KÄRCHER UK CELEBRATES NEW HOME
Following a five year project to relocate the UK operations of the cleaning technology giant, the official opening of Kärcher’s new purpose-built UK headquarters in Banbury, Oxfordshire, has taken place.
The official opening was presided over by Hartmut Jenner, Kärcher’s Global Chief Executive & Chairman of the Kärcher Management Board, and attended by long serving employees, the project’s building contractors, neighboring businesses, dealer partners, trade and regional journalists and local dignitaries.
Accommodating office, warehouse and conference facilities, as well as a training Academy and retail space, the new premises is almost 7,500m² and is located off the M40, between London and Birmingham. The training Academy is three times larger than its predecessor, with 832m² of training space, and the Kärcher Center is the UK’s 19th, and the 562nd in the world.
Hartmut commented: “An innovation-driven company like Kärcher has an ever-evolving portfolio so it’s important to provide a place to allow people to use the latest machines and learn how to master difficult cleaning tasks; the Academy here has 27 different floor types to help replicate many different cleaning situations.”
Kärcher Centers are open to both commercial users and consumers, with knowledgeable staff on hand to offer advice on specific cleaning challenges and opportunities to get hands-on time with products to ensure they’re exactly right for your needs.
Simon Keeping, Region President and UK Managing Director of Kärcher, said: “The opening of our new UK HQ was fantastic. It was a great opportunity to thank everyone for the part they played in the move to Brookhill Way. I am very proud of our new Kärcher Head Office – and all the people who work there.”
www.karcher.co.uk
Today Kärcher UK employs more than 300 UK staff and has sold over 15 million machines – but speaking at the official opening, Hartmut Jenner explained how it very nearly didn’t happen.
In the 1970s a lone salesman was trying to promote the use of pressure washers to build a network of UK dealers – without success. And the UK’s Kärcher story could easily have ended there, had it not been for this man taking a chance; unprompted, he turned on his pressure washer at a busy York cattle market and started washing down muddy trucks. By lunchtime that day he’d sold his first machine.
This valuable lesson – that discussing cleaning challenges with customers and showing them products in action was vital – has been pivotal to the UKs growth, and still holds true today.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
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