CLEAN AND GREEN
Danish professional cleaning equipment specialist Nilfisk-Advance is one of the world’s leading producers of professional cleaning equipment. Today the company is firmly committed to being an environmentally responsible organisation.
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ilfisk-Advance is based in Denmark but has production facilities in Asia, Europe and the Americas as well as sales companies in 43 countries, and distributors in 70 countries. It is partly this global presence that has allowed it to maintain its success for over a century since its establishment in 1906 by a Danish engineer Mr P.A Fisker, with his partner Mr Nilsen. Since the late 1980s Nilfisk-Advance has been a part of the NKT Group, and following this it began to enjoy a period of rapid development as opposed to the steady growth it had seen over the previous decades. With a series of acquisitions of smaller companies it has been able to expand its product portfolio and international presence.
The majority of the company’s business is with B2B customers (around 85 per cent) although a small percentage of its products, including the high-pressure washers manufactured by its subsidiary Alto, are for the consumer market. However, the company continues to be best-known for its industrial and professional cleaning equipment.
Range of products Nilfisk-Advance’s cleaning solutions have a number of applications, including industrial, construction, automotive, schools and offices, shopping centres or domestic, for example. Its range includes industrial vacuum cleaners, which makes up around 35 per cent of its business, floor-care equipment such as floor
scrubbers and sweepers (40 per cent) with the rest (15 per cent) consisting of high-pressure washers for the consumer market. The company doesn’t develop specific products for certain markets. Instead, its philosophy is one of ‘universality’ whereby its range is the same across all group companies. It believes that this is the best way to offer its customers consistency and the highest quality products. This strategy has led to a widening of its product range as it is able to focus on the development of each of its lines rather than customising certain areas. A company spokesperson explained: “We are offering everything required, from small vacuum cleaners up to very large industrial sweepers for big industrial sites, for example, car manu-
