Meadowhall centre in Sheffield is Yorkshire’s premier shopping destination and one of top five shopping centres in the UK. It offers 1.4 million square feet of high-quality retail and leisure space and is home to 290 stores, over 50 restaurants and an 11-screen cinema.
Meadowhall is our flagship contract where we deliver a range of our FM services and where the client’s values align strongly with our own core values of Always do right, Always seek better and Always put people first.
About the partnership
We have been working at Meadowhall for seven years, helping to provide a high-quality leisure experience for its 18.6 million visitors every year.
We were first awarded the contract in 2018 when the client made the decision to outsource its FM services and was looking for a partner who could deliver an outsourced service delivery model with all of the benefits of an in-house delivery solution. We demonstrated strong compliance, strong community spirit, a clear and coherent understanding of the brief and translated this into a bespoke delivery model for the client.
The implementation of the contract was complex including the engagement and on boarding of the existing team, adaption of our systems to meet the specific needs of the centre, full audit of transferring systems to ensure compliance and delivering a seamless and successful transition within six weeks. The basis of our approach was to retain the in-house feel of the previous service delivery model to ensure that all employees truly felt part of the centre.
The Churchill team at Meadowhall operates as one team and delivers high quality services across the centre. We manage waste, recycling, high level cleaning, mall cleaning and cleaning of the food court, as well as gardening and maintenance of the car parks and surrounding lands.
The team includes highly trained security officers who ensure the safety of the premises and visitors to the centre. The team also includes customer service specialists who operate as a concierge team. They work across three service desks and provide mobile customer service around the mall, providing information, guest services and support for visitors with additional needs.
218 Churchill colleagues look after this £4.3 million contract across all service streams, delivering in excess of 7675 hours per week.
A dedicated security team
The security services we provide to Meadowhall ensure the security and safety of all customers, retailers and colleagues, both on site and the surrounding lands. Our security team has extremely strong links with all emergency service partners and along with our dedicated onsite Police partners, is committed to providing a safe, welcoming and crime free environment for all.
Collectively, the team has reduced the impact of crime through their intervention in 1,031 shoplifting incidents, recovering £178,077 of stolen property in 2024, and over £40,000 from January to April 2025. Facilitating over 6,000 ejections from the centre in 2024, the security team continuously ensures that those displaying anti-social behaviour are not negatively impacting the customer and occupier experience.
Our officers are also trained Community First Responders and provided 9,639 hours in 2024 to support the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.
Their skills and knowledge are critical as they responded to 757 first aid incidents on site in 2024, some of which have involved performing lifesaving CPR, as well as supporting those in mental health crisis. The team is highly rated by the centre visitors in our feedback surveys and was awarded the Police Partnership award in 2022, as well as being highly commended at the 2023 SCEPTRE Awards.
Team development and wellbeing
The overall success of the Churchill Meadowhall team is largely due to the focus on learning and development. Every individual who joins the team undergoes a rigorous induction programme designed to develop a foundation of understanding about the levels of service required and KPI priorities. They receive additional education in how to approach and support visitors who may have additional needs (autism, dementia, and other hidden disabilities).
Mental health and wellbeing support is also a major area of focus for the team. Regular wellbeing and mental health sessions are run to support staff and help them deal with the challenging environment they often work within. There is a culture of openness which allows staff to communicate honestly about their issues, and a structure that directs individuals to additional support as needed. This has all led to a resilient Churchill at Meadowhall team.
Sustainability initiatives
Our shared commitment to sustainability underpins all decisions and projects and is central to our daily operations at Meadowhall,
culminating in being awarded Sustainability Initiative of the Year at the 2024 SCEPTRE Awards.
Through some of the below initiatives we continue to improve our sustainability credentials and enhance our environment for the betterment of our local and wider communities.
