ICE Cleaning's Chairman Reflects On 2021

Adam Rhodes, Executive Chairman at ICE Cleaning, shares his thoughts on the Company's progress over the last 12 months and what lies ahead for 2022.

2021 has seen a year of remarkable positive change for ICE Cleaning as the business has sought to expand its reach in the ever more diversified UK cleaning and hygiene services market.

Whilst the nation has had to tackle and overcome many broader challenges during this year, we are able as ICE Cleaning to reflect with quiet satisfaction at 12 months of positive progress and optimism about what we hope lies ahead.

This positive spirit is underpinned by a sense of humility and recognition of the difficulties faced in the wider world with coronavirus and a myriad of other issues close to each of our hearts, and so for all it’s pleasing to report the Company’s progress, we will never lose this perspective or seek to get ahead of ourselves.

As I pen these reflective words, it is nostalgic to look back 12 months where in purely numerical terms the business was approximately a third of the size in revenue that it is today and feel pleased with the progress we have made. Yet, some of the achievements which bring even greater satisfaction are the things we are trying to achieve beyond the story of the numbers.

This year has seen ICE Cleaning successfully attract many excellent new people into the business, as well as the promotion of several individuals into more senior roles.

At Board level, we have added some experienced heads to complement the thrusting entrepreneurialism of Zac and James as co-founders, as well as trying to cement a can-do culture into how we seek to respond to an ever-expanding range of cleaning challenges, alongside improving customer experience.

We know we still have a long way to go, but 2022 sees more ambitious plans for ICE Cleaning as we strengthen both our resources and commitment to customer wellbeing, and hopefully double the number of happy customers by this time next year in an industry that historically too often offered inconsistent service.

It is always a privilege to play a role in helping to shape the culture of a young business and I know Zac and James feel the greatest pride when members of the team express their affection for working here and feeling they are part of an exciting and longer-term journey. 

In recognition of this, the ICE Cleaning Board has sacrificed equity to enable all employees - present and future - to be participants in a share options scheme that will provide each member of the team with an equity stake in the business as we move forward. 

We very much hope this will engender further support towards the realisation of our broader goals as a business, with this decision underlining our commitment to the causes we care most about, including all aspects of environmental and social governance, in particular looking after our team.

It’s been a solid year of progress, but our quest is to lead the market by providing best-in-class service in the shortest time across the widest range of cleaning services for both B2B and B2C customers.

We hope that 2022 will be an even more exciting year of challenges and opportunities that we look forward to tackling together as a team.

Good luck to us and all who sail in us!