THE CLEANING company carrying out emergency ‘reactive’ cleans for London firms has revealed the huge demands it’s facing in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis.
Commercial cleaning company Cleanology says more than half its clients have requested ‘extra services’ since the first cases and deaths from the epidemic were reported in the UK.
It was recently instructed to carry out an emergency ‘reactive’ clean for a business in Holborn with 800 employees – after a worker tested positive for COVID-19.
Dominic Ponniah, CEO of the also Manchester-based company, said his staff are working around the clock to cope with additional demands from more than 300 corporate clients, which include Skycanner and Innocent Drinks.
As the 144th Coronavirus-related death is confirmed in the UK, the firm said it is paying up to double the cost for cleaning products, using extra virucidal products, adding cleaners and hours worked to jobs and carrying out hundreds of ‘preventative’ cleansing operations.
Mr Ponniah said: “It’s been pretty intense for us as a business since the Coronavirus panic began to worsen in the UK.
“We’ve been instructed to carry out hundreds of preventative cleans for regular clients and as one-off jobs.
“There are a number of things they are requesting which we must respond to, including additional cleaning hours and more cleaning staff attending jobs.
“Clients are asking for areas that might only be cleaned say once a week to instead be targeted once a day.
“We’re also being asked to carry out more regular cleaning of touch points such as door handles, keypads, meeting room tables and reception areas.
“This is a time when it’s vital for companies to be doing, and be seen to be doing, everything they can to prevent the virus from potentially surviving or spreading in their workplaces and reassuring staff.”
Cleanology’s London office is in Clapham. The company works for high-profile restaurants, law firms, shared working spaces and famous brands, including Hermes, at the store inside Selfridges on Exchange Square in Manchester.
While many people are working from home, some are still going into work and establishments such as restaurants are still open.
According to Mr Ponniah some firms have arranged additional cleaning services to be carried out during working hours, as opposed to only having cleaners in when employees have left the office.
Cleanology has had to respond to requests to use targeted virucidal products in addition to the biotech solution generally used.
“Normally we use a chemical-free biotech cleaning solution, which is essentially made up of good bacteria that eats dirt.
“But we have had to use special virucidal products which of course kills viruses.
“We’re also providing companies with effective sanitisers as opposed to some of the brands on the market which aren’t anti-bacterial.
“In some instances it’s actually costing us double to obtain the products we usually pay half of the amount for.”
Cleanology has 650 cleaners who carry out deep cleans, including the recently in-demand ‘preventative’ and ‘reactive’ cleans.
The preventative cleans involve a thorough, top-to-bottom workplace clean out of hours.
Mr Ponniah said: “Our reactive cleans are when someone tells us they’ve had someone at their workplace test positive for a virus, in this case Coronavirus.
“We recently did a reactive clean for a client with a large office which houses 800 staff over two floors.
“They were all sent home on the Friday and we sent in a team of 12 specially-trained cleaners wearing overalls, masks, goggles, overshoes, and gloves – but even these products are becoming hard to get hold of.
“They used litres and litres of virucidal products and were cleaning for 24 hours over two days – every inch of the place was cleaned, including things like cutlery which was washed at a high temperature.
“We’ve had half our clients phone up and ask for something extra in the past couple of weeks, so it’s been really intense.”
