Pointing out ‘we at Westfield really don’t know to clean a shopping centre’, Westfield non-executive chairman Frank Lowy told shareholders at the group’s AGM last Wednesday 17 May that questions from the floor pertaining to poor cleaners’ wages and low cleanliness levels really belong to the contractors providing the services. An item by Scott Rochford in the Sydney Morning Herald’s [...]

One the most important international building service contractor events, the 19th World Federation of Building Service Contractor (WFBSC) International Congress will deliver a programme strongly focused on international and local BSC issues. The Congress will be held in Brazil’s ‘sustainable’ city of Curitiba from 10 to 14 October 2012 and it is expected to attract some 1,000 leading BSC delegates [...]

The Building Service Contractors of New Zealand (BSCNZ) are excited by the number of suppliers who will be showing their wares at the Clean NZ Show to be held 24 and 25 May, and are grateful for their support. This is the first trade show that has been held since 2009 so it’s a great opportunity for the industry to get together [...]

Reflecting the cleaning and hygiene industry’s buoyancy, the ISSA/Interclean 2012 Amsterdam opened its doors on Tuesday 8 May with a record 690 exhibitors (from 42 countries) that covered some 50,000 sq metres of floor space. Of those 690 companies, about 26 percent (180) were first time ISSA/Interclean exhibitors. A spike of 84 percent growth in exhibitors from Asia was a major [...]

In a May 8 press release the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) announced the ‘formation of consensus bodies for the development of a new BSR-IICRC S210 Standard and Reference Guide on Dimensional Stone Maintenance and Restoration and the revision of IICRC S300 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Upholstery Cleaning.’ “As new materials and processes are introduced [...]

Sealed Air Corporation released its first quarter results for 2012 on 3 May with sales totalling $1.92 billion, which is a 70 percent increase – 66 percent related to the Diversey acquisition. However, it also reported a loss per common share of $0.03 after a $0.21 per share effect from special terms. ‘The five percent increase in 2012 pro forma [...]

Musilli has been working in the cleaning industry for 18 years with senior roles at Jal Chemical, Peerless Jal and more recently with Tasman Chemicals. He has secured many national accounts for his previous employers across a broad customer base including building service contractors, aged care groups, hospitality and government bodies. RapidClean endorses Musilli’s knowledge of cleaning products and systems [...]

The Mag System from Vermop Salmon was announced as winner of the prestigious Amsterdam Innovation Award prize. At midday on the event’s first day (Tuesday 8 May) an official presentation was made to the winner and recognition given to short-listed products. The jury felt that the Mag system ‘brings an entirely new way of attaching mop covers to the mop [...]

Tennant Company released its 2012 First Quarter Results, ending 31 March, with a reported net earnings of $5.3 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, on net sales of $173.7 million, which rose 0.6 percent compared to the prior year quarter. “The first quarter is seasonally our weakest,” commented Tennant Company’s president and chief executive officer Chris Killingstad. “Though sales came [...]

A Sydney Morning Herald report on 7 May states, ‘if the number of cleaners at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital is not increased there could be an abrupt surge in patients being infected with  potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant ”superbugs”.’ Not only does this convey the severity of the siutation caused by the dispute, but also recognises the important role cleaners play within our healthcare [...]