Cost & value / Multi-site budgeting
Several sites look like one number multiplied out. They rarely are - each kitchen loads and reaches its ductwork differently.
One group, many kitchens
Running deep cleans across several sites looks like a job for one number multiplied out. It rarely is. Each kitchen loads at its own pace and reaches its ductwork in its own way, so a group budget built on an average tends to over-fund the quiet sites and starve the busy ones.
The goal across a portfolio is the same as on one site - the right clean at the right interval - but the accounting has to hold many different right answers at once.
Why sites differ
A high-volume, fryer-led site needs cleaning far more often than a light breakfast kitchen, and TR19 Grease sets those intervals by use - broadly around every three months for heavy use, six for moderate and twelve for light. Access varies just as widely: a ground-floor canopy is a quick job, a rooftop discharge run behind other tenancies is not. Two sites under the same brand can carry very different costs for exactly the same standard.
Budget them as one line and the number will be wrong in both directions at once. A single brand-wide figure also hides the sites drifting toward a heavier, dearer clean because their interval was set by the group average rather than by their own fryers.
Building the number
A sound estate budget starts with a survey of each site - its grease load, its duct run, its access - which sets a frequency and a per-visit cost for that kitchen. Rolled up, those give a defensible annual figure, while a single compliance register keeps every site's certificate current and visible in one place. A rolling programme also smooths the spend across the year rather than bunching it into a scramble. Staggering the visits across the estate keeps any single month from carrying the whole cost.
Portfolio compliance
The value of doing this well is not only cost control. It is knowing, at group level, that no site has quietly slipped out of compliance because its clean was budgeted on another kitchen's usage.
So a single per-site figure times the number of sites is necessary but not sufficient. Each site's surveyed load and access set its own frequency and cost, so an estate budget is built from the bottom up - not spread down from an average.
Questions
It is a starting point, not an answer. Sites differ enough in usage and access that an average over-funds the quiet kitchens and under-funds the busy ones. A per-site survey gives a figure you can defend.
By use, per TR19 Grease - broadly every three months for heavy use, six for moderate and twelve for light. A survey of each kitchen's grease load sets its own interval rather than a group default.
A single register of every site's clean dates and certificates keeps the whole estate visible in one place, so nothing lapses unnoticed. It also makes insurer and fire-assessment requests easy to answer.
Usually - a rolling programme matched to each site's interval smooths spend across the year and keeps certificates current, rather than reacting site by site when something is remembered.
Grease load and access. A busy fryer-led kitchen with a rooftop discharge run costs far more to keep compliant than a light kitchen with a ground-floor canopy - even under the same brand.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We survey each site and set an interval and a cost per kitchen, with one register for all your certificates. Talk to us about a multi-site programme and quote.