Hi Lionhart, I have experienced the same issues you mentioned, previously at one time I only used Johnson Diversity products, ( The UK's Largest cleaning chemical manufacturer) who make Mr Muscle and Lifeguard range, I noticed over the last 4/5 years that the products are not performing as well as they used to. I used JD products because I wanted good products that save labour and was just not getting enough out of these products. JD also manufacture other ranges and Brand products for other suppliers.
12 months ago we achieved BSEN ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems accreditation and we decided as part of the EMS we would review the chemicals for the environmental impact, cost and quality. As a result of this review I have an agreement to import and distribute the Buckeye range from th USA.
http://www.buckeyeinternational.com/index.html Buckeye is the biggest manufacturer of Commercial cleaning Chemicals and innovation, the range is not available through local wholesalers in the UK, and in some cases more expensive than the cheaper products. It also means that your customers can not get it and there is a full range of data Sheets and COSHH available.
From an environmental prospective, the chemicals are Green, and there is a full range of products, after all these are the largest company globally, just not big in the UK. Here is where we make the savings, most of the range is concentrated, so you add the water locally. I save about 50% of my chemical bill every month and I have great products. I do not worry about the staff over dosing and using to much concentrate as I have implemented dosing stations on the larger sites and dose locally for the smaller sites.
As an example, last month I quoted (£1,000) to Strip, seal and polish a Distribution centre hard floors, I had 3 guys working on the job scheduled for an overnight service, we had scrubber dryers, High speed rotary and wet vacs, having used JD products I had thought 30 hours (total) work. Using Buckeys stripper, sealant and polish and drying the floor with heaters the job was finished in 3 hours elapsed (9 Hours ) the staff got a bonus for quick and quality work, so they were happy, the client called me next day, very happy to say his floors had never looked so good and he said his current contractor was not capable of this standard of work not maintaining the finish we had provided and has awarded the contact for Cleaning to my company. I have also just picked up the floor maintenance at a chain of 40 small retail stores because I have now priced with the time saved by using Buckeye products, Everyone wins.
If you want to know more about buckeye please give me call, I am happy to send a brochure and my web site is “Work in progress” for the products section. I have tried most of the leading chemicals out there including seldon and ended with a solution that works well for my business, they may cost more upfront but they last longer, go further and I save cleaners time, whist still being environmentally friendly
Kind regards and happy cleaning
Geoff