Robert Scott’s big shiny review of the year

2018 has certainly been a year to remember for Robert Scott and we started with our best foot forward, launching a shiny new brand in January with overwhelming feedback from both customers and staff.The Great British Spring Clean weekend saw our first spotless Spotify playlist, crowdsourced from the team’s favourite songs to clean to; the season also became home to our inaugural Cleaning up your Community campaign which was a great success. It was also a record year for the team at Interclean where we launched the new product catalogue and showcased the brand.


Over the summer, some of the team paid a visit to the picturesque town of Llanberis – winners of the Cleaning up your Community competition – armed with litter pickers to lend a hand. It was back to school in September with a number of exciting product launches including Duop Reach and the Barista cloth.The team donned costumes to pay tribute to WW1’s centenary anniversary, and there was even a visit from Donald Trump come Halloween! And so, as we approach the festive season, here’s some of the Clean team’s personal highlights and hopes for the year ahead.

1. If you could sum up 2018 in three words, what would they be?

Gary Brannan: “Challenging, turbulent, exciting.”

Karen Thwaites: “Exciting new products.”

John Kerr: “Challenging, demanding and rewarding.”

2. What has been your professional highlight of the year?

Alastair Scott: “Persuading a major customer that direct import does not work, and supply via us is more efficient.”

Tom Capper: “Sustaining and gaining relationships with customers, no matter how much of a reduction our competitors offer. As a personal highlight, I’ve managed to get closer to the heart of my customers’ companies by meeting external representatives, which has ensured we are their first port of call when they receive an enquiry.”

Gill Ireson: “Seeing our customers’ reactions to the new brand identity and marketing collateral, knowing that every sales person has so much to talk about with new products and fab marketing materials to support them.”


Karen Thwaites: “Exceeding a new customer’s expectations by sourcing and adapting a product to meet their unique requirements.”

3. What’s been your favourite product launch this year?

Tom Capper: “The Duop system. I really enjoyed demonstrating this and discussing with customers. I think this could be one of the best products we have ever released due to its versatility.”

Steve Courtney: “For me, Mi-cloth microfibre has been a favourite of 2018.”

John Kerr: “The Duop system by far. The way it was identified by the focus group, marketed very slickly, and the way it has been received in the market has been very positive.”

4. What are your predictions for the cleaning industry in 2019? Key trends and challenges?

Alastair Scott: “I’m hoping that the current impetus on plastic packaging reduction and more eco-friendly ways of working will grow, and not be just a short-term reaction to try and appear ‘on trend’.”

Gary Brannan: “I think the competitor market will continue to shrink. Our ability to manufacture in the UK will become more important, and the opportunity we have with the space we possess will become more prevalent in our ability to have the product in the right place, at the right price and at the right time. Trends are definitely moving toward time-saving equipment as the FM market continues to grow.”

Steve Courtney: “More emphasis on the environment and products that can help it, including Toucan Eco. I think customers will show more of a corporate responsibility and want to be seen using environmentally-friendly products.”

Gill Ireson: “Customers who have moved for better pricing will be back as they will realise service is everything. I think we will be even more successful with our own products, this is where we will leave our closest competitors behind.”

5. What are you most looking forward to in 2019?

Pete Jones: “Toucan Eco taking off and being rolled out across multiple sites. The Pro-mist mop and other new products and innovations, and pushing forward with the new brand, website launch, winning new distributors and developing business with our existing customer base.”

Jo Fidge: “If 2018 is anything to go by, I am looking forward to the new product launches we’ll have for customers in 2019.”

Tom Capper: “I am looking forward to a number of ventures I have planned with a few of my customers, getting out into the field more and more. I’m also looking forward to promoting the new Pro-mist mop to our customers – I feel this product is a massive upgrade on the current magnetic stream option and I think we can really challenge competitor’s products.”