Where is the Janitorial Supply Distribution Industry going?

Going going gone?

Not for now?

Not forever.  My thoughts?  We are about to go through a sanitary supply renascence!

Sounds kind of goofy, but I think it is reality.  When I was straight out of school and entering the work world the Janitorial Supply industry was booming with over 1500 distributors in Canada and 30,000 in the US.  Now?  The numbers have greatly changed in the past 25 years.  

In Canada five national players dominate the marketplace.  Literally eight years ago a national big box chain decided to enter the Sanitation market.  Due to a recent acquisition effort this chain had to give up a sizable portion of their business to become dominant in their original marketplace.  What part did they offer up?  Their least profitable of course.  Although this has yet to be finalized the real news is the potential spin off was 650 million in net sales.  To many of us billions sound like millions used to just a few years ago.  Considering that the North American market for Sanitation products is somewhere between 6 and 20 billion dollars annually depending upon who posts the figures.  Most likely these numbers are a major underestimate.

The scary reality is that a company in ten years can literally own as much as ten percent of the market in eight years.  No doubt they have hired the best people they can get their hands on.  Implemented the best inventory and distribution techniques.  Getting products into the hands of the end user in less than 48 hours almost always with complete order fulfillment.  And always at market leading prices. 

What gives?  

Should I phone it in?  Take their next offer?

I don't think so.  Business always goes through cycles.  

My belief is that there will always be plenty of room for independent distributors.  True enough the Internet has made information available for everyone.  Endless amounts in fact.  If it is your nature to take the time to research and develop programs based upon advice offered for free by distributors that likely will never be able to fulfill your order.  

What happens when something goes wrong?

How do you solve it?

The answer is obvious.  You go to where you know you will get what you need.

The real question?  Will you continue to deal with the distributor who is there with the right answer and the right product?  Only you can answer that one.  

Floor Finish Demystified

You've taken your time stripped your floor to the base.  Cleaned all of your corners, stripped baseboards and rinsed your floor sufficiently.  

What next?

Who sets your expectations?

You, your supervisor, your co-workers?

This is most common the struggle in Floorcare.  It's easy to leave the floor after you've applied sealer if required and floor finish happy as a clam.  Every floor if done reasonably well looks great after it is done.  

The reality starts now.

The questions that need to be answered aren't all that new but they were best answered two stages ago.  

Do I want a floor that is, low maintenance? High gloss right away that is easily low speed burnished, a high gloss medium maintenance floor or the absolute optimum, a daily maintained floor with high to very high gloss appearance?  Regardless of your expectations you can't try every finish out there.  So where do you go?  Maybe the large National distributor?  Maybe the local building center or the big box store?  No matter where you get your products from you need to know what you are applying.  It is true large volume vendors offer you potential advice and support.  Decent selection, training resources and quite often specialists in each vertical. The internet has made knowledge readily available.  Is that knowledge accurate?  Is the information you have gotten relevant to your circumstance?  

Here is the case for your local janitorial distributor.

Can you find all of it when you need it?  If you have and can continuously find it....?  Is it the same product that was on the shelf last time you purchased?

Your decision making process in almost all cases is the difference between success and the longevity of your efforts.  Time is money when you are responsible for payroll.  Time is even more important when you have to redo your floor any sooner than you should.

Early next month I will produce a couple of articles with more answers. 

1. What did I do wrong?  

2. The top ten hints about Floorcare.

3. The incomplete guide to Floorcare. Rules for every floor finish.

Biologicals and hydrocarbon products

Tell me you saw this one coming out of a oil tanker crash.  In the late eighties a major oil spill happened in the North Pacific Ocean.  From all disasters there is a lesson and in my opinion this man-made disaster allowed the world a new solution to hydrocarbon spills the world over.  

While scientists cleaned up wildlife they noticed that a few localized areas had no oil or even signs of it.  The interesting result of this discovery?  A bacteria was isolated that has a tremendous hunger for all hydrocarbons.  Not just Brent crude.  But refined forms of oil offer this non-pathogenic bacteria a wonderful food source that results in nothing more than water and Carbon dioxide as an effluent.  Talk about amazing!

Ten years fast forward and this bacteria was farmed for the benefit of the rest of the world.  This bacteria blend offers odor control where gas spills have occurred.  Clean up after burst oil tanks.  Diesel spills are easily cleaned and buildings once slated for destruction are restored with minimal labour.  

We have manufactured two products with this bacteria for the last 6 or 7 years.  Both have earned us accolades from restoration contractors, Environmental engineering firms all over Ontario.  Households have been saved months of dealing with the ever present odor of stove oil.  If you are ever forced to deal with a petroleum mess. Contact us. We guarantee you will be impressed.

Below are a few images of a remediation demonstration we did.  Before and after.  Fourteen hours.  Wow.

Before 

During 

After