Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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New UK head office for Kärcher
This Autumn the global cleaning giant will have a new home in the UK - and it's streets ahead of the old facility, if not streets apart. Kärcher UK's brand new, purpose-built UK headquarters opened for business at Banbury's Brookhill Way on Tuesday.
The move has been a long time in the planning and, as the new site includes a Kärcher Centre shop, a large Academy for customer and employee training, and in phase two a Wash Centre for the public, the move is expected to make a difference to staff, customers and the local community alike.
When Kärcher in the UK launched back in the 1970s the world was a very different place... James Callaghan was prime minister, you could buy a house for £13K and the now famous domestic range was still a decade away; Kärcher was at the outset a commercial and industrial supplier. Today the company has grown to employ almost 300 people and its product range now encompasses 380 machines across 13 product lines for both Home & Garden and Professional users.
"While Kärcher is renowned for our commercial and domestic pressure washers, other products are increasingly coming to the fore - among them our window vacs, steam cleaners and professional floor care solutions," notes Simon Keeping, managing director of Kärcher UK. "These are exciting times and this opportunity, afforded by the company's expansion, is testament to the quality inherent in Kärcher - not only of our products but of our team and its ethos too.
"In order to maintain continuity amidst our growth and retain key Kärcher knowhow, remaining near to our Banbury roots was crucial. Indeed the new site is only one mile from the old, albeit the environment will be very different."
The company is confident that the Kärcher Academy, through its certified training courses and Kärcher Centre Banbury, through informal advice and support, will each serve to help better acquaint visitors with smarter, greener and more efficient cleaning practice.
The Kärcher Academy concept is a market-leading training facility for customers, distributors and employees. Tripling the size of the current Academy will facilitate the further development of the company's already impressive training portfolio, in particular to accommodate larger floorcare and municipal machines and specialist industrial solutions like Ice Blasting, Ultra High Pressure and Industrial Vacuums. Moreover, the new facility will offer year-round indoor training if the weather dictates, allowing more users than ever to access expert training, hands on.
The development also includes Banbury's first Kärcher Centre - a one-stop-shop for both domestic and commercial customers, offering sales, service and advice for the entire Kärcher range. Kärcher Centre Banbury will be the latest in a national network of 18 existing Centres, and - alongside flagship stores Bristol and Nottingham, the UK's third Kärcher owned, Kärcher operated Centre.
Kärcher in the UK is a £120m+ subsidiary of the German parent, Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG, based near Stuttgart, Germany. Worldwide, Kärcher employs over 11,000 people across 60 countries in 100 companies. In 2014, the cleaning technology specialist achieved its highest ever turnover of EUR 2.12 billion and sold the highest number of units in the company's history, with 12.72 million machines.
Kärcher worldwide aims to have 1,000 Kärcher Centres operational across the globe by 2020.
The new company address is: Kärcher House, Brookhill Way, Banbury OX16 3ED.
Other contact details remain unchanged:
T: 01295 752 000
E: [email protected]
W: www.karcher.co.uk
15th September 2016