ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Nilfisk-Advance is ploughing investment into the outdoor cleaning market - a new segment for the company.

And president and ceo Joergen Jensen claims this to be a major potential growth area.

Nilfisk-Advance recently set up a new Outdoor Division and in January launched the CY5000 high pressure machine for cleaning outdoor surfaces.

"Outdoor cleaning is definitely a growing market - particularly in emerging countries such as Mexico, Turkey and Asia," he told ECJ. "These markets are beginning to recognise the value of presenting a clean outdoor environment to show visiting Western companies and to help drive tourism."

"Over the past 18 months we have acquired two outdoor cleaning companies - one French and one Danish - and we are now investing in this division with new products."

The Nilfisk CY5000 is a compact ride-on high pressure cleaner for deep cleaning concrete, asphalt and other hard surfaces. The machine uses Nilfisk's Cyclone surface cleaning technology - a self-contained system that creates its own heated water - to clean stadiums, car parks, amusement centres and pavements without the use of chemicals.

Another growth area for Nilfisk is the industrial vac market in which there has been a growing interest following the 2011 explosion at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, says Jensen. "The explosion was caused by dust and we are receiving increasing interest in our dust control systems from China and other emerging markets," said Jensen.

He says 2011 was a fantastic year for the company with record sales and 10 per cent growth. "The first quarter results for 2012 have shown a four per cent growth which reflects the fact that the outlook is tougher than it was a few months ago," he said.

"Our current outlook is that there are going to be tough times ahead and it would be optimistic to expect us to show the same growth as 2011. However, we are aiming for a five per cent growth by the end of 2012."

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