But how do you go about making sure that the job is being done properly and should you be contracting this task out or managing the whole thing yourself? It is, of course, tempting to employ your own cleaners - saving money on the cost of outsourcing and putting it to good use in some other aspect of running a centre. At least that's the theory.

But modern janitorial services involve more than a team of people armed with mops and buckets. There is also the capital outlay to consider. The cost of machinery to keep a large space clean can be very high, whether the equipment is purchased or leased.

For which reason perhaps, the majority of shopping centres in the UK opt for outsourcing - following the logic that this is a task best left to the experts. One of the larger companies operating in the shopping centre cleaning arena is OCS.

OCS offers "an integrated service" to shopping centres, meaning that mall cleaning is part of a package that includes security, waste management, technical and fabric maintenance, health and safety management and customer liaison.

Graham Gilbert, managing director of OCS Integrated Services, says that by offering "multi-skilled staff" rather than cleaners, a more flexible resource is provided that can be "more dynamic and responsive." He cites foodcourt management as an example. Foodcourts' daytime peaks are between 12.00 and 14.00 when "suitably trained" OCS staff are used to give additional support in this area "to ensure that customer service is kept at optimum levels." Practically this may mean that if there is a spillage in a foodcourt area, security staff may deal with it rather than calling for the services of a cleaner.

All of which sounds good, but the assumption has to be that it might be cheaper buying the individual components rather than buying a complete package. Gilbert claims this is not the case: "There is no margin on margin, as with a traditional FM approach, and structured properly the model eradicates duplication of overheads and can therefore yield cost savings." He continues: "That is to say, if a shopping centre employs three contractors to provide core services they will be paying for three sets of overheads from admin and payroll to regional management and customer liaison."

Concentrating for a moment however purely on the physical side of cleaning a mall, there are almost as many advances in the way this is carried out as there are in the operational side of things. Manual methods, such as brooms and mops are rarely seen these days. According to industrial cleaning machine supplier Euromec :"Sweeping with a broom is about ten times slower than the smallest powered mechanical sweeper and can create more dust than it removes."

Peter Crewe, managing director at Euromec, which numbers The Mailbox and the Fort shopping centres among its clients, says: "There are three main factors to consider. The most obvious is the type of debris or dust that needs to be removed. In most leisure environments, litter and spills will be the most common build-ups. You will also need to decide whether you will use your cleaning machine inside, outside, or a combination of both. The machine must also be big enough to clean the area in a reasonable timescale, yet manoeuvrable enough to operate within the confines of the building's layout."

Broadly, there are two different types of cleaning machines: sweepers and scrubber-dryers. Sweepers collect dry dust and debris, while scrubber-dryers apply water and detergent, using a scrubbing action to remove grease, staining and ground-in dirt. Which means, in practice, that if a centre is to be cleaned effectively, whether it's a matter of in-house or contracted-out services, machine selection and getting the right piece of kit for the job is vital.

Lee Norton, sales and marketing director at cleaning equipment manufacturer Kärcher seems to sum this up: "The key to successful cleaning is to choose the right machine for the job and then ensure that the operators are fully trained to use it." He adds: "When considering cleaning machines for such a diverse area as a shopping centre, it is important to get the right machine for the right surface. The whole range of applications that might be used must be explored thoroughly, so that the best and most cost-effective method is chosen."

Worth noting too that this is an industry as much subject to the march of progress as any other. And one of the major advances has been the incorporation of microfibre technology which uses a capillary type of action that actively sucks up dirt and grime from hard surfaces. OCS and other major contractors have been using machines that employ microfibres for some time.

It seems therefore that while cleaning may not be glamourous, there is a great deal more to it than meets the eye. Equally, get this one wrong and the best efforts of almost everything else that is done to turn a mall into an effective money-maker will fall by the wayside as shoppers realise that a space is not clean. Don't skimp on this one.

Beats-as-it-sweeps-as-it-cleans

At The Mailbox one of the centre management's main objectives is to ensure that there is no litter on the floor for more than 10 minutes. The floor is made from Chinese granite, which is cleaned using The Metro and GO scrubber-dryers, supplied by Euromec. The Metro is a ride-on scrubber dryer with a pre-sweep option and 6,000 sq m per hour cleaning capacity. The GO is a low-cost machine designed for dealing with smaller areas and leaves the floors dry when it has been through its cleaning cycle.

On a somewhat larger scale, at the Fort Shopping Park, the task of keeping a large area clean is undertaken using a ride-on sweeper known as the Boxer, again from Euromec, which features a "patented Dust Buster" system. This was selected from a variety of options, emphasising the need to assess what needs to be done and to make a choice accordingly.

Contacts

Euromec: http://www.euromec.co.uk

OCS: http://www.ocs.co.uk

Kärcher: http://www.karcher.co.uk

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