Kitchen Cleaning Businesses: Start Your Own Franchise

Cleaning businesses have always been and continue to be some of the most popular franchises in the UK. Not only do they offer you the chance to buy into an established brand with a relatively low initial investment, but they can be highly profitable in a very short space of time. Once you've built up a solid customer base, you are practically guaranteed a continuous income and can grow your business at your own pace.

However, one area of cleaning has become much more attractive to entrepreneurs who want to move away from the usual house or commercial cleaning enterprises, and that’s kitchen cleaning. We’re not talking your average semi-detached home in suburbia here, but commercial kitchen cleaning that’s tailored to the catering trade, commercial kitchens in business environments, and even kitchen extract cleaning, specialising exclusively in cleaning extraction systems. So why choose a cleaning business that on the outside appears to be quite niche and with a limited potential client base?

Why choose kitchen cleaning?

While every commercial kitchen has to keep their work areas clean to comply with health and safety and food preparation legislation, a thorough deep clean is usually left to a professional cleaning team. There are various reasons why kitchen cleaning is such an attractive option for franchise business entrepreneurs:

• Buy-in costs are relatively low: whereas the initial investment required to buy into a food franchise, for example, is quite high, cleaning opportunities need a much smaller investment sum which in turn means higher returns much earlier on. Put simply, you pay less to buy into the business, and it doesn't take as long to turn a profit.
• It’s a captive market: while other businesses are subject to the whims and fluctuations of the economy, people will always need cleaners. The cleaning industry is relatively recession-proof, an attractive plus-point for anyone who’s a little nervous about making that first move.
• You have a stable client base: With plenty of demand that doesn’t fluctuate wildly from day to day, you can plan ahead much more accurately and build your business from a strong and stable foundation. Your client base is predominantly repeat customers who come back to you on a regular basis. This means your income is more predictable and your cash flow much more manageable.

The best way to start a professional kitchen cleaning business

Start by looking at your local area. Is there the demand for a professional kitchen cleaning service? What other companies are already operating in your area? If you're serious about choosing this as a career, then it's essential to do your homework first. If there are very few restaurants, commercial kitchens or outlets in your locality, then it's going to be difficult to grow any kind of robust operation without having to spend much of your time travelling to customers further afield.

Find out what they're looking for – by tailoring your service to suit your customers, you're more likely to retain them as repeat clients, and to build up that all-important reputation for delivering a quality service at the right price.

You’ll need some form of transport to take essential equipment to and from jobs. Commercial kitchen cleaning isn’t just a matter of a couple of scrubbing brushes and a bottle of bleach – you may need industrial cleaners and specialist equipment for cleaning extractor systems of grease and debris.

What you’ll need to know

If you're going to specialise in cleaning commercial kitchens, then you'll need to familiarise yourself with a raft of health and safety and food hygiene legislation. If you want a little introduction to setting up your own kitchen company, check out our Guide to Opening Your Kitchen Franchise, which will give you an introduction to the industry. For more information on the types of cleaning franchises available, have a look at our Top Five Cleaning Franchises – an invaluable guide if you’re not yet sure whether you want to specialise in commercial kitchen cleaning, or would prefer a more generalised cleaning franchise. However, beyond that, all you need to know is how to do a commercial kitchen deep clean, and have the drive and ambition to make your business work.

Our top pick for kitchen cleaning franchises

While generalised cleaning services are a great way to establish a solid business, offering a more niched service can pay real dividends. One of our top picks for specialised cleaning franchises is FiltaFry. Commercial fryers produce a lot of waste and can be very difficult to keep clean and hygienic. FiltaFry has opted to deliver a specialised kitchen extract cleaning service that provides on-site deep cleaning for commercial fryers, and a micro-filtration service for cooking oil to remove particulates.

It’s a great option if you’re on a limited budget too, with an initial minimum investment of just £5,000 – one of the lowest buy-ins on offer in the cleaning and catering sector. With funding support available, you’re looking at a total investment of around £15,000, which means you’ll see a quick return on your investment. Because fryers need to be cleaned on a weekly basis, it’s an easy way to build up a solid repeat client base of hotels, restaurants, pubs, takeaways and even schools and colleges. It’s also such a niche area of commercial kitchen cleaning that there is very little competition for those customers.

Conclusion

Cleaning franchises have always been popular, and there are plenty of reasons to start a commercial cleaning franchise. However, to rise above the usual (and somewhat crowded) cleaning franchise marketplace, it's a great idea to offer a more refined and specialised service. Commercial kitchens need to meet strict hygiene and health and safety standards and to achieve this, they need to be regularly deep cleaned. A commercial kitchen business gives you the chance to build up a solid foundation of repeat clients who will come back to you time and time again for your services.

If you want to specialise even further then offering a specialist kitchen extraction cleaning service is well worth looking at, especially as initial investment costs are very low and generate good returns very quickly.