Roots Multiclean Ltd Surging ahead in cleaning industry

“Service to Customer” being on the top of its agenda always, Roots Multiclean Ltd has opened its first comprehensive regional office at Bangalore to meet end users requirement much faster. The well-equipped multi-purpose premises has showroom, wear house, service centre, training centre and office area.

“The main purpose of investing in a regional office is to provide better and timely services to our customers,” said K Ramaswamy, Chairman. “Over and above, this premises will help customers to get hands on experience of the entire range of equipment. Bangalore being a central location for the southern region, the branch offices can source all kinds of spares at the earliest,” added Managing Director Varun Karthikeyan during the inauguration.

Speaking on the occasion, which also saw some of the big customers of Roots walk in, BM Narayan, President, Service Master Clean Ltd, said “Being associated with the service industry, we source equipment from various companies. We have been associated with Roots for about four years. Roots is quick in learning, refining the equipment and providing service. We cater to all kinds of facilities and use different machines like road sweepers, ride on scrubbers, battery operated machines. The equipment and services are good. Facility services companies require good service.”

Customizing machines to the requirement of customers has been the forte of Roots. “Comparatively, Roots machines are cost effective and the attention given to servicing after sales very good. As a service provider getting timely service is important. Roots also have very good products,” said Jayaram MS, DGM-Business Development, Tenon Property Services Pvt. Ltd.

Sharing his experience with Roots, B Vijay, Head-Material Management Department, Krishnapatnam Port, AP, said, “We have partnered with Roots to maintain cleanliness at the port, which mainly handles dry cargo like coal, fertilizers, etc. We are handling about 25million tonnes of coal in a year and cleaning involves the entire port. There is a lot of spillage during handling and we use Roots truck-mounted road sweepers for collecting them and also for cleaning the roads. We are planning to have another four machines besides the three sweepers that is already operational. We are also planning to have machines for indoor cleaning. We have been associated with Roots for over four years and their service is good; that is one of the reasons why we give Roots repeat orders. All together there are about 15 equipment from Roots running at the Port.”

Congratulating RMCL on its achievement, Chief Guest Gautam Maini, Managing Director of Maini Precision Products, Bangalore, said, “It is really nice to see the Roots Group come up. In terms of vision, Roots has been a step ahead by creating a regional office like a mini factory here in Bangalore. I wish the entire team all the very best.”

In a brief interview with Clean India Journal post inauguration, K Ramaswamy, Varun Karthikeyan and Dr S Chandrashekhar, Executive Director-Marketing, RMCL, shared their experience in the cleaning industry.

New demand in various segments

K. Ramaswamy: There is a growing shift towards outsourcing cleaning services. In the past, the end-user segment engaged in-house staff to maintain the facility. Roots too is adapting to this shift. Our marketing and servicing are organised in tune with the needs of the service providers. Previously, we were dealing with one customer from one industry or multiple customers from multiple segments but now we are dealing with one customer who is servicing several industries. That is the change and it gives us insight into the requirements of various industries. We are equipping ourselves by developing a lot of machines and accessories to meet the requirements of cleaning contractors. This is the trend where we foresee demand.

Another influencing factor is the growing awareness about cleanliness among the user segment and undoubtedly the cleaning industry has tremendous potential. Our R&D is developing more machines to meet the expectations of these growing segments and meet the futuristic demand. India is evolving like other foreign countries now.

Every company has its own challenges. Manpower is one of common issue and we need to come up with solutions of how to combine manpower and machine efficiently.

Regional Office

Ramaswamy: The Bangalore expansion into a regional office is mainly to meet the requirement of the southern zone and have close contact with our existing customers. The reach from Bangalore is much faster than from our Coimbatore office. Hence, the Bangalore office is in an integrated centre well equipped with a showroom, training centre, wearhouse, service centre and office. It gives clients opportunity to see all the machines and even try those hands on at one place. All the spare parts will be stocked in this regional office as the branch offices can stock only fast moving spares. It is not viable to stock all spares in the branch offices.

Moreover, the service providers highly depend on machines and through the regional office the spares can be provided much faster; thus reducing the downtime.

Payment Delay

Dr Chandrashekhar: The common view that it is difficult dealing with service providers where payments are concerned is not always the case. There are some cases but we do a due diligence – The history of their background, their current suppliers and clients, reach and experience in the market before we get into any kind of deal with the facility service company. It is more of how you choose your customer and the credit terms are clear.

Depending on the volume, we also have a special price/discount structure of machines and spares delivered to facility services companies. Understanding their potential, we grow and expect them to grow with us.

We also have a model, whereby we supply machines on rent; however,
the scheme is restricted to high volumes on mutually beneficial terms.

Marketing Strategy

Varun Karthikeyan: The facility service segment has several levels of companies and we need to be careful dealing with fly-by-night operators. We have over 100 sales and 200 service people spread in all our branches spread across the country. We are able to better service the facility service companies that are operating anywhere and everywhere.

Roots Multiclean has a separate vertical that operates exclusively for facility service companies. The team meets companies individually, be it big or small. It is more of direct marketing and we have reached out to most of the major ones in India – ISS, BVG, G4S, etc. Here again, where the volumes are big, the team individually caters to their needs. In that case, there are many smaller companies which we probably have not reached out to.

We have a research cell which studies facility service companies all over India and gives specific leads to the branch offices, which in turn proceed to knock on their doors.

Since about 30% of our domestic turnover comes from facility services companies, we have resources focusing on this market but there are direct buyers too and we have to take care of their demands too.

With big companies and MNCs again, it is direct selling but when it comes to smaller ones, it is a challenge. One demo may suffice for big companies but we may have to repeat demos in smaller companies. However, once the customer is convinced, he will definitely go for it.

