City Wide Facility Solutions provides one point of contact for more than 20 facility services for commercial buildings throughout North America. The company boasts over 100 franchisees who operate as general managers to independent contractors. These contractors are vetted and insured, and they cover everything from floor care and window cleaning to heating and pest control. By Patty Horansky
City Wide Facility Solutions provides one point of contact for more than 20 facility services for commercial buildings throughout North America. The company boasts over 100 franchisees who operate as general managers to independent contractors. These contractors are vetted and insured, and they cover everything from floor care and window cleaning to heating and pest control.
City Wide franchisees supply each client with a facility services manager who monitors and ensures the work is done on time and in a professional manner. Founded in 1961 and franchised in 2001, the Kansas-based brand features a low point of entry, minimal overhead, large protected territories, multiple and recurring revenue streams, scalability and superior training and support. Franchisees can begin with one to two owners and two sales executives, and then they scale upward from there.
“The beautiful thing about City Wide is while we’re not an absentee model, we are a low-headcount, low-inventory, low-equipment concept,” said Director of Marketing Kasey Skala.
According to Skala, City Wide operates on a “ripple effect,” benefiting everyone from franchisees to clients and small contractors to communities. In 2023, for example, franchisees donated more than $2 million to nonprofits. Many franchisees are husband-and-wife teams, business partners or friends, and the average unit revenue was $8 million last year.
According to Director of Franchise Development Adria Hartwig, one of City Wide’s main strategic initiatives is a focus on diversity. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, 21 locations are owned by women, 12 are owned by people in other minority groups, and 16 are owned by veterans.
Training includes 10 weeks of onboarding, during which franchisees begin recruiting contractors and searching for business. The brand provides 12 months of lead generation, accounting and technology support and business coaching in the field. City Wide seeks candidates with B2B experience in sales who can lead great teams and are comfortable working with people from all backgrounds.
In addition to its locations in the U.S., City Wide plans to expand across Canada, with four franchisees already operating there as of April, and it’s looking to add another two by the end of this year.
Patty Horansky