As I said CMS: Never quote a job that includes Toilet rolls, hand towels, hand soap, you can throw average figures around all day, that means nothing... 1.9metres per day, thats shocking, I go before I go to work 
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Of course, I should have qualified it a bit more.
Wages at 57% is fine on a contract with a value of up to say £1500 a month. Over and above thatthe wage 'percentage' will get higher as you start to compete with the Nationals. When I had Ford Motor Company at Dagenham under my control in 1991 the wage bill was 82% but it didn't matter on a contract worth £4m a year.
I was talking about the type of work that Lisa was competing for.
And yes, if you were quoting £8-9 per hour on a contract worth under £1500 a month you would be struggling.
To depreciate the equipment on a contract priced like that you'd have to have it for 10 years!!
I cant recall Lisa mentioning the size of the contract 
An £18,000pa contract, 38hrs per week, I'd take it on for £9.00 per hour.
I thought the site you mentioned employed their own cleaners, what company did you work for? £4million for cleaning per year, at £5.00 per hour thats 15,384 hrs per week,,,, thats some hours CMS :
did the cleaners build the cars aswell?
Sorry I didn't get back to this last night.....................got involved with something else.
I'll try and answer each of your points in turn so forgive me if I appear to be jumping from subject to subject.
You say NEVER quote to provide consumable items. I agree with you, it's always best not to BUT in some cases it can't be avoided. On the larger contracts that involve filling in tender documents it's often necessary. If you don't do it you're out of the frame. As Tim said (and I said earlier) there are formulas for working this out but I avoid it wherever possible.
Lisa DID discuss the size of the contract on another topic. She was asking whether 1 cleaner for two hours is better than two cleaners for one hour.
An £18,000 contract at £9.00 per hour is something that I'd refuse. If you paid 'minimum wage' i.e. £5.05 per hour your wages would be 57% BUT you haven't added anything on for holiday pay, ENI yet. Your TRUE wages would be nearer 62%. Then you've got your materials (4%), that brings your costs up to 66%.
Now then - equipment. You'd probably have to depreciate it at another 2% a month and we're up to 68% - DIRECT COSTS!
Indirect costs...............management, supervision, training, H & S, admin, fuel...................and the list goes on. All out of your remaining 32%. It doesn't leave a lot does it?
Now then, the Ford site at Dagenham didn't employ their own cleaners. I worked for NES Limited at the time (who have now had a name change). As you may or not know Ford is/was a huge site comprising Engine factory, Assembly works, Paint shop and many many additional sites and exterior areas.
The cost of the contract was £4m per annum but of course it wasn't all cleaning hours (I thought you'd be sensible enough to realise that without me having to spell it out). The cleaning hours were only a small part of it. The other part of the contract was for :
Process equipment cleaning (roll test booths, conveyor pits, paint ovens etc.)
Waste management (compactors, balers, tow trucks, skips etc.)
Janitorial Supplies (YES! indeed........toilet rolls, soaps, industrial wipes).
Exterior cleaning.
Grounds maintenance.
The wage content for the cleaning hours was at 82%.
Finally, it's very easy to make assumptions about a posters experience on forums like this. Without enough information on their profile it's hard to judge whether they actually know what you are talking about.
I assumed you were actually more experienced than it seems you actually are and I apologise for making that assumption. When you are next involved with the topic I'll try and explain myself better.
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