During the last half-year the number of cleaning companies has considerably increased.The demand on cleaning of carpets, upholstered furniture, washing of windows and fa?ade systems is increasing with the beginning of spring-summer season. The cleaning after construction and general cleaning are essential during the whole year.

Factory of Cleanliness

The unquestionable is a fact, that a presentable look of inner and external look of any place makes a good image of its owner or company. Keeping the commercial, government and living premises clean is an essential part of effectiveness and comfort of work, recreation and good feeling of people. The increasing of Ukrainian’s well-being causes the increasing of people, who trust the cleaning of their houses, offices, shopping and entertaining malls to the professionals.

As our country step-by-step follows the European countries and USA, it’s important to notice, that this fact caused the appearance of new business – the cleaning business. The job of cleaning companies is to do services concerned with professional cleaning with using of modern high-tech equipment and professional chemicals.

“It’s well-known, that Ukrainian cleaning market started its development at the beginning of 1990th”, Denis Kish, the general manager of Shaden Group, explains, “During the first 5-7 years the first steps of creating the market of household services were made. We had to show to the customer their profitability, effectiveness and expediency. But it was just single companies, the western companies were still afraid to invest money into the development of post-soviet economy. The new cleaning companies appeared at the end of 1990th, they were aimed at the achieving of result, and they were ready to invest into the staff training, buying of technique, chemicals. It caused certain results, because the companies, which were created then, are the biggest players of the cleaning market.”

According to Vitalij Obodyansky, the general manager of Ukrainian interregional department of the cleaning company Griffin, the mainstream business came to Ukraine from the West. The chaotic cleaning business was born under the conditions of inflation and difficult economical situation in Ukraine. The main customers of the service were West companies. They formed the base of quality, price policy and demand. The specialist thinks, that the mass entrance of the investors into the cleaning industry was in 1998-2000. It’s connected with the myth of financial easiness of entrance into the business and with the necessity to save the rest of the money after the crisis of 1998. Since 2002 the cleaning market started its brand new development thanks to the financial and construction bum.

The collaboration between the customers and cleaning companies has different forms: single job performance and long-term doing of jobs. The specialists emphasize on some direction of cleaning jobs, especially on complex approach to the jobs performance.

“First of all, these are main cleaning jobs”, Svetlana Mits, the general manager of Air Clean, informs, “They include the full complex of measures concerned with the care of real estate. This is a complex cleaning of all surfaces (horizontal and vertical). It means that the specialists take care about the condition of your flooring, plinths, walls, doors, windows, furniture, bathrooms etc. The same procedure may be daily and single. Except for the main jobs concerned with cleaning of premises, the serious cleaning company may offer an additional set of services. These are the cleaning of adjoining territory: washing of asphalt, removing of trash and snow, removing of pollutions from the parking post, keeping the trash bins and ash-trays clean, cleaning of bars before the entrances and drains, “greening” jobs. The package of services is formed individually for each customer. After getting an application for cleaning, the cleaning company employee comes to your place to estimate the volume of jobs. While counting the cost of services, we take into consideration the factors as the total area of premises, the level of pollutions, the terms of performance etc. The client gets the information about the list of necessary jobs, the number of employees, schedule of cleaning, and cost of services. If you speak about the complex cleaning, its cost includes the washing of floor, walls, cleaning of furniture, bathrooms etc.”

Operators and Services

The cleaning market is considered to be young enough, and right now we see the top of its development, even though more than 300 companies are playing on the market. The main players of the market are the following companies: Cleantech, Actual-Service, Shaden Group, Griffin Group, Primex, DEN, Dussman-Ukraine, Chistyj Svet. The new players of the market are Betta-Cleaning, Air Clean, Kiev Cleaning, Clean Star, Pervaya Cleaning Company, TD-Cleaning etc.

For today the all above listed companies and the others operators are able to offer their clients the diverse palette of services concerned with cleaning of living, commercial, industrial places and adjoining territories, facades, transportation etc. There’re such kinds of professional cleaning, which demand is growing during the certain seasons (summer, vacation time, holidays). There’re services, which are essential during the whole year.

According to the words of Vitalij Obodyanskij, the most essential services are dry cleaning of carpet (from 5 grivnas for sq. m), fa?ade washing (from 12 grivnas for sq. m), and washing of windows (from 8 grivnas for sq. m). The demand on the certain services doesn’t have strong drops. The part of services is seasonal; the complex of services implies the strict regulation of jobs for the year.

