Franziska Geyer Sales Director Professional – Institutional Channels, Kärcher Australia

How was 2021 for Kärcher? What were the highlights? What were the challenges?

2021 was another record year for Kärcher Australia, making it two years in a row. The market in both retail and professional remains buoyant, and we continue to take share in our key strategic areas. This has allowed us to further invest, in people, capacity, and resources to better deliver for our customers moving forward.

A highlight has been our investment in NSW: we relocated our branch from Eastern Creek to Smeaton Grange and opened a new Kärcher Center in Campbelltown. A state-of-the-art Kärcher Clean Park has opened in Newcastle, a Kärcher branded car wash park operated by an independent investor.

Some significant machine deployments with national key partners has enabled us to further invest in our service and aftermarket structures. We have grown the number of technicians and increased our geographical coverage. Additionally, we now carry more spare parts and can deliver parts directly and quickly to our regional technicians.

The challenges were largely driven by the global pandemic with an impact on communication, the way we work internally and externally, and supply chain. We have worked very closely with Germany and global production plants to secure supply and keep delays to a minimum – with good focus and collaboration we were able to navigate through the challenges with no major disruptions.

As with many other businesses, we had to continue to adapt our communication with our staff and clients to the new environment. This saw us further develop and implement resources such as digital training courses for staff, dealers and clients, interactive virtual product launches and online staff updates and team activities.

Is there an achievement that you’re particularly proud of from the past 12 months?

I am really proud of the team for the continued close partnerships and engagement with Customers, despite the physical distance. I am extremely proud of the NSW team that has managed several large rollouts, on-boarding and training of new staff, an office move, and opening of a new store all throughout various lockdowns and limited support from head office.

I am also pleased with the way we communicated and supported our team right across the country, over the last 18 months we have improved our engagement and productivity metrics significantly.

Another highlight was to see the Thank Your Cleaner Day campaign being heavily promoted on social media and many companies getting behind the initiative globally and locally.

What will be the immediate focus for Kärcher in 2022?

We have a very clear strategic plan, which has been updated over recent months. There will be a focus on recruitment as we set up our structures for future growth. We will continue to invest in our service network as well as increasing our capabilities in the digital, e-commerce, and robotics space.

There are also a number of new product categories we will be entering in 2022. We are very spoilt for choice when it comes to new solutions, products, and innovation. We will be looking to prioritise which of these to deliver in 2022.

Furthermore, there will be an ongoing focus on supply chain and freight – we are expecting some more challenges until at least mid to late 2022.

Another important initiative is our Customer Journey project that will focus on our commercial end customers – this will involve mapping customer touch points, working directly with customers to identify key areas of improvement, and setting ourselves clear goals and metrics that improve our customers’ experience.

Did you notice any changes in customer behaviour in 2021? How did Kärcher respond to these changes?

The topic of sustainability has been top of mind in customer tenders, projects, and conversations. We can see that a lot more clients are looking for ways to provide services that are eco-friendly and reduce their waste and carbon footprint.

At Kärcher we have launched a 2025 Sustainability Strategy with a focus on ”Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” with many initiatives. For example, since 2021 the Kärcher factories around the world are climate-neutral: this makes Kärcher the leading climate-neutral company in the cleaning market with CO₂-free global production.

What are the opportunities and challenges you see for the wider commercial cleaning industry in 2022?

The pandemic has certainly supported the fact that commercial cleaning is a lot more visible in today’s society. I see an opportunity for the industry to create even more awareness for commercial cleaning and raise its profile by actively engaging with clients and government bodies.

One of the key challenges will remain the situation on the labour market with shortages and uncertainty around overseas workers. For cleaning businesses it will be even more important to create a safe and enjoyable working environment, to drive staff engagement and retention.

I also see inflationary pressure coming through stronger than is indicated by macro-economic figures. This will be an issue we will all have to deal with in 2022 and beyond.

Technology and innovation uptake remain an opportunity. The key is having an adaptable and flexible organisation that is willing to change and try out new ways of doing things. Robotics, digitalisation and connected cleaning will only accelerate through 2022.

What is one issue in the industry that you would like to see addressed?

The discussion on value vs price is still a key discussion topic in my opinion. While the industry has moved in many areas to focus on quality and customer delivery, there are still opportunities for improvement.

The last 18 months have shown the value that our industry provides to the entire market, we need to ensure that we use this to attract talent, upskill people, and deliver higher quality solutions.

What advice would you give to fellow leaders in the cleaning industry?

In today’s rapid changing world, it is even more important to focus on workplace culture, employee engagement, and wellbeing.

As mentioned, labour shortages will continue to be a challenge so keeping your staff motivated, challenged and involved will be the difference in 2022. This applies to any business in any industry, small or large.

We also have an opportunity to work more closely together on industry wide topics that benefit all. A great example of this is Thank Your Cleaner Day. I encourage all to embrace this and use it as a tool to show recognition to our cleaners and raise the profile of the industry.

This article first appeared in the January/February 2022 issue of INCLEAN magazine. 

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