Two brothers are marking the 50th anniversary of the huge cleaning business which grew out of their old window cleaning round.
Bill and Eddie Hargrave expanded Hands Cleaners from modest beginnings under a railway arch in Leicester to one of the biggest independent cleaning groups in central England, employing 400 people.
The company’s reputation was boosted a decade ago when it won a deal to do all the cleaning for Walkers Crisps’ offices in Leicester and Coventry.
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Now based in Shepshed, north Leicestershire, Hands specialises in everything from cleaning schools and offices to factories jobs, shops and healthcare facilities – one of its biggest clients is laboratory supplies group Fisher Scientific in Loughborough.
And it still provides window cleaning services – though on a more commercial scale than back in 1970.
Managing director Bill Hargrave, 73, said: “When Eddie and I started the business we had no idea that it would grow into such a success.
“It is a great delight to reach this wonderful milestone and much credit should go to our loyal staff who have helped achieve it.
“The pandemic has thrown many challenges our way.
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“Some customers have cut back on cleaning due to staff working from home, but this has been more than compensated by new contracts and much extra cleaning to ensure customers’ staff stay safe.”
Hands Cleaners started out just cleaning offices, but by 1980 had more than a dozen full-time industrial cleaning staff, along with a team of-full time and part-time office cleaners.
The same year, it acquired a much bigger premises in Humberstone Gate, in Leicester city centre, and with a janitorial supplies business, Jangro, occupying the ground floor.
Over the years its area of operation expanded to cover Loughborough, Nottingham and Derby, and the founding brothers still work two days a week.
Eddie said the key to success in business had been “caring about the service we give, looking after the staff, ensuring we employ staff who care about the job as much as we do and making sure we deliver what we say we will do”.
By 2013, they needed a more central base in the East Midlands, so moved to their current home on the Gelders Hall industrial estate, near Junction 23 of the M1.
Jangro is based in the same unit.
This year has been the busiest in the company’s history, with three new schools signing up, and some clients wanting several cleans a day, rather than just one in the evening.