CASE STUDY
How Beringar helped Kingfisher reduce real estate costs by £1.5 million per year
Introduction to Kingfisher
Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company headquartered in London. With over 1,500 stores and 80,000 colleagues, the group operates under a number of retail banners across eight European countries, including B&Q, Screwfix, Tradepoint and more.
As is the case with many large companies, the group coordinates all of its retail operations from a sizeable corporate real estate footprint. In the case of Kingfisher, it operates out of 3 Sheldon Square in Paddington, London.
Key Results
Saved on real estate and associated costs per year
Reduction in corporate real estate
Spaces monitored using Beringar HX1 sensors
The Problem
Two years away from the end of its current lease, Kingfisher’s leadership realised it needed a deeper understanding of how its office space was being used so that it could move forward with an effective, scalable plan.
The corporate real estate director had also made it a priority to assess the indoor environment, due in part to the high frequency of staff noting substandard indoor air quality, with a view to making immediate improvements for the benefit of colleagues and guests.
Kingfisher believes that a better world starts with better homes, and Beringar shares that view, believing that a better business starts with a better working environment. That’s why we developed various tools to help businesses better understand their buildings.
A leader in its industry, Kingfisher is known the world over for its sustainable business practices. It has prioritised Responsible Business for over thirty years, collaborating on pioneering approaches to responsible sourcing across a number of sectors. This ethos also carries over in its approach to environmental issues, where it is at the vanguard of measuring and managing operations responsibly for the betterment of society and the environment.
“At Kingfisher, we are committed to doing everything we can to make a positive impact for society so that all our homes – including our communities – our forests and planet – can flourish.”
The Solution
With that in mind, the company embarked on a plan to reimagine its corporate real estate footprint, with environmental concerns and wellbeing high up on the agenda. It made perfect sense to the leadership team at Kingfisher that Beringar was the team to help them achieve exactly that, given our shared commitment to environmental and social good.
In order to effectively measure exactly how Kingfisher’s spaces were being used, as well as the quality of its indoor environment, Beringar deployed over 150 smart sensors, our proprietary HX1 model, across four floors at Sheldon Square. With those sensors, Kingfisher and Beringar could monitor over 600 spaces, from meeting rooms to open-plan offices, to communal areas and more.
Beringar developed a bespoke dashboard that displayed real-time data for occupancy rates and indoor environmental quality. The Kingfisher team were able to access the dashboard anywhere, at any time, so they could extract valuable insights to help them plan accordingly.
“Beringar provided brand new data on the working patterns and behaviours of the people using 3 Sheldon Square, enabling them to optimise seat allocation, navigate COVID-19 shutdowns and plan their new space requirements confidently.”
Beringar
After a short time, Kingfisher had built a comprehensive picture of occupancy in its offices, which told the leadership team exactly how people used its workspaces. Kingfisher was able to examine the data gathered by Beringar’s sensors and apply it to the acquisition of a new office facility.
Realising that its office spaces were well above its actual requirements, Kingfisher leveraged the insights to reduce the size of the new office by 50%. Taking London’s cost per square foot into account for prime corporate real estate, this amounted to a sizeable saving on overheads – not just for the physical space, but also the energy and ground rates.
The data gathered by Beringar was used to plan the layout, too. After observing the usage patterns of building occupants, Kingfisher was able to identify the number of desks needed, plus the composition of those desks, as well as the number of meeting rooms and breakout spaces based on usage data for the previous building.
Now, after a successful move for Kingfisher, Beringar will deploy 80 new sensors at the current location to further optimise Kingfisher’s real estate portfolio, continuing to ensure that the building performs according to a set of agreed standards.
“Beringar has proven time and again that the data analysis they produce can help us make better-informed decisions, to quickly identify issues and allow us to move confidently to new premises safe in the knowledge that we know how our people and our building work together.”
Facilities, Fleet and Health and Safety Manager
Kingfisher plc