Green Cleen (UK) Limited
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1-2 Ladfordfields Industrial Park
Seighford
Staffordshire
United Kingdom
ST18 9QE
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Franchisee Testimonials
Starting a new business is always challenging especially when starting in a new field. So looking into the options of going it alone or joining a franchise was a decision I didn’t take lightly. After numerous discussions with owner-operators and franchises, it became clear that the franchise route was by far the better option. Having the guidance, experience, support and equipment manufactured on site was more than reassuring. Green Cleen staff were always there at the end of the phone to offer guidance, support and technical know-how throughout my journey, I strongly believe that without this support my business would not be as successful as it is.
My story of being a Green Cleen Franchisee. I joined the Green Cleen Franchise Network in October 2004 and whilst I waited until the end of the year for my equipment to be manufactured, I managed to get 360 bins on my books prior to starting to wash them in early January 2005. By September 2005, I had 1200 regular bins which I washed every 4 weeks. In 2007 I stopped actively looking for new customers as they would find me by word of mouth or via my Franchisee web page (which is top ranked on Google search in my area) to the tune of over 200 new bins each year to be washed every 4 weeks. The bin wash equipment manufactured by Green Cleen is by far the best available with semi-automatic cycles to lift the bins and power wash them on the inside. This ultimately reduces operator fatigue and enables my son, who now works with me, to constantly wash an average of 18 bins per hour. The Franchise Director, Dan Coulon, and his staff are all easy going and extremely helpful when needed. Thank you to all at Green Cleen for providing me with a stress-free business enabling me to generate a consistently good income year after year.
I joined the Green Cleen Franchise back in 2014 having never run my own business before. With backup and support from the head office team I sourced my first vehicle and purchased some second-hand equipment allowing me to get the business off the ground on a very tight budget. Following Green Cleen’s marketing advice I developed my rounds in year one to just under a thousand regular bins and in my second summer topped up my rounds to become Glasgow’s largest bin cleaning service. Following advice, I was then able to upgrade my equipment with their new high-pressure wash heads massively reducing the physical effort required to wash the bins allowing me to wash considerably more bins each day, faster and more efficiently. It also allowed me to expand my commercial portfolio and I am now washing bins for housing associations like First Port and Peverel Scotland, hotels including The Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh and I have been accepted to the Public Contracts Scotland Scheme. I have recently renewed my Franchise Agreement with Green Cleen having reached my first 5-years milestone and plan to expand to my second vehicle in the very near future.
Having originally owned a Green Cleen Franchise in Bradford over a decade earlier. I relocated to the North East and launched as an independent bin cleaning service using equipment manufactured by another company. I soon realised that the trailer-based equipment was inferior to what I was used to and was limiting me each day with the number of bins that I could realistically wash. It required huge amounts of maintenance having to charge up batteries every night and was having to be regularly repaired. On top of this I could not retain staff due to how you operated the equipment having to lance out the bins making it a very dirty physical job. After getting in contact with me over an industry related Facebook Group, Dan from Green Cleen Head Office invited me to re-join the Green Cleen Network as their Franchisee for Durham. We had an initial meeting and realising that their equipment, websites, and round management software had all evolved so much I took the leap and re-joined the Franchise. Unfortunately, this was during the first Coronavirus lockdown of April 2020 and due to Green Cleen’s, “Covid-19 Safety Policy”, which suspended all customer contact meant I could not do the normal door to door marketing having to rely on the website, Facebook Campaigns and organic growth. This proved not to be an issue and I have now reached around 2000 regular bin washes per month. Following advice, I put my prices up and have since taken on two members of staff washing the bins for me and am currently advertising for a full-time canvasser. During 2021, I plan to source my second Green Cleen Duplex Bin Washing Machine, then adding an additional vehicle to my fleet each year until I have fully saturated my area. I am so pleased I decided to come back to the Green Cleen Franchise as I can now plan to become the largest bin cleaning company in the North East!
My Franchise story, I was not going to be a bin cleaning franchise when I first started looking into franchises. I was looking into fat previferaction but the franchise had sold my area, so I started looking at something different. My local council was looking into putting wheelie bins into the area, so I thought about bin cleaning so started to look in 2005 to see who was available. At the time there were three companies, and I was sent three different packages and went with the one that looked the strongest. Up to date software and bin washer plus the idea of pick up 70 plus bin a day and the lift looked amazing. So after meeting with the team I went ahead with the franchise. Now 16 years later I still have the same machine only just replaced the tail lift as I bent it. One of the best things about being with this franchise is that someone is always at the end of the phone and Sid the engineer will answer his phone after hours if you do have a problem with the machine. So it looks like I made the right decision. Here for a minimum of 4 more years.
As a new Franchisee this year entering an industry I had no prior knowledge of, having had 30 plus years working in an office, I can honestly say that the transition has been made incredibly easy by all the support staff at Head Office. The journey is just beginning for me but has been an enjoyable one so far, and even with the restrictions of a Covid lockdown I have picked up 170 regular bins in my first full month. With (hopefully) an end coming to the restrictions I look forward to rapidly expanding my customer base over the summer months. i have full confidence that the change in my working lifestyle will be an extremely successful one.