H&C News meets with suppliers regularly to keep up to date with changes that will affect the hospitality sector, and to get the inside track on how movements within the industry will shape their forward plans. This week we met with Pete Reilly, CEO of Cleaner Products at their offices in Kent to discuss the recent buyout of Zenith and their current developments, we raised the following questions.
So how did the news of the Zenith buy-out go down at Cleaner Products:
Firstly, we have to say many congratulations to Ringo and his team at Zenith, they have built a really good brand over the last 20 years and it comes as no surprise that Diversey with the backing of Bain Capital should want to aquire the Zenith business to add to their portfolio. Diversey have found it tough going in the UK over the last decade and this acquisition will add to their continued global reach.
Does the buyout affect Cleaner Products in any way:
Yes, the buyout now makes Cleaner Products the largest British manufacturing brand in London that deal direct with end users.
What effect do you think the buyout will have in the hospitality sector:
I think the main concern for the hospitality sector will be that without Diversey having Zenith as a competitor they are now likely to see increases in their costs.
Do you think that Cleaner Products will benefit from the buyout:
Yes I’m sure that certain operators will feel that dealing with a global giant is not in their best interest, but our forward plan for Cleaner Products will not really change, we have been growing consistently over the last five years and growing at a pace the fits our capability.
Are there plans to develop your capability further:
Of course, over the last couple of years we have invested further into production, storage and our distribution ability, but we are not going to get ahead of ourselves, our main priority is to continue to supply the same level of service to our client base and maintain the cost of the service we provide, as a brand we are delighted that we have been able to maintain costs to our clients and have not had to increase prices over the last nine years, not many companies can say that.
How long do you think you will be able to maintain costs:
We feel confident that we can maintain our costs for the foreseeable future because of a number of factors, our business has been growing very consistently so we are able to reduce the costs of our raw materials, also we a great believers of embracing new technologies and have been replacing our vehicles to electric alternatives which is reducing both our costs and our carbon footprint.
How do you see the future of Cleaner Products regarding the environment:
As I have said in the past were not ‘Tree Huggers’ but having achieved the environmental standard ISO14001 seven years ago we will continue to do all we can to limit our footprint, we are approaching our first decade of trading and being a younger brand we have been able to use technology to our advantage which of course reflects favourable on our clients. We will continue to grow our business while at the same time maintain our goals for sustainability.
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Cleaner Products Limited, PO Box 36, Orpington, Kent, BR6 6ZD
Phone us on 01689 861984 or if you prefer you can contact either myself or my son Nathan on the following emails:
pete@cleanerproducts.co.uk , nathan@cleanerproducts.co.uk
We interviewed Cleaner Products here