Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111

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Regular Cleaning differentiates itself from the competition with CIMS certification

Founded in 1969 by the organisation's current chairman Terry Carrigan, at the age of 27, on the timeless core values of 'honesty, attention to detail and attention to clients, Regular Cleaning recently chose to pursue certification to the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) due to the programme's alignment with the company's promise to deliver the best services possible to its clients through well managed operations.

Driven by ISSA and supported by BICs Business Services (BBS), CIMS is a consensus-based management standard that outlines and benchmarks the primary characteristics of a successful, quality cleaning organisation.

"We turned to CIMS because we saw the clear advantages it could offer our business," says Terry Carrigan. "As well as improving operational efficiency, becoming certified with honours demonstrates our commitment to quality and service excellence to our clients, which differentiates us from the competition.

"We don't want to be like all the other cleaning companies, we want to be like our customers and uphold the same quality standards that they operate to. We always aim for the best in quality standards - and achieving CIMS certification with honours helps us to do this."

Gary Williamson, Health, Safety, Quality & Environment director at Regular Cleaning, lead the company's application for certification. He says: "I had heard about CIMS through the cleaning and facilities management trade media and decided to attend a CIMS I.C.E Workshop - albeit somewhat reluctantly as we already had ISO quality standards in place and I wasn't sure what CIMS could add.

"At first it took me a while to get my head around the whole concept and I was sceptical whether it would work in the UK. However we are always open to expanding our business and improving what we do.

"Since Regular lives by our certificates and adherence to standards, it was worth working through those initial doubts to understand the value CIMS brings and to go through the certification process."

Organisations wishing to achieve certification must undergo a comprehensive on-site assessment; performed by an independent, accredited assessor who verifies the organisation is in compliance with the Standard.

"The process itself was straightforward and logical but certification certainly was not automatic," adds Gary. "The auditors definitely understood the cleaning business and it is this specific cleaning industry knowledge that sets CIMS apart from other quality standard assessments such as ISO. We were asked some probing questions by the auditors as we moved through the process but we had the answers perhaps partly because we have always benchmarked ourselves against the highest of quality standards."

The UK cleaning industry has seen significant changes in recent years with a multitude of acquisitions leading to a market seemingly dominated by a few, large, multi-service providers. However 46 years on from its foundation, Regular Cleaning has remained a major independent alternative.

Since its founding, Regular Cleaning has grown to employ approximately 750 people and post an annual turnover of nearly £13m per annum. Operating across London and the South East, the contractor provides general commercial cleaning, window cleaning, as well as more specialised services such as blind cleaning, IT equipment cleaning, stone cleaning and graffiti removal. It also offers an increasing variety of FM support services - such as fresh flower and plant maintenance services, pest and pigeon control and waste management - to its clients.

These clients notably include City of London banks and insurance companies, the Guardian Newspaper, shopping centres such as Centre Court in Wimbledon and Kingston's Bentalls Shopping Centre, as well as many commercial properties within a number of managing agent's portfolios.

Yet Regular Cleaning is committed to constantly evolving and improving the quality of the services it delivers its clients. This includes offering a 100% 'green cleaning regime' for most office environments, and delivering flexible services based on the individual needs of each of its contracts.

"Now that we have CIMS certification, it gives us a competitive advantage," adds Gary. "It allows our sales team to take their dialogue with prospective clients to a different level. It gives prospects the reassurance that they are talking to a company that cares about and sets the pace when it comes to quality performance."

The final word must go to the man who built up Regular Cleaning from scratch, and still is actively involved to this day - Terry Carrigan. He says: "I am so pleased and proud that we have CIMS. It is a real feather in our cap and it is a valuable benchmarking tool and validation of Regular Cleaning's current and future cleaning operations."

Top image: ISSA director of EMEA Services Dianna Steinbach presenting the certification to Terry Carrigan of Regular Cleaning

www.issa.com / www.bics.org.uk
T: 0208 690 4488
W: www.regularcleaning.com

10th December 2015