Working for a clean environment IP Cleaning

Barbara Rossi speaks to Mr Vernazza, Sales, Marketing and R&D Director of IP Cleaning SpA, about this cleaning machine manufacturing group and in particular about IPC Gansow, its floor care sector division. In particular Industry Europe learns about IPC Gansow’s line of environmentally friendly scrubbers and driers.

WORKING FOR A

CLEAN ENVIRONMENT

The IP Cleaning Group (Integrated Professional Cleaning) was set up in 2005, following the merger of a number of leading companies in the professional cleaning sector, each one specialised in a different market segment. The group employs over 1,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Portogruaro, near Venice. It is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional cleaning machines and equipment for manual cleaning, featuring a portfolio with a vast range of products and brands.

In particular, alongside IPC Gansow, the other six production units which comprise the group, and which are all based in northern Italy, are, IPC Euromop (a leading designer and manufacturer of professional cleaning equipment), IPC Faip (specialised in the high-pressure washer sector), IPC Portotecnica (also a specialist in high-pressure washers), IPC Pulex (a top producer of glass cleaning equipment, products and accessories), IPC Ready Steam (a manufacturer of industrial cleaning equipment), and IPC Soteco (a leading manufacturer of wet and dry vacuum cleaners and carpet washers).

Furthermore, the group has locally based production units in foreign countries, as well as foreign commercial and service branches and a network of distributors, making it present in all five continents. Nowadays IP Cleaning SpA is the international cleaning sector group which has the most complete product portfolio. Mr Vernazza explains the group’s strategy: “In this market there are big players whose strengths are those of having strong brands, branches in various countries, and strong product development, in terms of marketing and research, but whose weak point is that of being centralised and therefore of having a slow reaction to the market’s demands, and then there are local players, which are limited in terms of markets, but strong in terms of being very focused on one product category and employing a high degree of flexibility. Our strategy is that of having the critical mass of a medium-large group, while at the same time, offering the specialism and flexibility of a local player, thanks to our different business divisions, their specialism, and the fact that each of them has a high degree of autonomy, resulting in a quick response capacity. In fact, while the group works at a centralised level in terms of marketing, purchasing, and logistics, in terms of R & D each company is independent, although there is also the possibility of taking advantage of the group’s synergies.”

IPC Gansow

IPC Gansow is based near Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and is specialised in the production of motorised sweepers and scrubber driers for professional uses. IPC Gansow’s products are all targeted for professional use and are manufactured at the company’s 26,000 m2 covered site, one of the most important factories in the floor care sector. IPC Gansow’s products are used for the professional cleaning of large areas, always exceeding 50 m2.Its scrubbers and driers are used in places such as factories, supermarkets, schools and airports, while the motorised sweepers are mainly employed on industrial sites and, in smaller volumes, either in hotel or public car parks, and warehouses. Clients are either the final users or the cleaning companies in charge of cleaning these sites.

In recent years IPC Gansow’s important investments have mainly been focused on product development. In particular in the last three years there has been the development of the ECS (Eco Cost Cleaning Solutions) line of scrubbers and driers, which is on offer alongside the Professional line, dedicated to more traditional products. The advantages offered by the ECS products include low running costs, thanks to resource savings (up to an 80 per cent reduction in water consumption, a 90 per cent reduction in the use of detergents, a 40 per cent reduction in terms of energy usage, and a 20 per cent lowering in noise levels), as well as an increase in productivity, due to the fact that less downtime for filling and emptying the tanks is required, better ergonomics, and the use of microfibre pads. Furthermore the ECS products are

highly versatile, and can be used as traditional scrubber driers or polishers, and don’t cause wear to the wide range of surfaces that they can clean.

In terms of motorised sweepers, although this market is more traditional and offers less scope for innovation, IPC Gansow updates its products on a yearly basis and has been the first company to launch hybrid models, running on dual power (batteries and diesel or petrol).

IPC Gansow is able to offer customised products, in terms of visibility, acoustics, type of surface to be cleaned, detergents to be used, and ergonomics, thus responding to clients’ needs. For instance, as Mr Vernazza clarifies: “The needs of the Japanese and the Norwegian markets are very different, in terms of ergonomics, as well as in cultural terms, and we can customise our products so as to meet the demands of each of them”.

Currently IPC Gansow exports about 84 per cent of its products. Scrubber driers, and in particular the ECS line, constitute a strong motor for growth and the company is particularly expanding its presence in emerging markets, such as China, Korea, AsianPacific countries, Brazil, India, and Russia, as well as in Japan and North America. In fact ICP is one of the few European groups with a consolidated distribution network in North America. Expansion plans are also in place for countries such as Indonesia and Turkey, which offer significant scope for growth.

While for a highly focused group such as IP Cleaning organic growth is central, in future its strategy may include acquisitions. In terms of IPC Gansow Mr Vernazza highlights how in the last five years this division has been the leader in the floor cleaning sector in terms of the development of new products with an added value. Its ECS system, which is in constant evolution, has won several international awards, such as the 2009 Golden Broom (ISSA Interclean Eastern Europe), and the 2010 environmentally friendly award Clean Green Afidamp, as well as having been a finalist in the 2009 Clean Green Afidamp (Pulire 2009) and in the 2010 Innovation Award (ISSA Interclean Amsterdam 2010). Furthermore the ECS machines are part of a programme of incentives offered by the British government to promote products producing considerable water savings. n