Lorraine Hall is director of The Cleaning Corporation, Breaffy, Castlebar - a husband and wife operation and thriving cleaning business since 1995.
“Training accreditation and continuous development of all of our staff, supervisors and management combined with service improvements, and operating procedures with a full service guarantee, means that we continue to lead the way in our industry, in all aspects of our cleaning services,” said Lorraine. The business is on call seven days a week.
She went on to say: "Working from home is the new normal for people following the arrival of Covid-19 and new working from home regulations – but for me working from home is normal – since 2007 we operate from a purpose built office and stores. When you are working from a home office you need to be disciplined and we do try to work standard office hours, and also close for lunch. Though home working has become the new normal for many, I have been doing it for over 20 years, so it is my normal and has been for a long time. We have a wonderful team of over 70 staff, and that allows us to be where we are at. We have invested a lot in recent years in training, particularly in health and safety and also in compliance and contamination control. The business has seen unprecedented demand for services to comply with staff returning to the office, students in schools and for compliance with protocols.
"As a small business we have also employed the excellent services of local specialist contractors for Health & Safety, for HR and a local telephone answering service when needed – allowing us to concentrate on our business. This means that the day to day tasks in the specialist fields of HR & H&S are managed specifically and allow us more time for the business; and that has been a good decision for us.
"We also try to be as environmentally sound as we can. Not many people would know that for over 15 years we have been using harvested rainwater that is purified through a reverse osmosis system for all of our Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning and Window Cleaning. This really helps reduce our detergent usage and reduces our carbon footprint, which is something that we are very keen to continue to develop.
"Services provided by us include: commercial contract cleaning, commercial contract window cleaning, commercial floor maintenance and renovation, janitorial supplies, technical support and advice including design advice. Residential services include: carpet and upholstery cleaning and specialist rug cleaning service."
Lorraine enjoys working with her husband John, who is from Castlebar and they each work within their own remit and skillset to combine a winning formula. Lorraine deals with Administration Management, Finance, Accounts. John is the cleaning and operations expert. Lorraine is originally from Newcastle in the North East of England, but her parents are from Westport and Castlebar. She spent every summer and most school holidays in Mayo as a child, so it was a very natural move to return to Ireland when their children were small, in 1995. Lorraine is involved in a number of organisations locally on a voluntary basis including Soroptomist International, Castlebar; Network Mayo, Western Care and Breaffy GAA Club. "It’s the old cliché - when you want something done, ask someone who is busy," said Lorraine.
The Cleaning Corporation, Lecarrow House, Breaffy, Castlebar, (094 ) 9289000. Website: www.cleaningcorporation.ie or email: [email protected].
