The inhabitants of the capital always want to shift off the cleaning of their premises and offices on specialized companies. Mostly they don’t even bargain about it, requiring the conscientious fulfillment of works only. The fact allowed the cleaners to raise the prices in 1.5-2 times, making the average profitability of business too high.

Kiev Inhabitants Estimated the Cleanliness

The cleaning boom starts growing at the capital market. According to the information of the manager of European Technologies of Services Vladimir Skripnik, the demand on cleanliness has been grown for 30% during the year. The sector has all chances to keep the dynamic in the future, and even to beat the existing records.

“About 25-30% of Europeans use the cleaning services, in our country the index don’t exceed 5%”, Igor Akimenko, the general manager of Kiev Cleaning, states. According to the opinion of marketing specialist of Shaden Group Iryna Kladko, the boom at the market is mostly connected with endless construction and repair rush in Kiev.

“The cleaning after construction has been the number one cleaning service during the last few years”, she says.

However, the construction boom isn’t a main factor for business development already. During the last year the client base has reasonably grown, the clients are ready to order the service not only for their business, but also for private life.

“The private customers often ask about general cleaning: they need window washing, carpet cleaning and cleaning of upholstery”, the deputy general manager of 1000 Services Igor Andrievsky says. According to his words, the clients may pay from 250 to a couple thousand of grivnas for cleaning like that. It’s interesting that the attitude to the subcontractors has changed. If they were earlier chosen by recommendations only, this year the companies estimated the power of commercials.

“The articles in mass-media started to work. We don’t need to convince the potential customers any more. They are ready to order a service and make clear just the details. The requirements of the customers have considerably grown. Sometimes they ask about the brand of equipment and names of the chemicals, which are used during the cleaning”, Vladimir Skripnik says.

More often the corporative clients want to shift off the cleaning on the cleaning companies. If the services of hired staff were ordered by the big companies only (trade centers, supermarkets, banks, etc.), this year the part of small and medium companies has increased.

“Right now we have more new technologies, which are difficult to learn, if you don’t have a special training. For example, to clean some certain surfaces, you need the whole set of technique and chemicals, so it’s unprofitable to buy those just for yourself. It’s much easier to get a cleaning service, especially it’s not as expensive – about 3-9 grivnas for one sq. m”, Vladimir Skripnik explains.

The modern trends also have their place: it’s not a secret that the specialists in uniform are better required than a traditional grandma with a bucket.

Amongst the most essential services for corporative clients Iryna Kladko names the different kinds of cleaning (daily, general, during different holidays), removing of trash, dry cleaning of carpet and upholstery, washing of windows and showcases.

As earlier, the companies choose the customers at the tenders, even though we do have the new trends in the relationships with cleaners.

“More often the big companies create the cleaning departments, which serve them. To create a good job of this chain you need to get the best specialists from the other companies”, the representative of 1000 Services told.

Cleaners Used Their Chance

The demand on cleaning services couldn’t affect the supply. According to the research, done by Shaden Group, at the moment more than 120 companies work at the cleaning market, and just 15-20 of those can be called the big ones. For comparison: just three years ago their number was no less than 30.

Each month the new companies appear at the cleaning market. But where is a guarantee that they will be able to work for at least one season.

“Summer is the traditionally worst time for cleaners. 20% of all jobs are done between the seasons. Lately we have lots of calls from the “competitors”, who offer us to buy their equipment for half of price. It proves the bad situation of their business”, Igor Andrievskij states.

The previous employees of cleaning companies often organize their own business. It says about the mass character of cleaning companies’ appearance.

“You’ll never do a special career in this business. A maximum what a specialist may reach is a way from the cleaner to a team manager. As a result, the fluidity of staff is a regular thing here”, Igor Akimenko explains.

The low threshold for entering the business is also the advantage for the potential investors. According to the Mr. Akimenko, you may start your small business with $3–5 thousands. However you company will be orientated on private customers only. The number of companies, which can serve the corporative customers, is much smaller, because the cost of equipment may reach up to $100 thousands. The high profitability of business is also another advantage.

“The profitability of the business is 30-50% in average, sometimes it may reach up to 200%. At the same time we have situations, when a company don’t have any profit, sometimes it may even have losses. It’s a regular thing between the seasons, when the number of clients is small. Not everybody may survive this summer”, Mr. Akimenko thinks.

The representatives of the companies tell about the strict competition at the cleaning market. The prices for cleaning services weren’t reduced; they have grown 1.5-2 times. The general cleaning and cleaning after construction costs no less than 6-8 grivnas for one sq. m, washing of glass surfaces – 8-10 grivnas for one sq. m, dry cleaning – from 8 grivnas for one sq. m.

The cleaners explain these prices by the inflation, high price of household chemicals, transportation and growing of salaries. However, according to Igor Akimenko, the growing of prices is cause by the fact, that the main trump in the fight for client is quality of services, not their price.

“There’re lots of companies at the market, which offer comparatively low prices, but they don’t do their job at all. We were asked for several times to redo these orders, and it was more expensive for the client, than the single but qualitative fulfillment of jobs. Perhaps, the Kiev inhabitants made their own conclusions and avoid the suspicious cheapness”, Mr. Akimenko explains.

Source: “Delovaya Stolitsa”