Cannon Hygiene, which has popularly been associated with feminine hygiene, has today grown into a complete washroom hygiene solutions provider. Offering a range of over 25 hygiene products and services in India, Cannon Hygiene specializes in infection control solutions for washrooms right from dispensers to drains. Clean India Journal speaks to Managing Director Prashant Sule and Director Rajesh Rohira on the challenges and successes of the company’s journey in India
Cannon Hygiene, over the last 16 years, has grown to become the name much-sought after for washroom hygiene solutions across the country. Over the last decade, the awareness about hygiene solutions requirement for washrooms has spread widely, however, says Prashant Sule, “the spend for maintaining hygienic washrooms, is yet to catch up.”
When it comes to cleaning or hygiene, cost becomes a determining factor. Even though two different brands offer the same kind of product, the quality and delivery differ highly and hence, differ in cost.
“The difference with our products is not just in the quality but it meets standards and the services offered are far beyond comparison. For example, we not only collect the sanitary waste from washroom but replace the receptacle during service. We just do not clear the waste but also ensure that the washroom remains hygienic. We are the only service providers who take the feminine hygiene bins for a thorough wash and replace them with fresh and washed bins. The vapours and biological waste contaminate the bin and by washing it, we ensure no pathogens are left behind to contaminate the washroom in turn,” explained Prashant Sule.
The feminine hygiene bin technology of Cannon Hygiene works on vapours that kill the microorganism generated inside the bin instantly. “Some of our loyal customers who understand the technology and take care of their employees have engaged our services all across. These include Google, Amazon, TCS, SAT, Microsoft and many more.”
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– Prashant Sule
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The success of the feminine hygiene model is also credited to the perfect client service offered by 15 service centers. In all, 45,000 bins are in circulation and are strategically brought to the service center, washed and decontaminated before being sent to the client. “It may take some time to get the customer to understand the concept but once a Cannon Hygiene customer, he is always a Cannon Hygiene customer.”
Air fragrance is another product of Cannon Hygiene which has the least VOC and is manufactured in Belgium. “All Cannon Hygiene products are EU certified, which ensures that the product quality is of high standards, in meeting the stringent rules of European Union. Fragrances have a direct impact on the olfactory of humans that can get damaged irreversibly with the harmful contents in the air fragrance. Hence, certified products ensure safety. Similarly, our soaps are manufactured in Netherlands and are certified too.”
Talking passionately about the latest launch in India, he said that the toilet seat is one of the major cause for contamination which directly affects the user, especially women. “We have introduced a biodegradable toilet seat cover which can be changed by every user with a press of a button. The used seat cover which gets cut and rolled after use, can be easily disposed, as it disintegrates into the soil in a month.”
Cannon Hygiene products are popularly used in the IT sector. It is also being used in healthcare and hospitality segments, Airlines and educational institutions among many others.
New concepts and innovative products face the initial stumble before they take off, especially in India where “products make a tough journey between market acceptance and market penetration”. Cannon Hygiene further expanded to include another washroom requirement – drain care. It introduced Cannon Drainoscopy, a professional drain cleaning service using professional unclogging equipment.
“The acceptance of the product and technology is 100%, however, the rate of actual conversion is increasing steadily. Aggressive marketing, the age old “filling the funnel” approach and tackling client issues successfully are giving good results,” says Rajesh Rohira, who heads the Cannon Drainoscopy division.
“Drainscopy’s expertise lies in reaching inside the narrow two inch and four-inch drain lines running below the urinals and the sewer system and cleaning it.”
– Rajesh Rohira
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Two years back, the very concept of a machine walking into a drain, identifying the blocks and then actually cleaning, was difficult to accept. “Now with growing awareness, being a market monopoly, in the next two years Cannon Drainoscopy would be much-soughtafter product and services. The response is very good and we have already created many success stories,” he adds.
Drainscopy’s expertise lies in reaching inside the narrow two inch and four-inch drain lines running below the urinals and the sewer system and cleaning it. The scales accumulating and obstructing the bends and crevices and blockage caused due to foreign objects in the drainage pipes need to be removed to enable free flow.
“Urinal scale build up is what majorly causes mal-odour. Then there is food and foreign objects like gutka and pan that go down the drain lines and form food for bacteria. Unfortunately, an age old wrong practice of putting the hazardous naphthalene in the drains further aggravates the problem. It clogs the bottle trap, which is scientifically designed to contain water in the bottom in order to prevent backflow of mal-odour.
“If the bottle trap is clogged with foreign debris, then there is only urine. The use of naphthalene is of no use and should be stopped immediately, as naphthalene will dissolve in time and clog the bottle trap,” Rajesh Rohira explained.
In the ladies’ washrooms, there are even more issues, as right from C-fold tissues which is of a much higher GSM to sanitary napkins are washed down the WC. These are not dissolvable and finally, have to get trapped somewhere down the drain causing clogs.
Besides the obvious reasons of food waste and sanitary waste being washed down the drain, there are other faulty practices and construction flaws that cause the clogging. For example, in food court areas, the kitchen staff tend to remove the jaali from the drains with the belief that there will be a free flow of water. The main purpose of putting a jaali is to ensure the waste does not go further down and clog the drains.
Further, in many constructions, the drain lines are either positioned at a different height or at a distance that lead to chokes and are difficult to unclog. “As far as issues like gutka or food waste clogging is concerned, Cannon can address it immediately. However, when it comes to clogging of drains in larger areas, we need to inspect, find the root cause, chalk out a plan and then get working. This could take anywhere between three to six months. We are getting a very good response and now have entered into annual contracts with many manufacturing facilities.”
Cannon Hygiene has a workforce of experienced plumbers and technicians who are engaged in the drain cleaning services. The services are now being offered at all the major metros across the country. Manufacturing, pharma, IT ITES, financial institutions, banks and almost all other sectors.
“In fact, wherever there are people there are washrooms and wherever there are washrooms, we need to clean the drains. The biggest challenge would be to do the public toilets because of the kind of people who use them, the way they usthem and the lack of sanitation and other facilities,” concluded Rajesh Rohira.