ALL-WEATHER gritting teams from MITIE carried out 40,000 gritting sessions in December – two-thirds of its average winter total - the company reported today. 

The specialist teams cleared more than 180,000 tonnes of snow from over 2,000 client premises including hospitals, schools, retail parks and business estates, drawing on its expanded fleet of vehicles. 

The gritting units, from the landscaping arm of the FTSE 250 strategic outsourcing company, has an extensive winter gritting and snow clearing capability and normally carries out over 60,000 grits each winter. 

Last autumn they bought ten specially-adapted Land Rovers for snow clearance around the country, expecting to use them in early 2011. 

But the fleet of all-weather vehicles, equipped with snow ploughs, gritters and all-weather tyres, saw continuous action throughout December. 

More than 250 people in MITIE’s gritting and snow clearing teams worked tirelessly throughout the month (including right through the holidays). 

Richard Hughes, MITIE's Gritting Manager comments: “The UK’s business community undoubtedly suffered as a result of December’s bad weather but those who chose MITIE’s winter gritting and snow clearing service were among the first back in business.

“It’s been an extraordinary time for us – just because the snow has largely gone doesn’t mean we can drop our guard. Our people remain on standby right up until the end of April, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. 

“The government has launched a study into what type of winters we can expect in the future as this year’s bad weather follows on from last year’s winter which was the worst in 30 years. Maybe we should prepare ourselves for even colder winters to come?” 

-ENDS-

For further information, contact: 

David Revis, Marketing and Ecomms Manager, MITIE Group PLC
T: 0203 123 8681 M: 07979 702465, E: david.revis@mitie.com 

Erica Lockhart, Investor, Public & Media Relations Manager, MITIE Group PLC
T: 0203 123 8675 M: 07979 784488 E: erica.lockhart@mitie.com

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing company. What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, properties and assets for our clients across the UK and beyond.

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

Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and project management
+ Service delivery

Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.

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 56,000 people, revenues in excess of £1.7bn, and a reputation for being the best.

Visit us at www.mitie.com