Global facility services management group ISS has bought Western Australian mine site accommodation services provider, South Perth-based Topic Caterers, in an effort to further expand its reach in the resources sector.
ISS, which entered the Australian marketplace in 2002, is one of the country’s largest facility services providers, employing about 20,000 people nationwide.
The acquisition comes after ISS was awarded a $75 million, three-year contract to service Rio Tinto’s Wickham Village, Pannawonica Village, and Dampier sites.
Beginning in April, the three-year contract will include total service provision for all 680 mine staff and up to 140 VIPs based throughout the three sites.
During the past year, ISS has secured services contracts with a number of clients in the resources industry, including Woodside Petroleum Ltd and Zinifex Ltd.
The company recently established an alliance with Topic Caterers to strengthen is capacity to secure village and related services contracts within the resources sector.
Topic Caterers has been providing facilities services to Australian mine sites and townships since 1986, employs about 200 staff and has revenues of $32 million a year.
ISS commercial director Dean Campbell said the acquisition, the company’s first in WA, reaffirmed its long-term focus on the mining and resources sector.
“This acquisition is about securing a proven track record in the provision of catering and village services in the remote sector,” he said.
“ISS now has the capability, capacity and competency to bid on any remote sector tender in the Australian market of any size, in any geography.”
The integration of Topic into the ISS group will occur over the next three months, with the company to be re-branded under the new name ISS Facility Services.
ISS will continue to invest and diversify into the resources sector through further acquisitions, as well as improving systems, processes and business infrastructure.
It also plans to develop an indigenous training academy in the Pilbara.
ISS joins other major players, predominantly national and multinational firms, in the facilities services sector supporting WA’s resources industry.
These include ESS Support Services Worldwide, which has 2,000 staff in WA, and diversified support services company Spotless Ltd, which services Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.
Kewdale-based Action Industrial Catering has been providing services to the remote mining industry for more than 12 years, and has 95 staff.
