Cleaning Scotland Ltd

Cleaning Scotland Ltd is a family business established in 2005 by Scottish businessman Eddie Tobin. Chris Tobin, son of the founder, now leads the company. It operates throughout the UK from its base in Glasgow's East End. Initially focused on the licensed trade, its clients include Mitchells and Butlers, The Stonegate Pub Company, and the Restaurant Group. It has since expanded into sectors including high street supermarkets with Aldi, casinos, and large office complexes.

The company has achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 18001 accreditation for the fourth year running, and won the Best Team in Business award at the inaugural Scottish SME Business Awards. Sales have grown every year. Services include inspection and testing of fire dampers and smoke control dampers, certified kitchen extract and canopy cleaning, strip and seal flooring, office cleaning, licensed premises cleaning, builders cleans, canopy and awning cleaning, window cleaning, graffiti removal, and pressure washing.

Staff are trained in accordance with TR9 Kitchen Hygiene guidelines for kitchen canopy and extract systems cleaning. The company is committed to the ISO 18001 accreditation for Occupational Health and Safety Management. Its janitorial supplies division offers a wider range of materials and equipment. Cleaning Scotland is part of Group Scotland, along with Security Scotland and 1st Corporate Security. It provides free added value services such as extra high level work, removing chewing gum, and clearing the outside of premises.

Cleaning Scotland Ltd, working across Glasgow, has attracted a set of sharply critical accounts from customers who hired it for cleaning work. A theme that comes up often is the conduct of those running the operation, with reviewers describing behaviour they found disrespectful and unprofessional towards the cleaners themselves. One account singles out a manager whose name begins with a B, calling the manner shocking, while another says the management has little grasp of either cleaning or how to run a team.

Support is another repeated grievance: several customers report that commitments given at the start were not delivered, and that nobody stepped in when difficulties arose. One reviewer, who had been responsible for a venue in Warrington before the company took it over, describes the systems becoming worse than previously and eventually leaving the position because no assistance came from any direction.

Something that features in review after review is a sense of being left to cope alone, with queries and concerns going unanswered for long stretches. The picture painted across these accounts is one of frustration rather than satisfaction, with management conduct, broken promises and a lack of backup recurring throughout, and almost nothing positive recorded about the experience.