Cleaning Show celebrates triumphant return to London

The UK’s largest and most important event in the cleaning and hygiene sector, The Cleaning Show, welcomed more than 4600 visitors through its doors from 2-4 November when it made its triumphant return to London.

Organised jointly by the British Cleaning Council and Quartz Business Media, publisher of C&M, the show marked the industry’s first physical event since the UK’s national lockdown was lifted.

Industry experts took to the stage

Opening the event, Nigel Mills MP, chair of the Cleaning and Hygiene All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), welcomed visitors and exhibitors, highlighting the important role the show plays in bringing the industry together. He paid tribute to the industry and the role cleaning and hygiene operatives have played over the past 18 months and highlighted how the APPG would help shine a light on an industry that was once overlooked.

The conference programme was extremely well received, with busy sessions throughout all three days of the show. Jim Melvin, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, kicked off proceedings, speaking passionately about the APPG and how it would recognise professionalism within the sector, fighting for key worker status for cleaning and hygiene operatives and seeking to establish a verified apprenticeship scheme.

Sebastian Bachellier, programme manager and project lead for the Recognised Service Providers Scheme at the Living Wage Foundation, together with Charlie Mowat, founder and CEO of The Clean Space, outlined the importance of the real Living Wage and the achievements of the programme to date, including bringing £1.5 billion to the pockets of low paid workers.

With sustainability high on the agenda for visitors and exhibitors alike, James Lee, council member at the CHSA, discussed how innovation alone wouldn’t solve the industry’s problems. He identified five pillars of sustainability while highlighting the challenges - from financial pressures to a resistance to change - that would need to be overcome for lasting change.

Day two of the conference programme saw technology take the spotlight, with Darren Marston, executive chairman of ICE, delivering a session on the rise of co-bots and how autonomous cleaning can support and enhance current cleaning practices. He highlighted the company’s role in pioneering autonomous cleaning and how customers, including Stratford’s Westfield – the largest shopping centre in Europe – had installed its range of co-botic machines in March 2021 to great success, with employees ‘embracing the technology and the future’.

In another session titled ‘Technology matters - employing new technology to deliver a modern cleaning service’, Dominic Ponniah, CEO and co-founder of Cleanology, shared key examples of innovation in the areas of sustainability, robotics and the digital revolution. Alongside cleaning solutions, he explored how data-driven technology ‘is the new gold’, helping cleaning businesses to report issues, provide alerts for predictive cleaning and maintenance, and record attendance through the use of geo-location and facial recognition.

These are just a few of the highlights – every session contributed valuable learning and discussion to the event, with every speaker addressing an engaged audience.

The leading platform for new product launches

Highlighting The Cleaning Show’s position as a hotbed of innovation, several exhibitors used the show’s return as the opportunity to announce new product launches. Among the new products announced at the show, Killis revealed ‘Rex’ (see Page 24) - a king-sized, autonomous cleaning robot targeting commercial and industrial settings. Charlotte Killi, head of sales at Killis, said: “The Cleaning Show has given us a chance to exhibit our latest innovations and display what we’ve been working on during the pandemic…We have unveiled our latest robot machine, Rex - which means ‘King’ in Latin - meaning it’s the king of cleaning machines, able to clean the size equivalent of eight football fields in one charge of eight hours.”

A visitor to the event, Magdalena Kopec, business support manager at Kingdom Cleaning, said: “The show is a great place to find new products. It’s good to physically see how new products work in person instead of seeing them solely online. It's also a great place to network with new suppliers. I enjoyed seeing the robotic cleaning machines in particular.”

Julie Kitchener, head of customer service and marketing at ICE, said: "The show has been brilliant - it's great to be back and have the chance to speak to the industry in person. We've had so many exciting leads. Most of the interest has been for the co-botics and we've had a lot of questions from visitors who want to see them in real life. We also launched our AquaSmart chemical-free units. The combination of the launch of AquaSmart and the fact our co-botic machines recycle water has demonstrated how important sustainability is and a big area of interest for visitors at the show."

Shaping the future of the industry

Demonstrating the industry’s most innovative and new technologies, the Cleaning & Support Services Association (CSSA) played host to the new CSSA Innovation Showcase - a pavilion dedicated to nine companies selected by a panel of industry experts. Selected from more than 30 entries, Bunzl Cleaning & Hygiene Supplies (BCHS), Washroom Wizard, w’air, ICE, NextDynamics, Optiqo, Orion Eco Solutions, Selden, and Softbank Robotics provided attendees with a first-hand insight into the cleaning industry of the future with the latest products spanning new fabric care systems, autonomous cleaning equipment and IoT air care solutions.

Other highlights

Significant announcements from the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners and the British Cleaning Council (see Industry News, Pages 8-12) were accompanied by the Window Cleaning World Cup. Drawing in the crowds on the second day of the show, this popular event – delivered in partnership with the Federation of Window Cleaners (FWC) – saw Guinness World Record holder Terry ‘Turbo’ Burrows crowned the winner with a time of 14.37 seconds. He was followed by Darren Ansbro of DA Components with a time of 16.16 seconds and in third place Ashley Mackintosh of Northampton-based Mackintosh Clean with a time of 17.16 seconds.

Stuart Dacre, event director for the Cleaning Show, said: “It’s been a long wait but I can’t describe how good it feels to bring the cleaning industry back face-to-face for three action-packed days of inspiration, innovation and insight. It’s been particularly special to recognise the efforts of cleaning and hygiene operativess and the critical role they have played in keeping people and places safe over the past 18 months. The response from exhibitors and visitors has been overwhelming. We’d like to thank everyone who has participated in this year’s show and look forward to opening our doors once again when we return to Manchester in 2022.”

The Cleaning Show returns to Manchester Central on 6 and 7 April 2022.

www.cleaningshow.co.uk/manchester/