The Hindu Business Line : The art of cleaning -

IT took an article in the vernacular Ananda Bazar Patrika and a vacuum cleaner lying idle at home to ignite the mind of an enterprising, college-going youngster.

What started as an innovative way of generating some additional pocket money - - by hiring out the vacuum cleaner to housewives on a daily basis for a nominal charge - - has eventually turned out to be the source of bread and butter for over 700 educated unemployed currently engaged by the company nationwide. Its CEO, however, is emphatic that the company's business veers round the "art of managing maintenance and providing end-to-end maintenance solutions".

Today, the Kolkata-headquartered Cleaning Arts has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Kanpur, Lucknow and Jamshedpur. The numbers on its clients' list exceeds 125 and includes well-known corporates such as Lafarge India, Pantaloons, Westside, The TCG Group, Mitsubishi Chemicals, BNP Paribas, Compaq Computers India, Tata AIG Insurance and IDBI Bank, among others.

Contracts already signed will help generate revenue of Rs 2.5 crore in the current fiscal. The target for 2003-04 has been pegged at a cool Rs 4.5 crore.

Says Mr Debtosh Chatterjee, the CEO of Cleaning Arts: "Simply put, we started off with cleaning people's homes. Today, we look upon ourselves as a maintenance consultancy and end-to-end facility management solutions provider." Today, the range of services offered by the company includes housekeeping, pest control, carpet maintenance & shampooing, upholstery cleaning, wall maintenance, wood polishing, office equipment cleaning, marble maintenance & polishing, civil works, pantry management and maintenance advisory services.

To provide quality maintenance services, the company has invested in machines that have been imported from Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Adequate emphasis has been accorded to human resources development. "You may look at us as cleaners, but at the top management level we only hire qualified management professionals. Departments such as marketing, human resources and customer care are headed by people who are backed by post-graduate degrees and diplomas in the respective fields obtained from premier management institutes."

Mr Chatterjee, who resigned his job after working for three months in a foreign bank to start Cleaning Arts, says the company's strength lies in adapting to and implementing the latest technology. Asked what's next in the offing, he quips: "An ISO certification for the company."

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The art of cleaning - - and making money