Minster Cleaning Celebrates 40 Years of Success
Minster Cleaning is proudly celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2022. Minster started its journey back in 1982, when Alan Haigh, Founder and Chairman, set up the very first branch in Birmingham. Fast forward 40 years and Minster Cleaning now has over 40 branches across the UK with a network turnover in excess of £45 million – what a year to be 40!
The start of Minster Cleaning
It was while working at Tandy Corporation that Alan Haigh came up with the idea to launch Minster Cleaning, now one of the country’s leading management franchises and a major force in office cleaning. One of Alan’s responsibilities was to find cleaning contractors for the Tandy stores, as he explains: “They were unreliable, and the general standard of work was poor.”
Alan knew he could deliver a far superior service and in November 1982 set up Minster Cleaning. By 1990 he had very profitable branches in Birmingham and Accrington, and turnover was £1million.
Alan was confident that he could keep growing the company. He believed that Minster Cleaning was perfect for franchising: the business could easily be replicated; the market was more than big enough for franchisees to build substantial businesses with high returns; and he had proven the business model over many years.
The first carefully appointed franchisees joined in 1992 with the commercial / management experience and leadership qualities needed to drive their businesses forward.
The growth of Minster Cleaning
Alan realised that the key to sustained growth was to continue to recruit quality franchisees to develop the large exclusive territories available. He believes that:
“Franchisees must be resilient and have people management ability, as they could be running a team of over 200 within just five years of starting a branch. It is also important for franchisees to be ambitious – all Minster Cleaning franchisees have the opportunity to build large and valuable businesses.”
By 1998, group turnover had hit £10 million, doubling to £20 million only four years later! Network sales doubled again to £40 million by 2018, and, despite the global pandemic, remain well in excess of £45 million today!
Alongside the recruitment of high calibre franchisees, Minster Cleaning’s continued success can be attributed to the following:
- Quality Support. This includes unlimited support to the franchise network across all the key business areas including Accounting, Operations, Training, Marketing and I.T. and the complex fields of employment law, health and safety and environmental legislation. In addition, in 2018, a new department was created to support franchisees with a standardised, software-based contract management platform (Templa) to alleviate the administrative and operational pressures that cleaning brings. These include staff scheduling, timesheet management, payroll, materials ordering and client billing. The Network Support Team had been growing steadily and, in 2015, moved into spacious new offices to accommodate future expansion.
- Proven Marketing Strategy. Minster Cleaning’s marketing professionals are passionate about the franchisees’ success. The department manages marketing strategies on the behalf of branches to attract new business. The Minster Cleaning website is managed centrally, and search engine optimisation and online advertising are also taken care of. They also provide the tools needed to help keep clients happy and increase their spend.
- Customer retention has been key to Minster Cleaning’s growth. By delivering a high quality, value for money commercial cleaning service, customers have no reason to look elsewhere! Indeed many organisations have been loyal customers many years!
- Minster Cleaning is an established and recognised brand in the commercial cleaning sector and is synonymous with high quality service delivery. Its reputation is underpinned by 6 key values:
- Reliable
- Consistent
- Trustworthy
- Flexible
- Friendly
- Great Value
In summary, the Minster Cleaning model works! Franchisees have created sizeable and profitable businesses of value. The numbers speak for themselves. Top franchisees can earn £200k+ (net profit) per year. Half of franchisees are achieving sales in excess of £1.2million and the largest branches over £2million.
The future of Minster Cleaning
Minster Cleaning will carry on growing the network to achieve the next milestone of £50 million turnover. Highly selective franchisee recruitment has been key to success and will continue to be for the remaining greenfield opportunities and future resales. As a mature network, many of franchisees have been with Minster for more than 20 years, are approaching retirement age and will therefore wish to sell in the near future. Recruiting franchisees with the experience, drive and skills to develop already large and established franchises will be of increasing importance in the coming years.
Ongoing, continual investment in network support will also ensure branches continue to grow profitably. Minster Cleaning’s dedicated, proficient and recently expanded Network Support Centre team will continue to provide franchisees with comprehensive central and field support and training.
Check out the timeline of Minster Cleaning below! Click to enlarge the infographic!
