Reflections on a Year of Challenge, Change, and Opportunity
This year, we learned that agility and creativity are the keys to success during uncertain times. Like numerous other businesses in the facility services industry and other industries, Marsden Services has spent the last year learning how to recover, respond, and ultimately adjust to the impacts of a global pandemic. The past year presented challenges and changes for Marsden, but through these circumstances we also encountered great opportunities.
Throughout 2021, the entire team at Marsden demonstrated remarkable flexibility, continually adjusting to new conditions. Our teams developed innovative solutions and creative ideas that enabled us to respond to the changing circumstances. But through all these changes, our core focus remained constant: ensuring a safe environment for our employees while maintaining clean, safe, and healthy workplaces for our clients.
Facing Ongoing and New Challenges
Like many companies, Marsden targeted early 2021 to return to the office and establish the “new normal” in a post-pandemic world. But as the infectious disease situation continued to evolve, we had to continually consider what was safest for our employees and adapt to the new developments. Marsden’s Disinfection Task Force continued to meet through 2021 to help steer the company through ongoing pandemic events, such as the widespread availability of vaccinations, the emergence of new variants, and changes in state and federal mandates.
In February, Winter Storm Uri added to the challenge, impacting more than 170 million Americans. The extreme weather conditions led to major electricity generation failures across Texas, which resulted in food, water, and heat shortages. The conditions also led to unprecedented building damages, both for residential and commercial properties. Marsden’s agility and responsiveness became critical. The team with Marsden Restoration immediately went to Texas to support the overwhelming need for restoration services. Marsden also provided over half a million dollars in employee disaster relief to support employees who had been impacted by the storm.
New Strategies, Growth and Expansion
In 2021, Marsden launched a new corporate strategy throughout the enterprise. The LEGS strategy – which stands for Leadership, Engagement, Growth, and Safety – was developed in 2020 and 2021 was the first year of full company-wide engagement. LEGS represents the primary pillars that drive our organization and will allow us to be successful in the future. This year the strategy was cascaded throughout the company and became central to Marsden’s culture and infrastructure.
Marsden made several strategic moves in 2021 to support our growth and expansion, which included adding two companies to the Marsden Services family. Marsden acquired Liberty Building Maintenance & Services in mid-2021, allowing us to expand our geographic presence in Southern California and enhance our construction cleanup service line. Marsden also acquired Pro-Serv Commercial Cleaning in the fall of this year, adding to our geographic presence in Phoenix, Arizona. Both Liberty and Pro-Serv have a strong local presence and long histories of providing high-quality, customer-focused building solutions.
Marsden also launched a new brand in 2021, CaptureINTEL. Two of Marsden’s operating companies, Heartland Investigative Group and Capture Research, worked together with our security company, American Security and Investigations, to launch CaptureINTEL. CaptureINTEL merges the operations of Heartland Investigative Group and Capture Research into a single division of American Security, driving greater efficiency and optimizing the delivery of a complete set of investigative and intelligence solutions.
Celebration, Recognition, and Looking Ahead to 2022
Throughout the year, Marsden sought out new products, technologies, and partnerships that could help us better serve our clients. Earlier in 2021, Marsden partnered with Biosecurity Technology to provide our clients with Bio-Safe, an eco-friendly cleaning solution. In November of 2021, Marsden won CBRE’s 2021 Innovation of the Year Award in collaboration with Biosecurity Technology for Bio-Safe. Our partnership with Biosecurity allowed Marsden to enhance our sustainable product offering and help drive more affordable and effective disinfecting solutions.
In 2022, Marsden Services will celebrate our 70th year in business. Our platinum anniversary coincides with the celebration of 20 years under the guidance of our CEO, Guy Mingo. Guy’s leadership was recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal when he was named one of 2021’s Most Admired CEOs. This year, Guy was also awarded the Walter L. Cook Award for Distinguished Service by the Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI).
The Marsden team has much to celebrate as we recognize our progress from 2021 and move into 2022. It takes people with deep professional knowledge, skill, and commitment to not only survive a year like 2021 but also to thrive and end the year even stronger than we began. This past year, Marsden developed new capabilities, expanded our geographic presence, and reached a new milestone in our revenue growth. Marsden’s collective response to the challenges in 2021 has positioned us for the future. We wish all our associates, customers, friends, and family a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2022.