The most popular cleaning services for now are general cleaning, cleaning after construction, dry cleaning of upholstered furniture. The following services are also presented: complex cleaning of premises (single and daily), cleaning of appliances (of monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone etc.), cleaning and polishing of firm surfaces, washing and processing of firm flooring (linoleums, tile, parquet etc.), polishing of parquet and parquet board, laminate, polishing and crystallization of marble, granite, washing of windows and showcases, stained-glass windows, mirror surfaces, dry cleaning of Venetian blinds, washing of doors, plinths and casings, washing of tile, bathrooms, washing of swimming pools and sidewalk tile, cleaning of territories, landscape design, removing of trash, transportation of loads, delivery of construction materials etc.

Price of Cleanliness

Amongst the factors, which affect the price of cleaning services, the operators name the scale of the object, its purpose and personal preferences of the customer.

“The cost of cleaning services is very individual”, Pavel Ryabtsev, the commercial director of TD-Cleaning, accents, “The cost of dry cleaning may be defined (about 10 grivnas for one sq. m of carpet, about 30-50 grivnas for one seating place of furniture), but the cost of the cleaning after construction depends on the level of pollution and complexity of its removing. It should be emphasized that the understanding of cleanliness of each customer is different. The demands of the customer depend on their understanding of cleanliness, and the prices also depend on it.”

According to the information, given by Vitalij Obodyanskij, the most interesting job is a job with natural stone. It includes the covering of inner surfaces of swimming pools with waterproof stone (from 10 grivnas for sq. m), polishing of stone floor (from 20 grivnas for one sq. m), restoring of stone floors (from 200 grivnas for one sq. m).

The specialist says that they had to increase the prices on some kinds of services for 10-50% in the first half a year. The main reason is a sharp growth of salaries and fuel. The proportion of salaries is no less than 50%, that’s why the growth of prices can be restrained just by the intensification of labor and optimization of technique and detergents using.

As Svetlana Mits esplains, everything depends on the complexity and volume of jobs. For example, the prices on cleaning after repair are from 10 to 20 grivnas for one sq. m of surfaces. More often the cleaning companies have to do the window washing, the washing of showcases and stained-glass windows. This service costs 7-20 grivnas depending on its complexity.

We Know Our Client

The clients of cleaning companies are commercial objects (shopping malls, business-centers, hotels, clubs, cinemas, and banks), government institution, owners of apartments, cottages, enterprises, big constructional companies etc.

As Denis Kish says, while choosing the cleaning company, the main factors are its reputation, quality and fastness of orders fulfillment. All of those factors may be checked. The first collaboration requires clients recommendations. You may also go to the objects, which are cleaned by a certain company, and estimate the level of cleaning and the level of cleanliness.
One of the methods of choosing the cleaning company is monitoring of the majority of companies.

“As a rule, all potential clients compare the level of prices, which are offered by the cleaning companies”, Sergej Matlach, the general manager of Betta-Cleaning Ltd., tells, “It’s very important for the customer to know about the reputation of the company and its professional possibilities (speed, efficiency of jobs performance, the uniform of employees, technical equipment, chemicals). The main clients are the owners of the shopping malls, cottages, apartments, enterprises, offices, etc.”

If talking about problems, the cleaning market isn’t insured of those. All specialists name the main and general problem of the sphere –presence of private people at the market.

“The number of companies, which do the professional cleaning, is growing”, Svetlana Mits comments, “Even though the quality of clients rises. Altogether we’ve got lots of private people, who offer you doing any services for low price. Using of unprofessional chemicals, equipment, absence of skills and knowledge lead to the bad results. The professionals will never low the prices too much, they will advise you the better and more expedient way of doing the service. This is the main problem for today for both customers and cleaning companies, which have to deal with the removing of the consequences of private people job.”

As Maksim Vinnik, the manager of selling department of Chistyj Svet, states, most of the companies face the same problem – absence of qualified staff, rotation and fluidity of staff. The specialist names the fact, that their company regularly does the monitoring of staff market, provides the good salary for their employees, which helps to reduce the fluidity of staff. It’s also important to motivate the staff – give the monthly bonuses to the best employees.

The information about the cleaning companies may be got from the commercials in mass-media, communication with regular clients. Besides, almost each big city has cleaning companies.

To Be Continued…

The prospects of the segments are connected with the fast terms of construction and correspondently with the regular appearance of new players on the cleaning market. According to the opinion of some specialists, the cleaning services will be really cheap soon and more accessible for the majority of population.

The reasons of the stopping of development of the area may be (according to Sergej Matlah):

• Unstable economical development of the country
• Absence of welfare growing
• Taxing

“The next stage of cleaning industry development will begin with the joining the WTO and entering of new players the Ukrainian market: the suppliers of equipment and detergents, the cleaning companies”, Vilalij Obodyanskij states, “You may assume that the cleaning market will grow for 40-60% a year during the following few years.”

