The Changing Face of Commerical Cleaning As Ankef Closes Its Doors
It’s sad news in the world of industrial and commercial cleaning at the moment as one of the key businesses in the local area, Ankef has made the decision to close its doors. Here at Fleetclean, we’ve known Ankef for a long time. They’re based not too far from us, in Normantan, West Yorkshire and since their incorporation in 2005, they’ve been providing cleaning equipment, servicing and support to their customers, in much the same way as we do.
Like us, Ankef have seen their business change over the years. Our customers, typically commercial and industrial businesses, have seen their operating costs increase and this has meant a greater focus on keeping their overheads down wherever possible. As a result, many more customers have transitioned to longer term, more cost-effective lease agreements for their cleaning equipment and it’s easy to see why.
Leasing cleaning equipment for the long term means you have all the benefits of essentially “owning” that machine: it’s on site 24/7 ready to use, but without the expensive, up-front costs of purchasing it. Instead, the costs are spread out over your hire term, making it much more manageable and you don’t have to worry about costly repairs either. Most hire agreements like ours here at Fleetclean offer repairs and servicing as part of the deal, so can rest assured your equipment is in tip top condition, without costing you an arm and a leg.
This transition towards more long term lease agreements hasn’t been without it’s challenges for us though. It’s meant that as a business, we’ve needed to increase our stock of cleaning equipment to support those longer-term lease agreements. We’ve had to grow our equipment maintenance, servicing and training teams so we can support a more invested customer base and we’ve had to diversify our range of cleaning equipment too. What was the cleaning machine of choice 15 years ago, is not the cleaning machine of choice today, especially with the rising popularity of greener and more environmentally friendly cleaning solutions – something we’re very invested in here at Fleetclean as you’ll know if you’ve read about our recent work with bio sludge!
All in all, this has mean business like us and Ankef have had to adapt over the years, grow our teams and invest in more equipment and more space and the sad thing is, that’s not easy! Throw in almost two years with the country in lock down and greater hesitancy among business in general to spend their hard-earned cash and it’s easy to see why previously successful business are starting to struggle. Luckily for us, we recognised the changes many years ago and find ourselves in a position to help more and more businesses with their cleaning equipment needs. We’re specialising in more and more bespoke cleaning solutions and of course, those more environmentally friendly options. If you’re interested in cleaning equipment hire for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us.