New look - broader appeal
October 1st 2004 Cleaning Matters met up with Quadralene to discuss its chemical products range and to take a look at its new image designed to give better product demarcation and appeal to a wider audience
When you go to a high quality restaurant a lot of effort is put into presentation and it is not necessarily the food that is much better but the small touches that differentiate it from other restaurants. In a similar way Quadralene had the right products but not the right look to convey that they were a quality operation. Quadralene has a range of 400 off the shelf products all made at its manufacturing site in Derby. Distribution along with research and development also take place at the site. Although it manages to conduct all of this from the one site it is not a huge manufacturer and the small close-knit team that runs Quadralene has the ability to respond with swiftness to customer demands. Customers are able to have tailored product lines with their choice of colour, fragrance and labelling. However, with detailed array of products that are respected by the users as being effective in use, Quadralene were perhaps a bit complacent that other people would not just see them in the same way. Helen Wigglesworth, managing director of Quadralene spoke of the fact that Perhaps we were a little nave in that we thought our products were so good that theyd sell themselves. Although the products are very effective they still need a good image. Looking right is part of the battle. This will enable, particularly new customers to see us as serious players, a professional option for their chemical needs.
Quadralene was formed in the 1920s to make detergents for the dye industry. It then went into the automotive industry and now covers eleven product groups. The products groups range from automotive, washroom, food industry, and XXX. But these product ranges are not exhaustive, Quadralene likes to work with people who are developing products and use the chemists to assist in their development of cleaning surfaces that will make the cleaning easier or more effective. Products developed with manufacturers include using the right paint so that it resistant to chemicals as well as being easy to clean. The flexibility of a smaller company also come to the forefront when responding to new products areas that crop up. A few years ago not many people had decking in their gardens and the number of leather suites in peoples homes and offices was a lot less. Due to cheaper leather suites and the promotion of decking in gardening programmes no-one could foresee the need for general cleaning products for these surfaces. Quadralene has spotted these are surfaces that are being used more frequently and developed products specifically for cleaning them. The Ice Defender product that is sprayed on a car windscreen the night before, stops ice forming on winter mornings; was a direct response to customer exasperation. Similarly, the Arctic Clean was the result of customers wanting a product that could clean a cold store without having to defrost the area. This leads to time and energy savings as well as not having to remove all frozen contents and restore or sell all of it prior to cleaning.
We want people working with us, so that the right result is achieved, says Helen,
The customer relationship management system is key to keeping a customer and us informed. This computer system can be used by any department at Quadralene and once they have logged-on they can see customer information and dealing with the company from any department, whether it is distribution, research and development or wherever. Also Quadralene focuses on training their driver correctly, after all they are the people that the customer sees most often. Added services such as assisting in unloading or product storage knowledge aid the customer at the front end. Quadralenes chemists also go out to see customers to training them in products use and safety issues. All the products are CHIP3 (The Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002) complaint and information of the eleven products groups and the products within them are available on a CD-ROM. The product safety data sheets having CHIP3 compliance is ahead of many competitors and before it is obligatory.
Quadralene tries to stay ahead of the game with respect to environmental issues, comments Helen such as removing ammonia from products ahead of requirements, basically we have to have responsible behaviour towards manufacturing chemicals. The site here in Derby is ISO9001 certified for quality manufacturing, said Roy Newman, production manager at Quadralene. All materials are tested prior to them being used to ascertain that they are the correct chemical dilutions. This ensures that the end product will turn out how it should do. Also, when the product is made all the batches are tested in the laboratory for quality and consistency so that the products that we send out are of the right standard, stated Roy.
Initial responses from the last one month of trading with the new image suggest that that the take-up is good. Existing customer like the re-design and it has already attracted interest and business from new clients. The whole exercise has had a positive result, says Helen. So in the words of a famous ad slogan; New look, same great taste! | 
