The increasing of demand during the New Year and other holidays may cause the increasing of cost of cleaning services.

The cleaning companies are looking forward for the beginning of new season of active job. It traditionally starts after the ending of summer slackening – the season of vacation. Lots of trash appears in front of trade centers; the stores are becoming really dirty. In winter and in spring, especially before holidays (New Year, Christmas, 8th of March etc.), all trade and office centers want to shine with cleanliness, that’s why the demand on cleaning services increases a lot.

“At the moment more than 40% of the orders come from the trade and business centers”, Dmitrij Galyas, the general manager of Center of 1000 Services, told us.

However some experts notice that this year the demand on similar services started growing not only amongst the corporative clients.

“People buy more commercial real estate. These are mostly apartments from 100 sq. m, cottages, and expensive offices. The recommendations of satisfied customers are highly appreciated”, Iryna Kladko, the marketing specialist of Shaden Group, told us. She also states that the clients want to get everything and right now. In other words, the cleaning companies should show both the high quality of order fulfillment and the high speed of job doing.

“Compared to the previous year, the cleaning market has grown for about 20%. By the end of the year the number may reach 30%”, Mr. Galyas says.

According to his words, it’s possible thanks to the widening of service spectrum of the companies and increasing the number of orders. It’s interesting that the numbers have grown slightly since the last year – for 5-10%. The operators explain that the growing number of customers help keeping the prices at the same level.

“The number of clients is growing, that’s why nobody increases the prices right now”, the manager of Chistyj Svet Maksim Vinnik said.

At the same time the market operators say, that the increasing of prices for cleaning services is caused by increasing of prices of chemicals, equipment, increasing of staff salaries and other reasons.

The sphere of cleaning services will continue its growing with development of construction, opening of new trade centers and offices, and also with increasing of the number of VIP-customers.

The prices on cleaning services are defined by the volume of jobs, and first of all this includes the area of premises. As a rule, the average cost of services is $1-2 for one sq. m of area. The specific surfaces (for example, silk, wall ceilings, etc.) cost more – from $3 for one sq. m, the dry cleaning of billiard and game tables costs from от $4-5 for one sq. m, the cleaning of cars costs from $20-30. The daily complex cleaning of premises for a month costs $1 thousand, depending on the type of premises and spectrum of jobs. However in this case the cleaning companies do reasonable discounts. The urgent orders are served by double price. Some companies offer their equipment for rent. The others, except for cleaning, are engaged in the trade of chemicals, uniform and equipment for cleaning. There’re such companies at the market, which dump the price.

“From time to time we observe small companies appearing and offering the prices, which often are twice lower than the market ones. They save on technique, chemicals, staff qualification”, Ms. Kladko said.

According to the operators, there’re about 130-150 cleaning companies at the market, but the big ones are just 10 out of those, the medium companies are 30, and the rest amount are the small companies. Amongst the leaders we name Clean World («Чистый свет»), Primex Service, DaLa, Shaden Group, Center of 1000 Services («Центр 1000 услуг») and the others. Almost all big companies orient on the rich customers. More than 90% of companies are native. The foreign companies are mostly from the nearest abroad – from Russia, Belarus etc.

If you talk about the prospects of this sphere, the operators connect their hopes with a great potential of market.

“The market will be growing. For example the cities like New York, Los Angeles, have about a thousand of cleaning companies. We have a smaller number”, Alexander Grakov, the manager of Cleaning Service, told us.

According to his words, the more rich people are in the country, the more intensive is the development of cleaning market. The other experts agree with him.

“During the last year some cleaning companies of the world level went to Ukraine in order to “check the cleaning situation”. Look around: the endless constructions, each new-paper has a column about real estate: millions of square meters are for rent, for sell. That’s why the prospects of market development are huge. That’s why the prospects of market development are huge”, Ms. Kladko summed up.

It’s also necessary to mention that there’re lots of niches at the cleaning market because of the small amount of cleaning companies.

“For example, we have a niche of extreme cleaning – cleaning after fires, floods, etc. This is a very popular kind of cleaning amongst the teenagers, who order it before the parents go back home”, Mr. Galyas said. Extreme-cleaning costs twice more than a regular one.

The main problem of the cleaning sphere is the absence of trained staff.

“We see the big staff fluidity in the sphere. That’s because we don’t have the prospects of growth”, Mr. Grakov said. The quality of orders fulfilled by the companies suffers from it.

Main Thing

According to the operators of market, the services of cleaning companies are especially essential during the holidays. When the demand is high, the prices are also high enough. That’s why the market operators advise to make the price clear in forward. The specialists also say that it’s better to work with famous and trusted companies, because they don’t save money on staff training and are responsible for the quality of order fulfillment. For those, who wants to make some money in this business: there’re lots of niches here. However if you would like to be involved in serious business, you will have to spend some money on expensive equipment: a couple of dozens of grivnas for buckets and mops, and a couple of thousand dollars for special washing machine. The experts advise to hurry up, because the big foreign players already consider filling these niches.

Source: “Sejchas”