hygiene was (is) much more important factor as it was before, we are optimistic in 2022 also. As we moved ahead and earned the market leader position in the region, we plan new – regionwide – partners, clients, subcontractors. We are open for other takeovers also.
Our main challenge is – as for almost each company in the region – to attract new employees. We introduce new practices and method for this. One brand new solution is – which we set up with a Hungarian start up – is the Salarify application. It helps our employees to get their money not only monthly. This flexible method supports them to plan their financial management. We are the first FM company in Hungary to introduce this solution.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends? / What are the most innovative products marketed?
B+N Referencia: B+N Referencia Zrt. shapes also the future of facility management. In addition to the continuous improvement of its services, it places a great emphasis on technological innovation. The company believes that automation and robotics are gaining more and more significance also in this traditional sector. This is the reason why we set up several years ago a research & development department with 22 employees, which is unprecedented in the history of facility management in Hungary. The technological innovations of our R&D department are now available to the entire international group of companies. A good example of this is our proprietary autonomous industrial cleaning robot launched in 2019 or the mobile UV-disinfection device developed in 2020. We will introduce an UV autonomous robot technology in the near future.
With the help of a revolutionary technological innovation, the metagenomic analysis and forecast system, our company will be able to identify pathogens on different surfaces. This method enables us to detect pathogen colonies quickly and prevent a potential epidemic. The data obtained this way can be used as a basis for monitoring the efficiency of cleaning and disinfection. This unique invention can drastically reduce the risk of infections at hospitals and improves the safety of patients, while employers can use it to protect the health and safety of their workers.