FACE TO FACE with: Alastair Scott, Sales Director at Robert Scott.

In the latest in a new series of Face to Face interviews, Neil Nixon speaks with Alastair Scott, Sales Director at Robert Scott.

Can you describe the Robert Scott business in the UK?
We are the largest designer, manufacturer, importer and stockists of cleaning products for the UK’s professional janitorial market.

What are your key brands in the UK?
Our overarching brand is Robert Scott, but we also have a range of sub-brands as the exclusive UK distributor for P-Wave washroom products, Toucan Eco bio-cleaning systems and Metabots cleaning robots.

Other brands in the portfolio include Exel, Microtex and Microglass. We are the UK distributor for KGS Flexis floorpads and Pulex window cleaning equipment too.

What has the acquisition of P-Wave meant to Robert Scott?
We’re always looking to add innovative brands that can help us enhance our position in the market and offering to our customers - P-Wave was a brand that we had long admired and felt like a perfect fit for our portfolio.

The acquisition has strengthened our comprehensive washroom offering while also enabling us to extend P-Wave’s market presence through our extensive distribution network.

How do you meet the ESG aims of your customers?

This is a really important objective for Robert Scott. We know it’s increasingly critical to reduce our impact on the planet. We’ve therefore committed to being carbon neutral by 2045 and have taken steps to reduce our carbon emissions by 21% over the last four years alone.

We’re doing this by looking at our operations, for example installing a grid of solar panels to reduce energy consumption at our site by 50%. We’ve also moved to a zero-carbon energy provider and are shareholders in the local Saddleworth Community Hydro Electric scheme.

We’re also making our products more sustainable, moving many of our core products lines to 70%+ recycled content. Incredibly, that is saving over 300 tonnes of virgin plastic each year. In addition, we’re looking at product design changes, one of the most impactful is the redesigned Exel push-fit mop socket, which is just as secure but now with a lower profile. That new socket is now saving another 150 tonnes of plastic annually.

Of course, our ESG commitments go beyond just sustainability - it’s also crucial that we are a positive force in our local community, for example. We’re very active in this area and have recently built the Bright Futures school for autistic children, as well as supporting a range of local sport clubs and events.

Can you indicate what we can expect to see from Robert Scott in 2025?
It’s an exciting year as we’re celebrating 100 years in business since the Scott family first started manufacturing cleaning cloths way back in 1925. Much of course has changed since then and we’re delighted to launch a new range of cleaning robots at the Cleaning Show, a significant indication showing how far we’ve come in 100 years.

What have been your greatest highlights/proudest moments so far?
When I started working at Robert Scott, my first challenge was to get to £1m turnover per week (we were achieving that figure every 10 weeks at that point). We hit that target two years ago, which was a real achievement and a real achievement for everyone involved.

But overall, I’m most proud of growing the business in a sustainable way, reinvesting in our facilities and capabilities and taking pride in our manufacturing tradition. We conduct satisfaction surveys with our customers every year and it’s always fantastic to see high scores and great feedback coming back. It really confirms that our years of experience and commitment to putting customers first is paying off.

What do you think is the single greatest change in the cleaning industry since you started your career?
The cleaning market was resistant to change for many years; some of our products didn’t change for thirty years or more, for example.

However, today - and particularly since the pandemic - there’s been a marked shift in terms of increasing public expectations of cleanliness in public spaces. That’s consequently created new market demand and a requirement for innovation to offset the resulting increase in cost. In turn, the market today has become a lot more dynamic than it was even twenty years ago.

As a confirmed exhibitor at the Cleaning Show next March, can you outline why this event is important to Robert Scott?
We’re still Europe’s largest manufacturer of mops, but we’re also so much more than that. So, the Cleaning Show is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we combine our heritage with a firm focus on the future.

For example, we’ve partnered with some of the world’s leading technology innovators to launch new cleaning robots such as the world’s first AI powered scrubber dryer and a cleaning trolley with smart follow-me technology. Visitors will be able to see these advanced machines on our stand.

We’re also showcasing the latest products in the Toucan Eco range, a chemical-free system that uses just salt, water, and an electric current to create on-site a powerful, naturally occurring disinfectant.

On that note, can you tell us more about why Robert Scott has moved into robotics?
The world continues to change (and the world of commercial cleaning with it) and it’s important for Robert Scott to be at the leading edge of product development within the industry.

There will always be demand for manual cleaning products, but the recent growth and improvements in technology, automation, robotics, AI and Internet of Things, combined with economic challenges such as rising costs, including labour, means robotics will play a significant role in the future of commercial cleaning. That makes it an important space for us to be in.

To finish, can you give us a peek into what the future might hold for Robert Scott?
We will always stick to our core principles of valuing quality at the right price, delivering stock when our distributors need it and, above all, providing excellent customer service.

Alongside that - and as we have consistently done over the last 100 years - we’ll continue to evolve our product range and ways of working to meet the future of the commercial cleaning industry.

https://www.robert-scott.co.uk