With over 50 years of experience, ICE is the UK’s largest independent provider of cleaning equipment. We are a reliable and trustworthy business who manage all your cleaning equipment and servicing requirements, offering total peace of mind. Our one-stop-shop offering provides everything relating to purchase, rental, maintenance, and management.
Head of Customer Service & Marketing at ICE
We have a team of 50 highly skilled engineers nationwide, and a dedicated equipment training team who ensure cleaning operatives can confidently use and maintain the equipment.
We manage thousands of sites across the UK and Ireland in a wide variety of sectors including retail, healthcare, warehousing, manufacturing, distribution, and education.
ICE also have over a decade of experience in robotic floor cleaning machines. ICE Co-Botics is our complete range of autonomous vacuums, scrubber dryers, and sweepers in various sizes, suitable for a whole host of environments. They are designed to work along-side your cleaning teams, allowing operatives to focus on crucial detailed cleaning tasks such as sanitisation.
We are also proud to offer a range of cleaning equipment with water recycling capabilities, offering both productivity and sustainability benefits.
Julie Kitchener , Head of Customer Service & Marketing at ICE spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What products or services does your company offer?
We have a huge range of scrubber dryer and sweeping machines suitable for all types of industrial flooring, from standard robust equipment or high-end machines equipped with the latest technology, to autonomous floor cleaning machines.
We are probably best known for our range of autonomous cleaning equipment – ICE Co-Botics. We have extensive experience in this area as we have been involved in the development of robotic cleaning machines for over a decade. Things have moved on dramatically since then, and we now have a complete range of autonomous floor cleaning machines that can be easily managed by cleaning teams on site and integrated into the daily cleaning regime.
We now have well over 200 Co-Bots operating alongside cleaning teams in schools, airports, train stations, hospitals, logistics centres, manufacturing/warehouse facilities, and retail locations across the UK. And we are really seeing how the introduction of Co-Botics is benefiting facilities both from a cleaning and a cost saving perspective.
Our Co-Botics equipment has been designed to integrate into cleaning team operations, picking up the manual and repetitive tasks, which then allows operators to focus on hygiene and sanitising activities to promote cleaner and safer environments. It is extremely intelligent and can be fully operated, controlled, and managed by the teams on site.
Over a year on from the start of Covid-19, what lessons has the company and the industry learned from the pandemic?
We have always known how important cleaning is, but since the start of Covid-19 it seems that everyone else now understands this too! Historically, cleaning has always been a back of house function, not to be seen, and an undervalued process. Given everything that has happened during the past 18 months, this has changed dramatically. People want to see cleaning taking place, they want proof that the places they are visiting are both aesthetically and clinically clean. The public expect more from cleaning now – they want it to be front and centre rather than behind the scenes. Comfort is gained by seeing an autonomous machine in operation alongside a cleaning operative – providing complete proof of a clean and healthy environment.
What products or services will you be introducing in the next year?
We will be adding to our ever-growing Co-Botics range with an exciting new machine perfect for warehouses, logistics centres, and manufacturing facilities. The ICE Eco Bot 80 will be available in July 2022, so please keep your eye on our website for updates www.ice-clean.com
What is the company’s commitment to social responsibility?
As well as being well on the way to achieving our target of being carbon neutral by mid 2022, we also demonstrate our commitment to social responsibility in many other ways, including:
• Reducing engineer visits by using video technology to fix simple equipment issues.
• Recycling 84% of returned parts and 100% of batteries
• Our ICE Direct division recycles and refurbishes equipment returned to us at the end of contracts – this is either used as part of our rental fleet or sold as second hand equipment.
• We are also proud to offer a range of cleaning equipment with water recycling capabilities, offering both productivity and sustainability benefits. A number of our scrubber dryers recycle water during operation, resulting in productivity savings and a 60-70% reduction in water usage. This function is included in our MTech, AquaSmart, and Co-Botics equipment.
• We also offer chemical free cleaning products as part of our ICE AquaSmart range. These are powerful Aqueous Ozone (o³) cleaning and sanitising solutions perfect for any cleaning application or sector. Installing an ICE AquaSmart unit on your site means that you will dramatically reduce chemical usage, consumption of single-use plastics, and your overall environmental impact. Unlike other Aqueous Ozone systems, ICE AquaSmart eliminates the ongoing costs and plastic waste associated with stabilising products, as no replacement cartridges are needed.
ICE AquaSmart is easy and safe for your staff to produce and use, with no COSHH training required. Every time you use ICE AquaSmart you are reducing chemical usage, increasing cleaning efficiency, and helping to save the planet! Aqueous Ozone is a fully sustainable, natural cleaner and sanitiser, and is completely harmless to humans and animals. It is more powerful than bleach and is effective against bacteria, moulds, and viruses. This safe and sustainable solution offers businesses the opportunity to incorporate chemical free cleaning and sanitising within their facilities and results in valuable cost savings and sustainability benefits.
Will you be exhibiting at any major trade shows in 2022?
We are planning to attend the IMHX 2022 to showcase and demonstrate our autonomous floor cleaning equipment and we look forward to meeting you there!
How would you sum up your company in three words?
Fast-paced, innovative, passionate.
ICE
0800 389 3869
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