Arrow takes a bow
June 1st 2008 Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year,Arrow Cleaning and
Hygiene Solutions has come a long way since the days when
workers such as 40 year stalwart Alan Lester once blended its
products by hand
When Alan Lester began work as a driver for
Arrow Chemicals in 1968, there were few
signs of what the future would hold.
On the days when he was not delivering,Alan
was blending the products, which included Clean
Concentrate, a water diluted cleaning compound,
and Alclean a hydrofluoric acid-based aluminium
cleaner.
"We would stir the chemicals with broom
handles," says Lester. "We were supplied with a
jacket and trousers and had gloves, but they were
nothing like they have today."
Forty years on things are somewhat different.
Arrow is now Arrow Cleaning and Hygiene Solutions,
serving 40 countries, and is one arm of Reabrook, a
British manufacturer employing over 175 people and
based on a 16 acre site in Moira, a village close to
Swadlincote in north-west Leicestershire.
The rectangular tanks and the broom handles
have been replaced with a state-of-the-art
manufacturing plant and its quality management
system is fully compliant with BS EN ISO9001-2000
requirements.
But Lester is still working there, having swapped
his gloves for a shirt and tie as a stock controller.
While much of UK manufacturing has withered,
Arrow says its ability to adapt and rise to new
challenges is the reason for its success.
"We have always had key products to sell, but
from the very beginning, if anyone has come along
with a problem,we have tried our best to solve it for
them,"Lester adds.
"This has meant that we have developed a vast
range of products, and what's more, they are far
more complicated than they used to be."
More effort is spent responding to industry
legislation Arrow is an active member of BAMA
and, on many occasions, anticipating and preparing
for legal changes. For example Arrow developed a
low-emissions degreasing agent called Lotoxane
which was ready to go when the Montreal Protocol
was signed in 1987, banning the use of ozonedepleting
chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents.
Going public
When Lester started at Arrow, its main market was
the UK's manufacturing industry.While heavy
industry is still the focus for its international sales, the
decline of the UK's heavy industry has seen Arrow
meet the challenge and switch its domestic efforts to
developing janitorial products for the service and
public sectors.
Prospering in such a competitive sector requires
finding solutions to social trends and concerns.
In 2001, Arrow's DEFRA-approved Vibacide was
used widely to clean farm vehicles during the foot
and mouth crisis it was later marketed as part of a
biotoxicity kit to tackle avian flu and it has
developed a health hand sanitiser that can be
clipped onto medical staff's belts to help combat
MRSA.
A significant step followed a management buyout
in 2006. Led by Shaun Bowden, it launched its
Graf Attack range, which uses the lowest hazard
rated formulas to launch a multi phase clean-up
assault on one of the country's biggest challenges
graffiti.
It has sold hundreds of its special Graf Attack kits
to a city council but it went one step further in its
association with the North Lincolnshire's Safer
Neighbourhoods Partnerships, supplying both the
kits and half a day's training for volunteers on how to
use them.
This new approach marks another chapter in the
Arrow story, seeing a company which began purely
as a supplier transcending its traditional role to
taking an active role in the community. It is also a
member of the Anti Graffiti Association and is
determined to play a wider role in the future.
"The proactive reaction to the graffiti problem is
typical of what Arrow has been able to do over the
past 40 years, constantly changing its focus," says
Lester."That's why we're still going. If we had stayed
focussed purely on the country's manufacturing
sector as we did when I started,we would have gone
the same way as
everybody else." More articles from Arrow Cleaning And Hygiene Solutions: | 
