GREENSTAR CLEANING

CLEANING SERVICES Cleaning up after Coronavirus

With the increased need for sanitisation, the pandemic has created opportunities for innovative cleaning companies

Nicki Hesketh & Dean Clark

Not surprisingly Coronavirus didn’t feature in the business planning for Greenstar Cleaners this year so when it hit, they had to react quickly in order to secure the future of the business.

Based on Manor Royal, it has a number of clients related to the airport, from airlines to duty free suppliers, and these were some of the first companies to close offices. With fewer offices to clean, this commercial cleaning company had to think of a new revenue stream.

Dean Clark, Managing Director, comments; “We have been in operation for more than forty years and in that time have weathered a number of recessions. In our experience it is best to secure what you are currently doing and then look to the future.”

They did this swiftly, deciding that what was going to be required both now and once life returns to normal is sanitising cleans, to make sure companies’ premises are safe and stay that way.

“We had carried these out in the past during the SARS virus, so we knew what we needed to do. We retrained staff in how to carry out the cleans effectively and began doing the cleans for clients who are still operating and want to ensure that their offices are Covid-19 free.” says Dean.

“We realised that this could also be an opportunity for an additional revenue stream. In many countries companies have regular scheduled sanitising cleans of their premises as a precaution and we believe that this something companies should be doing here going forward.

“As you can imagine premises that haven’t been open for several weeks will definitely require a general clean once they are open again to get rid of dust build-up and goodness knows what else. But for peace of mind we are also suggesting a sanitising clean.”

Greenstar Cleaners have been fortunate enough to receive a grant from Coast to Capital’s Backing Business Grant Scheme. “We are absolutely delighted to have received this. Amongst other things this will enable us to purchase additional specialised equipment to carry out sanitising cleans on a large scale in the future and help build this arm of Greenstar.”

Greenstar Cleaners is a sustainable commercial cleaning company operating throughout the South East. For more information contact info@greenstarcleaners.co.uk. Tel: 01293 534643 greenstarcleaners.co.uk

Queen’s Award for Frenchic Paint

Surrey based eco-friendly chalk and mineral paint brand Frenchic are thrilled to announce they have been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for 2020.

The prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise recognises outstanding achievement by a UK business, and is testament to the incredible successes achieved by Frenchic and its Founder Pam Gruhn in just over five years since their standing-start launch. Granted the award for Innovation, Frenchic are now proven to have brought the UK’s first unique chalk and mineral paint with a wax infusion to market, known as their Lazy Range. This one-ofits-kind wax infusion totally eliminates the need for a top-coat or wax to seal the paint and saves the customer more than half the time at a third of the cost.

Since Dec 2014, Frenchic have offered a huge range of high-quality paint which perfectly coincided with the up-cycling revolution, helping DIY enthusiasts give old or unused furniture an entirely

Frenchic Founder Pam Gruhn:

“We are so honoured to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. We pride ourselves in continually creating unique paints in must-have colours, so to be highly recognised for our Lazy Range is an incredible achievement. I started Frenchic when I grew frustrated with being unable to find a paint that ticked all my boxes, so I am thrilled with how quickly we’ve grown to become one of the UK’s market leaders and a British brand exporting across the world. Everything we produce has the customer and environment in mind, combining exceptional quality with ease of use and eco-friendly ingredients. It has been a true labour of love - a start-up with humble beginnings, no exterior funding, but simply a pure passion for paint! What drives me is the community we’ve created and the wonderful stockists we support around the world. To have this accolade really is a dream come true – truly a special moment for Team Frenchic.”

new look, without skimping on style or substance.

Their rich and creamy paint is incredibly easy to use, with the range including Al Fresco Inside/Outside Range, Washable Chalk Wall Paint, Trim Paint, Waxes and accessories. The paint has no added VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and is also proudly EN:71-3 certified, so it’s perfectly child-safe.

Frenchic continue to go from strength to strength championing the independent retailer on our high streets with over 550 stockists on four continents.

This period of isolation has jump-started an up-cycling craze which has been building for 18-months, and Frenchic have been a major part of this. Earlier this year they recorded a 300% uplift in sales, and this month alone sees a 487% increase. They are currently shipping 6 tons of paint per day and in 6 weeks have taken delivery of 115,000 tins of paint. Winning the unrivalled Queen’s Award for Enterprise will only further cement their status as one of the decorative paint market leaders.

www.frenchicpaint.co.uk @FrenchicPaint

Supporting NHS Heroes

The Hurst College community members work hard, do good and engage with NHS heroes

The Hurst College community – teachers, pupils and parents – continue to support our NHS heroes by making visors and face masks, running a marathon and producing a fundraising t-shirt.

Chief Operating Officer/DT teacher Dan Higgins and his daughter Beth - who was due to take her A-levels this Summer - have made over 160 visors for NHS staff. The visors were based on an original design shared by a friend of Dan’s who works at Abbey

Amelie

Gate College, Chester and who has been working with the Countess of Chester Hospital A&E Department to develop the design.

The Hurst-made visors have been produced from two methods, 3D printing and laser cutting, using PLA, PP and acetate - some also have foam and elastic stitched on by hand. Thirty-six visors have been made using two small 3D printers, which take around 90 minutes to print. The other laser designs, which are quicker to cut, require more assembly time.

