Facility cleaning company Rohr AG converts to granulate cleaner


24.10.2019

“Taking all savings and long-term costs into account, granulate cleaners are cheaper than any conventional liquid detergent.”

Since the summer of 2018, Rohr AG has been cleaning the 34 buildings that make up the Petersplatz Campus of the University of Basel with Wetrok granulate cleaners. This modern cleaning method cuts process costs to such an extent that Rohr AG will switch to cleaning all of its properties with granulate cleaners at the end of December 2019. An interview on the advantages of granulate, pioneering spirit and clever cost calculation.

Mr. Härry, Rohr AG is open to innovations and likes to try out new technologies — what requirements do new innovations have to meet?
That’s right; for more than 20 years now we have championed the pioneering spirit. We were one of the first facility cleaning companies in Switzerland to start cleaning with microfibre cloths. When it comes to innovation, the most important thing is — and always will be — quality. The innovation must produce cleaning results that are at least as good as the previous solution, if not better. Even the greatest advantages in terms of the cleaning process are of no use if the cleaning quality is not sufficient. At the end of the day, our customers measure us by our promise: “clean, guaranteed”.

How did the test with Wetrok Granuline come about?
We used to work with highly concentrated cleaning products — but the risk of over-concentration was ever-present. We made the switch to ready-to-use cleaners, which worked well in terms of application, but the cost and effort in terms of transportation and storage were too much for us. We had therefore been looking for a cleaning product for some time that would save space both in storage and during transportation. Because let’s be honest: transporting conventional liquid detergents means moving 90 percent unneeded water from A to B. In spring 2018, we heard about the newly introduced Wetrok Granuline for the first time. We won the contract for the University of Basel at almost exactly the same time and are now responsible for cleaning the 34 buildings of the West/East cluster. That’s why we used Wetrok Granuline for the first time at the University of Basel. Of course, we meticulously tested beforehand whether or not the granulate is really on a par with the liquid detergents in terms of cleaning quality. We are especially impressed by the granulate line for critical applications, such as cleaning glass without leaving streaks, and removing greasy fingerprints.

You said that the granulate requires less space in storage and during transportation — can you quantify that?
Our storage and transportation involves several steps. When we order cleaning products, they are first delivered to our headquarters in Hausen AG. Then, our operations manager delivers the required quantities to our properties and stores them there. If the products are needed, they are loaded onto the cleaning cart by the team leaders and cleaning staff. As you can imagine, this requires a lot of time and effort in terms of transportation. Not to mention the physical effort of lugging the canisters around. I don’t want to mention any financial figures, but I can say this much: the transport volume for the University of Basel properties alone has been reduced by around 90 percent thanks to Granuline. This has a considerable impact on costs.

What applications do you use the granulate for at the University of Basel?
It would be easier to ask me what we DON’T use the granulate for (laughs). We basically clean all surfaces and the entire sanitary area with granulate. At the University of Basel, that means: research labs, desks in lecture halls, offices, entrance areas, plastic surfaces in corridors, glass, mirrors, door handles, walls, stair railings — pretty much everything that is not oiled.

What is using the product like in practice for cleaning staff?
Of all the cleaning products we have ever had, Wetrok Granuline is the easiest to use. Fill the bottle with water up to the marker, add in the granulate, close the bottle and shake briefly — and the cleaning solution is ready to be used with a microfibre cloth. And the dosage is always correct thanks to the individually packaged ‘envelopes’. This ease of use is a great advantage — especially since the cleaning staff for the properties at the University of Basel come from 15 different countries. Even those who do not have a perfect command of the German language immediately understand how it works.

Were safety and ecological aspects also taken into account when making the switch to Granuline?
Of course! As a responsible employer, it is our job to ensure that our employees can work safely and ergonomically. Granuline has led to considerable improvements in this respect. The granulate sachets can be easily opened along the perforated line and added to the bottle, eliminating the risk of contact with the eyes or skin. There is also no risk of inhaling vapours as the granulate products are solvent-free. In addition, staff no longer have to lug around heavy canisters. They can simply stock the storage room or cleaning cart with small, lightweight granulate sticks. In terms of our ecological footprint, Granuline has had nothing but a positive effect. Whereas in the past we had to supply even small, low-requirement properties with chemicals on a regular basis, the granulate eliminates numerous trips. It now takes just one journey in a regular car to provide these small properties with half a year’s supply. This not only saves time, it also reduces CO2 emissions.

Are there any efforts being made to convert your other properties to granulate cleaning?
Not just efforts. From December 2019, we will convert our entire sanitary and surface cleaning to granulate. That means we will be using Wetrok Granuline for all our maintenance cleaning customers throughout Switzerland.

This despite the fact that granulate cleaners are more expensive than liquid detergents?
They’re not though, that’s the point! Taking only the cost of acquisition into account is bad planning and very short-sighted. At Rohr AG, we always consider the total costs that a product incurs — or saves. With Wetrok Granuline, the savings are striking: in total, storage and transportation costs can be reduced by up to 75 percent. This starts with the fact that our operations managers need much less time to transport, distribute and store the chemicals — after all, its much quicker to carry five boxes of “granulate envelopes” to the storage room than five canisters of liquid chemicals. In addition, we save a lot of money because we have the problem with over-concentrating under control — the principle of “one sachet per bottle” completely eliminates this major cost factor. No cleaning product has ever managed this before! Above all, however, we save on safety installations: we would have soon needed to equip storage rooms at around 600 of our properties with drip pans. We can now forget about these costs thanks to the granulate: no liquid chemicals, no risk of leakage. This means that we have saved thousands of francs on the drip pans alone. Last but not least, we were also able to save costs on training — Granuline is so easy to use that a quick initial briefing is all that is needed. We’re convinced: taking all savings and long-term costs into account, Granuline is cheaper than any conventional liquid detergent.

Which companies would you recommend Wetrok Granuline to?
Any company that wants to avoid lugging around hundreds of litres of water every day (laughs). No, but seriously: whether you’re a facilities cleaner or an internal cleaning department at an retirement home, the granulate has the potential to make the cleaning process much more efficient, cost-effective and pleasant in all areas.