Case Study

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is a British airline, headquartered in Crawley, England. The airline, launched in 1984, has established itself as high quality and value for money for its customers.

For its customers, Virgin Atlantic provides a full suite of dedicated airport services, including an Arrivals Lounge, exclusive VIP Clubhouse, gatehouse, airport wings, and hangar facilities, befitting its reputation as a premier, customer-centric airline. There are also additional high-street retail and office spaces outside of the airports, also a part of the Virgin Atlantic estate.

Since 2019, Samsic has partnered with Virgin Atlantic via CBRE to deliver impeccable horizontal cleaning across all 12 Virgin Atlantic sites. Samsic’s professional services ensure Virgin’s facilities like the VIP Clubhouse maintain a pristine environment for their discerning clientele. The continuous, high-quality cleaning provided by Samsic enables Virgin Atlantic to deliver on its customer-centric approach and commitment to quality.

The Benefits

Samsic began partnering with Virgin Atlantic just eight months before the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges. To manage and resolve challenges, Samsic ensures a close collaboration with Virgin Atlantic to navigate issues such as staffing and the requirement to raise quality standards. 

Through our culture of continuous collaboration with Virgin Atlantic, Samsic was able to resolve staffing issues and raise quality levels by negotiating competitive salary increases for the cleaning team post-pandemic, ensuring operational optimisation. The renegotiation of salaries brought multiple benefits, including significantly increased staff retention, improved engagement, and improved quality and performance. With stability having increased and consistency across each site restored, Samsic has delivered 100% key performance indicator scores each month.

In 2024, Samsic successfully executed a major efficiency enhancement project, achieving massive cost-efficiencies for Virgin Atlantic. Samsic’s collaboration with Virgin Atlantic throughout this project, whilst maintaining 100% KPI standards at each Virgin Atlantic location, was key to the continued advancement of the contract. Samsic has since been awarded a contract extension following the execution of the project, with further contract extensions in discussion, as the client values the efforts taken by Samsic to ensure that their organisational goals are achieved.

As to support Virgin Atlantic’s sustainability initiatives, Samsic implemented the Toucan chemical-free cleaning solution. Toucan, which can be produced on-site in just four minutes, eliminates the need for traditional chemical-based cleaners and detergents. The solution was able to be mobilised within all twelve Virgin Atlantic sites to make their cleaning operations fully chemical-free as per requirements. As a result of Toucan, Virgin Atlantic was able to experience enhanced environmental sustainability, significantly reduced costs, and safer spaces as Toucan eliminates 99.99% of contaminants, allergens and viruses.

The Challenge

Following the rise of COVID-19, Samsic was forced to reduce the number of staff within the Virgin Atlantic contract from the full team to a small skeleton crew to cover just the essential cargo transport areas at each airport. 

Post-lockdown, restoring the workforce provided difficulties as many former employees had relocated during the pandemic, and existing staff were demotivated with low engagement scores. Wage expectations had drastically changed since 2019 and the pay rate was no longer competitive in the market, making recruitment incredibly difficult. To counteract the lack of cleaners and subsequent poor standards, operatives were having to work overtime, and emergency agency staff were being employed to try and cover the amount of work, which was unsustainable.

As part of the ongoing progression of the contract in 2024, Virgin Atlantic tasked Samsic with implementing a major efficiency enhancement project. This initiative involved Samsic undertaking a comprehensive assessment of all cleaning operations on-site, with a goal of maximising cost efficiencies while maintaining the high standards of cleanliness. The success of this project was critical to ensuring the retention of the Virgin Atlantic contract beyond its initial term, while optimising site processes and further reinforcing the value of Samsic’s services.

Alongside the efficiency enhancement project, Virgin Atlantic also requested that all cleaning operations upgrade to become chemical-free in alignment with their refreshed sustainability initiatives. Implementing this posed a challenge, as Virgin Atlantic needed these solutions to be cost-effective while functional across their expansive hangars, airside clubhouses, and remote retail sites. The market’s existing chemical-free cleaning systems often rely on large base units requiring plumbing and power sources, which are impractical for Virgin Atlantic’s diverse and geographically spread facilities.

The Solution

Samsic, to counteract the initial challenges within the contract, raised the wages of the entire Virgin Atlantic cleaning workforce to the London Living Wage. The increase marked a 36% raise in payment across all Virgin Atlantic sites, modernising the monetary offering to staff across the estate regardless of what shift or location is worked. As a result, recruitment reached 100% capacity, with outstanding recruitment vacancies quickly filled as they became more competitive. The existing cleaning operatives also became more engaged and fulfilled in their work as they felt better valued and fairly compensated.

Despite the change requiring additional contract costs, as the operatives have more vigour, there have been no serious complaints raised since the increase. The contract has gone from strength to strength, developing the working relationship and collaboration between Samsic and Virgin Atlantic into a strong, long-term partnership that prioritises the continuous development and elevation of the cleaning service for Virgin Atlantic’s clients.

This strengthened relationship played a critical role in the success of the later 2024 efficiency enhancement project. Samsic, through vigorous evaluation, was able to provide Virgin Atlantic with five cost-saving options that would still ensure the five-star service required for Virgin Atlantic’s clients and passengers. The chosen solution involved restructuring cleaning duties, redistributing equipment, and adjusting cleaning hours for retail outlets. This strategic approach secured a two-year extension of the Virgin Atlantic contract, with further extensions under discussion.

In response to Virgin Atlantic’s request for chemical-free, sustainable cleaning, Samsic, in collaboration with CBRE, introduced Toucan. Toucan, which can be produced on-site and on-demand by cleaning operatives, is a cleaning solution that offers flexibility and efficiency as it can be applied through small, handheld units and also larger, plumbed-in systems. These systems draw directly from mains water and include auto-dilution to enhance productivity.

Toucan has been implemented across each of Virgin Atlantic’s 12 sites, providing operational versatility to meet the cleaning needs of their expansive hangars, airside clubhouses, and remote retail locations. The solution can be used on all surfaces as both a cleaning detergent and disinfectant, killing up to 99.99% of contaminants, including allergens and viruses, and by addressing Virgin Atlantic’s operational challenges, Toucan not only meets the high cleaning standards required by the airline but supports their sustainability goals.

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