But there are companies who tend to take advantage and call for a demo just to get their premises cleaned once.

Ramaswamy: In India, cleanliness per se is not in our blood. People want to use their money purposes other than on keeping the place clean. It is a way of thinking, it will change but it will take time. Global companies are coming into India and unless the Indian companies improve their standards they will not be able to meet the challenge. They cannot produce consistent quality if the workplace is dirty. Take for example, in dyeing unit, any kind of impurity will affect the quality. Similarly, every industry has a cleaning requirement to meet standards. Until such a stage comes where their quality suffers, change is unlikely. But the days are not too far off. Everyone will realize that they need to keep their workplace clean to be competitive and give a premium and reliable product. Until then, people will still resort to getting premises cleaned through demos in times of need like just before an audit or so. Sometimes, we entertain in doing such demos; this is because the customer understand to attain certain standards in cleaning he has to resort to machines. Two out of 10 may buy the machine, if not today may be tomorrow. At the same time, we cannot entertain every such customer.

Innovation

Dr Chandrashekhar: Roots has introduced a lot of battery operated models which were earlier electrically driven, ride on model for the walk behind machines, and customizing a lot of machines after site doing surveys. This way we are able to give customers real time solutions for specific applications, teach them how to use the machine, support them with after sales services and become a partner to the customer.

Ramaswamy: In India today, the usage of carpets has increased but the Indian conditions are not conducive for carpets. Out of habit, people walk over the carpet with dirty footwear or even throw things on it carelessly. It is tough for facility service companies to clean or maintain carpets. Hence, keeping in demand, we have developed a carpet cleaning machine for the first time in the world using patented technology. We have launched the product in India also and is in the trial run. Unlike the encapsulation technology, where either the powder is sprinkled or liquid is sprayed on the carpet, agitated and then vacuumed after some standing time. This is a time consuming and laborious process. The new machine does the whole process in one go – it sprinkles the chemical, agitates and picks up the dirt with a single process. The machines are being exported to the US and now are being launched in India.

In the US and other countries carpets are maintained but in India, they are not spending enough money or focusing on cleaning but it will change soon. This new product can be used in IT companies, airports, hotels and FM.

Another major innovation is the Wizzard machine, a compact, chord operated scrubber dryer, which we have been exporting for the last 10 to 12 years. Many companies globally attempted to create a battery operated model of the Wizzard but failed. After over five years of R&D we have developed the battery operated machine which is now being exported. The uniqueness of this new machine is its weight. The models developed by our competitors globally are about 25kg AC version and about 35kg DC version, which is very heavy. But the new model wizard is lighter than the AC version and it gives the same performance. We brought about a lot of changes with high efficiency motor which are developed in-house in a separate facility. In India, this product will pick up slowly as it is a bit expensive and people will have to understand the importance of cleaning to accept machines like Wizzard.

Varun Karthikeyan: A few user friendly changes have been brought about in the existing machines. Like in the walk behind scrubber dryers we have introduced a traction system which enables propels the machine forward without having to push it. It reduces the fatigue of the operator. Thus, the performance improves and gets better as the operator will not get tired and retain the same pace of cleaning. The output will be much higher.

Ramaswamy: Globally, manufacturers have installed traction motors in the cleaning machine but the innovative part of Roots machines is that there is not traction motor, it uses a patented traction method which walks by itself. We are introducing this technology in our machine now.

Service Model

Dr Chandrashekhar: Firstly, we are very close to our customers and we have over 200 in the service department, which keeps us ahead of others. We have an escalation matrix, so that if the service does not happen within the stipulated number of hours mentioned in the contract, they can escalate to the next level.

This is unique model in the industry. No company offers escalation as a part of the service. We have a stamp card index circulated across the branches so that the user can give the SAP number of the spare parts and in turn the service center can create an indent automatically; thus the turndown time for the service department is much faster than the competitors.

Varun Karthikeyan: Maintaining the cleaning equipment is difficult and when the service levels are not met, customers do not appreciate the company. Hence, we understand our customers and right from the beginning inception, we have always focused on serv
ice and training our service team. We have a training facility in the head office.

Ramaswamy: With the operators at the customer end frequently changing, the incidence of untrained operators mishandling and breakdown of the equipment is much higher. Hence, providing timely service gets important, even though the operational cost gets expensive. If such a service is not offered, the customers are not happy. We are doing this to build our long term relationship with our customers.

Dr Chandrashekar: We are promoting AMC at very reasonable costs. In the process we educate the customer how better the AMC process is, as it promotes preventive maintenance and the customer stands to benefit. We are also in a position to service better with AMC as it is a scheduled and planned maintenance.

Besides our in house service staff, even the dealers provide service and the respective branch offices take on the responsibility of the services.

We are very successful with our long time dealers in Gujarat.

Future

Ramaswamy: Roots is leading in the Cleaning Industry today in India and will work towards remaining the leader. We will continue to manufacture more and more innovative products for the cleaning market.

After the Bangalore regional office, we plan to have regional offices in other branches too so that the service levels can be further strengthened. Ultimately, our goal is to reduce the operational costs of the customer as much as possible through innovations.

Clean India Show

Varun Karthikeyan: We are expecting a lot of footfalls at the Ahmedabad Clean India Show. We are back in the Show after a short gap and Ahmedabad being the Prime Minister’s home, we have a lot of expectations.

Clean India Journal is playing a pivotal role and is the only journal in the country which is covering everything about cleaning which is critical.

Dr Chandrashekhar: In fact, the issue on Gujarat was very informative, giving a complete picture. Since are also into civic cleaning, an article on the Gujarat civic scenario will be very useful.

Ramaswamy: I appreciate the great initiative taken up and we compliment your team for the efforts. We assure you that Roots Multiclean will stand behind you always.