Comments of the Specialists

Denis Kish, the general manager of Shaden Group:

— The complex approach is a biggest satisfaction of customer’s demands. The cleaning company shouldn’t only qualitatively clean the place, but also leave a good impression. It mostly depends on the staff, the level of its training and education:

• Ability to take the order
• Quickly estimate it for the customer
• Include all necessities and details (time, remedies etc.)
• Punctuation, ability to arrive at time with a full set of technique, chemicals, which is necessary for the performance of the order
• Perfect fulfillment of the order
• Possibility to do the additional services for the customer: washing, dry cleaning, supplying with support consumables (soap, toilet paper, napkins etc.)

The Shaden Group and the majority of others cleaning companies try to do the fullest set of services.

Vitalij Obodyanskij, the general manager of the central Ukrainian interregional department of Griffin:

— I should notice that the sphere of complex cleaning service mostly includes the office and trade centers, entertaining centers, and administrative buildings, industrial and logistic complexes. A customer may be both an owner and a leaseholder.

First of all, a customer orientates on the references, personal impression after the checking of objects and prices.

The modern level of competition in the cleaning industry proves that the filling of mass media with information about the prices and services of the company is not a problem. The commercials cry about their services and effectiveness. In my opinion, the main problem of the cleaning market is absence of strong players in the cleaning industry, which could create the highest level of quality and intensity of the labor.

Sergej Matlach, the general manager of Betta-Cleaning Ltd.:

— We don’t have enough information about cleaning companies, their possibilities and differences. Each client faces the constant with of the operator to earn more money, instead of effective fulfillment of the tasks. Lots of the cleaning companies don’t aim to effectively do the job at all. The whole set of unsolved problems causes it:

• The insufficient number of trained staff
• Fluidity of staff
• Absence of the school of staff training
• Low level of the salary
• Week technical equipment
• Stereotypes of the population etc.

Pavel Ryabtsev, the commercial director of TD-Cleaning:

— Today there’re lots of private people, which do the cleaning. They’re always damping at the market, but don’t do the same level of services, as the juridical people. The companies, which work at the market for a while, guarantee first of all the quality of jobs fulfillment. Besides, they take charge for the possible damages, unlike the private people. Even the presence of web-site of company proves that this is a serious company.

If talking about shopping malls and business-centers, they don’t always need the services of cleaning companies, as they mostly have their own cleaning departments.

Maksim Vinnik, the manager of selling department of Chistyj Svet:

— There’re more than 150-180 cleaning companies in Ukraine. The main players of the market are Chistyj Svet, Shaden Group, Actual Service, Clean Star, Cleantech, Griffin Group, Den, Inter Service Luks, Master Clean etc. The leading position are taken by those cleaning companies, which have enough experience not only in Ukraine, but also in Belarus, Russia, and also the organizations, which may serve the real estate of any type. The important factor is a possibility of doing the service in all regions of Ukraine. For example, the company Chistyj Svet has its representatives in more than 19 cities of Ukraine.

Svetlana Mits, the general manager of Air Clean:

— The first cleaning companies appeared about 80 years ago. With the foreign companies entered the Ukrainian economy in 90th, the first cleaning organization appeared in Ukraine. The cleaning companies serve just 15% of commercial real estate, 90% of which is in Kiev.

The native market of cleaning services it too young, but after analyzing of market growth you may say that it has a great potential for further development.

The number of real estate objects is growing, and cleaning is a main component of the attractiveness of objects and the demand on professional cleaning will just be growing.

Artem Kovalevsky, the marketing specialist of Den:

— The necessity of professional cleaning appeared with the foreign companies entered the Ukrainian market. Altogether the first foreign players entered the Ukrainian market, what made a push to the further development of the direction.

The professional cleaning proved to be not only a free niche, but also a profitable business. The first who realized that were Ukrainians, who worked for foreign cleaning organization. They began to create their own cleaning companies. The structure of that organization was 2-3 people, floor-washing machine and vacuum cleaner. Certainly, it couldn’t satisfy a big customer. Because professional cleaning company is a company, which not only do the full complex of cleaning services, but also clean the adjoining territory, informs a client about the choosing of trimming materials at the stage of projecting the construction further office of cottage. In the future it’ll definitely help to reduce the expenses on exploitation of premises because of increasing the terms of living of surfaces and keeping its perfect look. The Ukrainian cleaning companies grow really rapidly. The leaders are those, which constantly improve the quality of services and properly position themselves at the market. The sphere of cleaning industry will grow together with the development of construction of business-centers, trade and living estate.

Source: “Property Times”