“There has always been a need for high dusting, particularly in manufacturing plants, warehouses, open-concept retail stores, fitness facilities – anyplace, really, with high ceilings and overhead fixtures,” says Mark Regna, President & CEO of Jani-King St Louis and Grand Rapids. “The challenge has been the difficulty of reaching those high places safely and efficiently.”
Regna says that the typical way to clean high spaces has been with ladders, booms, lifts and scaffolds, but those pose several problems. “First, if a contract cleaner doesn’t own that equipment, they have to rent it, and that can be expensive. Second, climbing up is less safe than standing on the floor, so there are safety risks and insurance considerations. Also, you can only clean about 10 feet in either direction when you are up on a boom; then you have to come down, reposition the boom and start over – it’s very time consuming and labor intensive. Finally, having all of that equipment in a customer’s space can be a real disruption. In a retail outlet, for example, they will likely have to move all of their merchandise, and in a manufacturing plant, they will need to shut down the production line, which is inconvenient and adds to their costs.”
Having partnered with Nilfisk for more than 20 years, Regna was excited to try their VHS 120 industrial vacuum paired with a premium carbon fiber kit for high-reach overhead cleaning. He liked the results, and so did his customers – so much so that Regna was able to grow his Jani-King franchise by 30 percent by offering high dusting.
“As an example,” said Regna, “We had a customer that made and sold chandeliers in a building with an open ceiling concept, and we had to get above the chandeliers to clean the ductwork. The power of the vacuum combined with the attachments allowed us to do it easily.
“At another site, we were able to clean 30 years’ worth of dust off of an open ceiling concept building – lights, cables, all sorts of stuff – and the customer was ecstatic, saying it had never been that clean.”
Regna noted that quality is important to clients, particularly in manufacturing, where plants can’t afford to have dust falling into the production line or accidents caused by dust build up.
“The VHS120 is one of the best vacuums I have ever used,” said Regna. “The suction is incredible. You put it on the wall where you're dusting in a manufacturing plant, run it up the wall, and instantaneously you can see the difference. In addition, sometimes manufacturing dust is considered hazardous, so the trapping system with the bag at the bottom of the vacuum captures that hazardous dust; it’s an ingenious design.”
The Nilfisk VHS120 is a compact, mobile, single-phase vacuum cleaner equipped with dual bypass motors and a 37-liter removable collection container. The high filter surface area, HEPA14 filter and available M-Class start filter with glued seams deliver outstanding filtering performance while a top-mounted manual filter shaker makes cleaning the main filter easy and filter efficiency optimal.
“Having the VHS120 has opened up a new revenue stream for our business,” concludes Regna. “We can be profitable while offering a specialized service completed in a timely manner. For me, the ‘aha’ moment was realizing that high dusting with the VHS120 and overhead kit doesn’t disrupt the customers’ business, and that makes our customers really, really happy.”
For more information on how Nilfisk solutions can help your business, please contact us at asknilfisk@nilfisk.com or https://www.nilfisk.com/en-us/contact-us/