More than 100 visors have already been distributed by Beth following requests for assistance from a number of parents and staff. She has delivered the PPE to the Brow Medical Centre in Burgess Hill, the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton, Hurst and Hassocks GP surgeries, and SE Ambulance services. The remainder will be delivered when more elastic has been sourced, and once further supplies of all the materials are delivered, then more visors can be made.

“It’s been a real iterative process where we have changed and simplified the design to make the production as fast and easy as possible, using the kit and stock we’ve had in the DT department. We have now exhausted all the materials we had left and have had to stop production for now,” said Dan.

Senior Nurse Sarah Barker started making facemasks over the Easter holidays after receiving an email request from her GP practice. News of Sarah’s handiwork quickly spread via Facebook and other organisations also requested her mask-making skills. She has made around 120 masks in total for local GP practices, pharmacies, care homes and community nursing teams.

“My hobby is patchwork and as I had a huge stash of fabric I was happy to help out and put the fabric to good use, before I returned to work for the NHS on a temporary basis,” said Sarah.

Year 6 pupil, Amelie set herself the challenge of running a marathon with her pet dog in less than two weeks to raise money for NHS Charities Together. She began her quest last week, running between three and four miles

“Dan Higgins and his daughter Beth - who was due to take her A-levels this Summer - have made over 160 visors for NHS staff.”

The NHS charity T-shirts. Inset: Paediatric Radiographers at the Royal Alex wearing Hurst-made visors

every day and fittingly completed her 26.2 miles on Sunday, which should have been the day of the London Marathon. So far, she has raised £880, just £120 short of her target, and is still expecting to hit her fundraising target.

“When I was clapping the NHS workers on Thursday evenings I was thinking how brave they are and wanted to do more to help, so I decided to run a fundraising marathon. This is something I can do from my front door during our daily dog walking slot and online PE lesson time,” said Amelie.

During the Easter holidays Housemistress Jami Edwards-Clarke and the girls in her care designed a t-shirt, with a little help from some friends, to raise funds for the NHS. Using the girls’ drawings as a template, a Welsh friend of Jami’s produced print-ready artwork and a local West Sussex printer produced the finished article. Inspired by Jami’s Mum, who is currently working as a nurse in a make-shift Covid-19 hospital in Pembrokeshire, the house had hoped to raise at least £1000 for the NHS – that total has already been passed with more than 200 t-shirts sold and £2500 raised.

“The work that every single doctor, nurse, cleaner, porter (the list goes on) has been doing made us think, what we could do to help. So, we decided to produce this fundraising t-shirt to support our amazing NHS teams, wherever they are, and my Mum!”, said Jami. The first donation of £1000 has been sent to Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust for their staff wellbeing fundraising campaign which will ensure staff have the resources and support they need to fight coronavirus whilst remaining healthy, energised and well-rested over the upcoming weeks and months ahead.

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national news IR35 Postponed

The government has postponed the implementation of reforms to

IR35 tax rules in the private sector by one year in a bid to protect the economy against the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking recently at the Budget debate in the House of Commons, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay announced the reforms to IR35 off-payroll working rules would now come into effect on 6 April 2021. Last month the Treasury confirmed it was to push ahead with changes to the rules, which would see every medium and large private sector business in the UK become responsible for setting the tax status of any contract worker they use from April 2020. Previously the rules had only applied to the public sector.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring

BUSINESS WISDOM

Netflix Boom

The grimly fascinating feature of the coronavirus era is the Darwinistic way one company’s disaster is another’s fortune. So, while restaurants and bars furlough hundreds of thousands of staff as their clients are stuck indoors, supermarkets enjoy record sales. While retail property landlords suffer floods of tenants unable to pay their rents, warehouse owners make fortunes storing unsold shop goods. The winners can’t believe their luck. Some talk vaguely of how a reckoning will come their way sooner or later but that’s mainly because it feels wrong to crow. Netflix’s Reed Hastings —the biggest Covid winner after Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — tried to act sombre to investors today. Having just put on a record 16 million new subscribers, he grimly intoned that next quarter could see only 7.5 million. Get out the world’s smallest violin for a man whose shares have surged 30% this year.

Hogs Back Collection

Surrey-based Hogs Back Brewery is finding new ways to keep its beers flowing to customers through the coronavirus ‘lockdown’, as people heed Government advice to stay away from pubs and bars and work from home.

The brewery, in Tongham near Farnham, has introduced a new Drive Through service for its draught, bottled and canned beers, including its flagship TEA, Hogstar lager and Surrey Nirvana Session IPA. Customers simply drive up to the Brewery Shop, place their order - from a safe distance - and the beer is loaded into their boot by shop staff, without needing to leave their car.

Customers can also ‘click and collect’ by going online to www.hogsback.co.uk with orders ready for collection after 10.00 am the next day, and for those waiting for orders, beer will be served to socially-distanced tables in the open canopy area.

For customers unable to leave home, Hogs Back will home-deliver orders within a 15-mile radius of the brewery, and further afield for orders of £40 or more.

The Brewery Shop remains open for business, with new social distancing measures in place and closure on Mondays to allow for deep cleaning.