Neil Nixon visits the Cheltenham base of Premiere FCM, primarily to take a look at the company’s impressive new Solution Centre, and finds a solid, established business with aggressive plans for expansion.

Premiere FCM has recently invested well over £300,000 developing its Solution Centre - a dedicated showroom and training centre equipped with state of the art audio visual and training aids together with the complete range of floor cleaning machines and products offered by the company. There are classrooms, training rooms, demonstration areas - all leading Premiere FCM’s sales director Kevin Day to describe the facilities as the best in the UK.

The professional cleaning sector is facing a revolution as an increasing number of companies explore ways to swap out of hours cleaning for more daytime operations. Karen James, sales and marketing director for Nilfisk-Advance, considers the implications of this trend for contract cleaners and their customers, and how innovations in floorcare equipment can assist the process.

Floor cleaning machinery from Nilfisk is keeping London’s recently transformed St Pancras International clean for travellers and staff. MITIE Transport Services, a division of the MITIE Group, is maintaining domestic station platforms, retail arcades and concourse floors using a range of Nilfisk machines, from ride-on scrubber/dryers to high speed single disc machines.

St Pancras International was opened by HM The Queen last November following a multi-million pound redevelopment by London & Continental Railways, its subsidiaries and key business partners to restore the station to its original Victorian grandeur.

Selecting a new compact sweeper for Teignbridge was straightforward: if it could sweep up a very steep, very narrow alley and then manoeuvre safely round a 90º corner it was in with a chance.

The reality was also simple. Of the full range of compact sweepers tested, the Schmidt Swingo 250 offered the best quality and value for money. Unlike some of the machines tested, it managed the task without damaging walls, fences, itself or, in one case, the engine threatening to burn out.

Deborah Bland, market manager, JohnsonDiversey UK, reports.
Daytime cleaning is becoming more popular in the UK. Studies by JohnsonDiversey show that around 16% of all cleaning in the UK now takes place during the day, about twice as much as a couple of years ago.

But we still have some way to go before we catch up with other EU countries where the average is around 24%. In Sweden, for example, over three quarters of cleaning is done during the day, and their productivity is higher according to an EFCI study - is there a link?