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Hako appointment
Simon Smith has joined Hako Machines Ltd’s key accounts team in a senior sales position. He has extensive experience in the cleaning industry that will further benefit Hako’s key account customers.
He said: “Hako has a fantastic reputation within the industry and I’m delighted to join a company with such a strong customer focus. Its commitment to the UK and proactive ‘can do’ approach to the industry is fantastic and I’m looking forward to being apart of the team.”
Sales director, Martin Nobes, said: “Simon’s appointment provides us with the breadth within the team to ensure our business continues to gather momentum and expand while strengthening our proposition to existing customers.”
Vikan expands sales team
“Vikan is one of the top companies to work for,” said David Hockley, the latest recruit to the Vikan sales team. “Not only are their products really great but the sales team is extremely well managed.”
Taking over London and the south east area, Hockley has years of experience of the janitorial industry. His 12 years with Dunlop followed by time with one of Vikan’s distributors have given him an in depth knowledge of the food processing sector. He is passionate about helping companies not just within the food industry but across the board to sort out their problems and improve their hygiene. “The Vikan tools and equipment are designed to do just that,” he said.
Karcher restructures sales and service teams
Kärcher UK has announced the restructuring of its professional sales and service teams, with several new appointments and internal promotions. The restructure follows the departure of former sales, marketing and service director, Lee Norton.
Neil Parton joins Kärcher from Hako as director of services and direct sales. He brings 14 years experience of sales and service in the cleaning industry, and was previously sales director at Hako. He will lead two sales teams targeting contract cleaning, office, retail, healthcare and hospitality, and will also head Kärcher's large network of service engineers and internal service and technical staff.
Kärcher's healthcare and hospitality sales team is completely new, consisting of sales professionals from those industries.
As well as these changes, Craig McKay, professional marketing manager, has been promoted to head of distribution sales & professional marketing, to manage and develop sales in Kärcher's extensive dealer network. He has worked for Kärcher for five years and has a wealth of sales and marketing experience.
Both Parton and McKay will report to the managing director of UK & Ireland, Simon Keeping, who said: "I am delighted with these new appointments which demonstrate both our ability to attract top people and our commitment to staff development and internal promotion."
British Standard for Healthcare Cleaning to launch at AHCP conference
The Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (AHCP) has confirmed that the new British Standard for Healthcare Cleaning - to be known as PAS 5748 - will be launched at the forthcoming AHCP national conference. The standard is intended to provide assurance to the public that risks associated with hospital cleanliness have been fully assessed and that nationally agreed procedures are in place to ensure hospitals are clean and safe for patients.
This will be the first time a British Standards Institution (BSI) backed standard has been introduced for healthcare cleaning. The standard comes as the result of a joint research and development programme by the Department of Health, the BSI and the AHCP. It will be a consensus based specification for planning, measuring and improving cleanliness services in NHS hospitals in England.
Although use of PAS 5748 will not be mandatory, hospitals will be able to use it to provide good practice evidence to the Care Quality Commission that nationally agreed procedures are in place for their premises to prove they are clean and safe for patients. PAS 5748 will exist alongside the existing national specifications for cleanliness and is expected to be adopted for use by most NHS trusts as well as other healthcare providers including GP surgeries, clinics and nursing and care homes.
The launch of PAS 5748 will take place at the annual AHCP conference on 13-15 June at the Telford International Centre. This is the largest annual gathering of healthcare cleaning professionals in the UK, attended by delegates from many of the country's major hospitals. The event also includes an exhibition of over 40 leading suppliers of healthcare cleaning related products and services. Full details of the new standard will be announced to conference delegates and copies will be made available to download from the AHCP website - www.ahcp.co.uk - and from the BSI website.
PAS 5748 is predicted to be a major milestone along the road to clean, safe hospitals and healthcare environments. It represents the culmination of a process to identify and standardise healthcare cleaning processes and procedures which started a decade ago with the publication of the first National Standards of Cleanliness in 2001 and the first edition of the Healthcare Cleaning Manual in 2003.
www.ahcp.co.uk/events/annual-conference-2011.html
ISSA Europe launches new website
ISSA has launched a new European web site at www.issa.com/europe that is dedicated to serving the needs of members across the continent and reinforces the association’s position at the heart of the global cleaning industry.
The new site is expected to make it even easier for existing and potential members to learn more about the association and the comprehensive range of services it offers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Features include regional news feeds, professional profiles of all the ISSA Europe board members, partner associations and organisations, a directory of members that facilitates collaboration and networking between members, as well as industry research, data, and polls. ISSA Europe will also announce details of regional seminars or meetings and the release of publications or market studies first through the site.
In keeping with ISSA’s mission to represent and assist the entire industry, some of the material on the new site is freely available to visitors while other sections are restricted to members only.
Simple menus and tabs make it easier to navigate intuitively throughout while a clear and modern design ensures that the viewer will be able to easily assimilate all information. A mobile version is also planned for the future.
ISSA director of European services, Keith Baker, said: “The new site is going to resonate right across the cleaning and hygiene sector. It doesn’t just improve communication and connection with existing members, but it is also an information-rich resource in its own right. Everyone in our industry, whether they are a facilities manager adding cleaning to their portfolio for the first time or highly experienced cleaning industry professionals should be sure to bookmark the site. They should also check back regularly, or activate the RSS feed, as it will be updated frequently and the content will be dynamically evolving.”
Sustainability gains further ground
Sustainability, including environmental and social considerations, are gaining increasing importance in our society. And at the same time, a growing number of people across the globe are gaining access to hygiene products.
These were among the observations of SCA president and CEO Jan Johansson in the company’s latest Sustainability Report, which was published recently. “The standard of living is rising in a growing number of countries and more and more people are gaining access to hygiene products,” said Johansson in the report. “Surveys show that at income levels as low as $US2 per day, people start to use their money to finance items other than food and housing - and hygiene products are high on the list.”
He said countries rapidly climbing up the hygiene pyramid include Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, South Africa, Chile, India and China.
“Sustainability is a megatrend that has been ongoing for a number of years,” he continued. “A growing section of society questions the way we live and customers and consumers are imposing ever stricter demands for sustainable business practices.”
SCA’s sustainability highlights during 2010 include the installation of a lime kiln at Östrand pulp mill in Sweden which will cut carbon dioxide emissions at the plant by 80%. Meanwhile, a new power plant in Aschaffenburg, Germany, will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and a new business unit - SCA Energy - will develop and grow renewable energy.
“Social responsibility runs like a common theme throughout SCA’s business,” said Johansson. “Our first social programme was initiated in the 1950s. When the company was first formed we built housing for employees, infrastructure and schools while also offering leisure activities.”
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