The importance of the cleaning sector

Written by Lorcan Mekitarian, chair of the Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association, this article highlights how the UK’s £6.9bn cleaning and hygiene sector is evolving from a behind-the-scenes necessity into a strategic partner.

According to the British Cleaning Council, the British cleaning and hygiene sector is worth £6.9bn per annum to the UK economy and employs 1.49 million people. As well as trained operatives working on the front line in schools, hospitals, offices and public spaces, our industry is populated by innovators, entrepreneurs, chemists and others. Together, we keep schools, hospitals, offices and public spaces clean and safe places to live and work. 

The importance of our sector really came to the fore in the Covid pandemic. Almost overnight the population’s collective focus fell on the need to stop transmission. From removing dirt and germs from the spaces in which we live and work to keeping our hands germ-free, we all looked to our sector to provide many of the solutions. The Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Associations’ (CHSA) represents manufacturers and distributors of cleaning and hygiene products in the UK. Our members stepped up. They worked hard to produce and distribute products including cleaning chemicals, PPE, plastic refuse sacks cleaning mops and soft tissue in the quantities and the places they were needed. 

Standards
Unfortunately, the pandemic also offered an opportunity to the unscrupulous. In our sector, we saw many companies pop up overnight to sell hand sanitisers and other cleaning chemicals with little if any proof of the efficacy of the product or evidence for the sales and marketing claims they made. The pandemic was followed by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the consequent cost of living crisis. Buyers wanted products and services at affordable prices. Our members work hard to achieve the balance, but it is incredibly difficult. The result was a growing trend for open pricing on the web and escalating numbers of intermediaries. 

Open pricing is a flexible pricing strategy that allows businesses to adjust prices based on demand. Companies can offer a headline price that is, ultimately, not available when the customer comes to make a purchase. 

We have always had intermediaries in the market. They can add value. Today, though, we are seeing them entice customers with seductive prices, which sound too good to be true. This is because they often are. Intermediaries operating like this pay little or no attention to the quality and performance of the product. The result is buyers are finding themselves facing the issues that drove us to set up our Accreditation Schemes in the 1990s. Product short on the count, width or length, does not match the specifications on the box or is not fit for purpose. The price looks amazing because the product is not what you think it is.

Sustainability
Our Code of Practice is designed to address the challenges created here. Amongst other stipulations, it requires members to ‘conduct business dealings in an open, honest, fair and proper manner’; ‘to ensure all public statements made by and on behalf of the member are decent, honest and truthful’; and ‘to apply the highest ethical standards’. 

The importance of our sector to the health and wellbeing of the population means these are problems we cannot take lightly. Today, they have been compounded by the UK’s drive to Net Zero. The cleaning and hygiene sector takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. At the CHSA, we developed our Roadmap to Sustainability to provide members with a framework for moving to sustainable solutions. It covers product, packaging, transport, social values and corporate environmental impact and offers a structure they can use to develop and implement incremental improvements. Most recently we delivered a webinar answering members’ questions on carbon reporting. Calculating and reporting the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scopes 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions is an essential step in the journey of reducing them. 

The focus on sustainability brings with it the problem of greenwashing, organisations claiming things that sound good but have no real substance. Buyers need to be alert to this and challenge their suppliers to define what they mean and provide evidence to support their claim. For example, what do they mean by bio-degradable, natural or chemical-free and where is the evidence to substantiate their position? Buyers need to be particularly wary of absolute claims. It is impossible, for example to have zero environmental impact and no plastic sack is made from 100 per cent recycled material. Our Code of Practice, which all members are required to sign, includes the Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code. Its key principles can be summarised as: claims must be truthful and accurate; claims must be clear and unambiguous; claims must not omit or hide important relevant information; comparisons must be fair and meaningful; claims must consider the full life cycle of the product or service; and claims must be substantiated.

Innovation
The cleaning and hygiene sector is also becoming smarter. Our manufacturing members increasingly provide far more than just the product. They have innovated and integrated solutions that improve operational efficiency and user experience. From AI-powered robotic floor cleaners to smart dispensers that track usage and reduce waste, our members are harnessing technology to optimise performance and cut costs. Many cleaning product systems now come with IoT (Internet of Things) features that provide real-time data to facilities teams, helping them manage stock levels, detect equipment faults, and improve cleaning schedules. 

Our distributor members, meanwhile, are becoming knowledge partners to their customers. With expertise in regulations, health and safety standards, and product application, they help clients make informed choices that improve outcomes. A growing number of distributors also offer training programmes, digital procurement platforms, and customisable product bundles tailored to specific sectors – be it healthcare, hospitality, or education.

Through their innovation and focus on the increasingly complex demands faced by customers and end users, our members are elevating the cleaning and hygiene supply chain itself from commodity provider to strategic partner. 

Accreditations
At the heart of it all are our Accreditation Schemes. Our commitment to standards began in 1997 with the launch of our first Accreditation Scheme. Today we have Accreditation Schemes for Manufacturers of Soft Tissue, Plastic Sacks, Cotton Mops and Cleaning Chemicals and for Distributors. All are underpinned by the comprehensive auditing process undertaken by the Independent Inspector, a quality assurance professional. Combined with our Code of Practice, they guarantee that members: trade ethically and sustainably; provide quality, fit-for-purpose products; and make sure what’s on the box is what’s in the box.