7 May 2019

CrestClean: client profile

CrestClean is a thriving New Zealand business success story, with a strong interest in environmental sustainability and an eye for looking after the interests of franchisees.

For the past ten years it has experienced year-on-year growth of more than 15 percent annually, and has been included three times on the Deloitte Fast 50 list.

Established in 1996, CrestClean is New Zealand’s largest locally-owned cleaning company. It uses franchised owner-operators to deliver its services around the country, including in Otago where Rene Mangnus and business partner Grant McLauchlan first got started after buying a small cleaning company and rebranding it CrestClean.

Today, CrestClean supports more than 625 franchised businesses, incorporating about 1800 personnel who look after more than 4,700 customers, including over 500 schools. It has also recently expanded its service offering to include property caretaking as a specialist division.

CrestClean places strong emphasis on the ongoing training and upskilling of its personnel, and is the largest private trainer of cleaning staff in New Zealand. Each year it hosts more than 200 training events for cleaning personnel nationwide.

The company’s co-founder and Managing Director, Grant McLauchlan, says CrestClean has always been keen to operate sustainably and ecologically.

Sustainable and environmental operations 

CrestClean’s services and core cleaning products have gained Environmental Choice New Zealand (ECNZ) approval. ECNZ is the country’s official eco-labelling programme, which independently audits products and services to verify they meet strict environmental standards. CrestClean is also the only cleaning company with ECNZ accreditation to offer a nationwide service.

Grant says ECNZ certification dovetails with CrestClean’s long-term commitment to sustainability and waste management.

“We are totally committed to ensuring our services and products have minimal adverse environmental effects,” he says.

“We believed it was important to get independent, third-party validation of our environmental approaches to doing business – which is why we turned to ECNZ. It was a logical next step and something the market expected of us. Security and insurance have also always been a key pillar of CrestClean’s franchise system.” says Grant.