This year was one of the coldest winters the United Kingdom has seen for over 20 years with many parts of the country coming to a standstill when snowfall hit. The Met Office has released its first forecast for the winter ahead in the UK. The forecast is that it won’t be as harsh as last winter but that the country will still face a cold, wet winter which will cause icy conditions on the roads. 

MITIE’s dedicated gritting team is ready for the predicted cold and wet winter ahead and has seen a dramatic increase in enquiries with businesses taking steps earlier than usual to protect themselves from icy car parks and footways on their premises. Last year MITIE was one of the few gritting businesses not to run out of gritting salt; it receives regular updates from the Met Office with the forecast and orders the correct amount accordingly. 

This winter MITIE is adding a new feature to its winter gritting services. It will be using satellite tracking on its fleet of gritting vehicles to provide customers with real time information on the progress of gritting on their sites. A feature that MITIE is already using is a SMS/email notification of gritting activity and on-line access to a site’s gritting history. 

Richard Hughes, MITIE’s Winter Maintenance Manager, said: “There’s been an extremely high level of interest in our gritting service this year and it’s unusually early too. Traditionally we have always seen a slow start to the season as businesses wait for the first frost of the winter before making a decision on appointing a winter gritting supplier. This is very encouraging in terms of forward planning.” 

For more information on MITIE’s gritting service, please contact Richard Hughes on 0845 869 7949 or email at richard.hughes@mitie.co.uk. 

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For further information, contact: 

David Revis, Marketing and PR Manager, MITIE Facilities Management
T: 020 7089 7150 M: 07979 702465, E: david.revis@mitie.co.uk 

Or visit www.mitie.co.uk

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing and asset management company.

What does that mean in practice? Providing everything from strategic consultancy, to world-class delivery on the ground. From long-term infrastructure planning, to facilities management, property and engineering services. Our strategic input can add value at the highest level, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and maximise their returns.

At the same time, it’s not just what we do, but how we do it that makes us different. Our people are passionate about what they do, committed to working in partnership with their clients, and will always look for a fresh answer to a new challenge.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise by buying the whole suite, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy

+ Facilities and project management

+ Service delivery

In other words, we think, we manage, and we deliver.

The thinking phase is all about finding strategic answers to long-term challenges about assets and resources. Facilities and project management puts those plans in place, and our unrivalled range of services is one of the best in the business.

There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions - a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 50,000+ people, revenues in excess of £1.5bn, and a reputation for being the best.