I asked Fred how he sees the market, in his business, over the next 90 days?
… none. We continue to clean anything – homes, carpets, car dealerships, industrial buildings, disaster restoration, downtown office cleaning (1,000 people on the job every night), our industry tracks trends in the commercial real estate market. When vacancies rise, we clean less space. When new buildings come out of the ground, there is more business. There are 4 major cleaning firms in Calgary – we don’t look at each other’s books, but I can safely say we are #1 or #2 in terms of business volume.
. . . and over the next 5 years?
…. more firms will adopt the ‘Clean Intelligence’ software, as we have, to better manage our relationship with clients, better supervise staff and provide the best possible reporting and management information to our clients – electronic cleaning inspections. Underpinning that, of course, is labour. As immigration rules tighten, it impacts our industry in a huge way. Our cleaning crews are a virtual United Nations of new Canadians. Labour shortages are not just oil patch realities, they hit home for us every day. We compete for labour with fast food businesses and hotels.
What drives growth for you?
. . . growth in volume, growth in franchising across the country. We licensed the use of Servpro in Canada to an American firm – we own Edmonton and Calgary operations. Winnipeg is a franchisee. We will benefit from ongoing franchising, but day to day, we are focused here in Alberta.
What do you worry about, what keeps you up at night?
. . . health, my own, and my family
Was there a major influencing factor – and event or a person – that has impacted your life, your business?
. . . my dad’s support (he told me not to come home – he said giving me financial support was equivalent to funding my brother’s university education), mentoring of Bill Kujat, Lou MacEachern and Walter Chan – helped me a lot. The workout finance guys at BMO who helped me buy Servpro from the Madison Group in 2003 – it was a ‘workout loan problem for them’, we paid it off in 3 years!
What are you reading?
. . . The Compound Effect by Daren Hardy, Success Magazine . . . I enjoy reading about trends, strategy . . .
His ride?
. . . 2009 Infiniti FX50S