- Recycling – our waste management system delivers a 63% recycle rate and we are working towards the 70% recycling target by 2030. We have a recycling facility on site to facilitate waste segregation and work in close partnership with our recycling partners to dispose of food waste in a sustainable and innovative way. In the last 12 months we’ve collected and diverted 343,523kg of food waste away from landfill which got recycled into green energy and bio fertiliser, generating a significant CO2 saving of 158 tonnes per year.
- River Don work – our trained team cleans and maintains the river which runs along the northern edge of Meadowhall. We extract 40 bags of litter and debris each year, in addition to shopping trolleys and car tyres. The team recently dammed the river to carry out repairs to the 100-year-old weir, using most of the original blockwork that had been displaced and carried down the river. Our continued efforts have contributed to the return of salmon, otters, swans, kingfishers and herons, and a reduction of invasive weed species such as Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed.
- Biodiversity – we have created a wildlife corridor to enhance the biodiversity for the local area and provide a space for the community to enjoy and connect with. A recently completed initiative has seen the planting of native oak trees, fruit trees and wildflowers to encourage pollination and natural spread of seeds. We have also installed bug hotels, bird boxes and beehives (which produce our own honey) to create natural habitats and protect valuable ecosystems.
Fostering an inclusive environment
With people at the core of the team’s values, its culture is centred around inclusion. A number of Meadowhall customers have additional needs and the team ensures that they have a positive experience of the centre. One example is in the team’s approach to customers with autism. Concierge staff have been trained in autism awareness and are able to identify visitors who may be feeling overwhelmed, and have created dedicated sensory rooms with auditory, visual, and tactile sensory equipment.
To ensure all visitor needs are taken into account, our team has created separate quiet rooms along with an ablution facility for customers to use when visiting the centre.
The team has made similar efforts around breast feeding facilities, hidden disabilities and dementia care. With additional training, raising awareness of the facilities that are available and supporting customers with additional needs, the Churchill team is constantly working towards its goal of ensuring a positive experience for all.
Recognising the challenges parents with young children face, led by our team, Meadowhall became one of the first shopping centres to introduce a free parent and child parking permit programme, ensuring convenient and stress-free parking access, protected from unauthorised use. The scheme has protected these spaces for a staggering 52,600 registered families since its launch in August 2023, significantly improving safety for families using the busy car parks with children under 5. These upgrades have led to an increase in centre usage, with recent surveys also showing high satisfaction ratings from families who have praised the availability of
dedicated areas and parking programmes specifically.
Supporting the local community
Multiple initiatives reflect our commitment to positively impact experiences of those within our local community. To support community development, members from the Churchill Meadowhall team are recruited from the local Sheffield community.
Working with local partners in education, community groups and employability organisations, we are proud to have helped more than 500 local job seekers develop new skills, thanks to our employability training at Meadowhall.
Our partnership with the National Literacy Trust facilitated the Young Readers Programme where we have helped to improve the life chances of over 2,700 local school children since 2013, igniting their imaginations through engagement with authors, poets, and actors.
Supporting local charities is always high on our list of priorities. Together with our retailers and shoppers we have raised £140,787 for local groups and charities since 2021. These funds have benefited worthwhile causes such as local hospices, the homeless and the air ambulance service.
A trusted FM partner
Over the years we have established ourselves as a trusted partner to Meadowhall. Our priority is to effectively deliver the contract and we consistently strive for operational excellence. Taking a collaborative approach, we engage with all stakeholders to ensure we are responsive whilst proactively identifying opportunities to evolve as a team and deliver the best services.
The team works to clearly defined KPIs and scores highly across all metrics, achieving an average score of 97%. The CACI customer exit survey delivered a strong net promoter score of +60 (with anything above 50 being deemed “excellent”). From the 5,248 TellMeadowhall customer survey responses in 2024 , three of the top five scoring categories included Overall cleanliness (91%), Safety and security (90%) and customer services (89%), which are all a direct responsibility of our team. This ties in with the recent centre occupier survey, scoring the centre teams at 92%.
These high scores are testament to the hard work of an engaged team that strives to provide an unbeatable leisure experience for all.