Safeclean History

"Mum and Dad started the business with a small grey mini van that did everything from teach my eldest sister to drive, to acting as the ‘company van’. It was so basic, you could see the road through the gearbox! However, it managed to take us all (as a family of six) on holiday from Oxfordshire to Devon – with DOG!

They ran the carpet and upholstery cleaning business for five years before deciding to franchise the business and turned the room over the garage into the office and from them on, the whole business was run from the corner of the garden. The only domestic use the garage saw was via the huge chest freezer that was kept there and I was often sent to run across the big garden to get items from the freezer!

Desmond Cook

Every day, Mum and Dad would leave for London at 6am, not returning before Midnight. Literally most days were that long. My two elder sisters would look after my brother and myself as the two younger members of the family. And there was plenty of help from family friends in the village. Mum recalls it would cost 18 Shillings for petrol to cover the return journey to London!

They had just £3.5k to start the business and the Safeclean name was born after discussion around the kitchen table. Trying to think up a name for a way to clean carpets, Mum and Dad (with the help of the two older kids) talked around all sorts of names to include ‘clean’ but then decided on Safeclean because the cleaning process was done with natural soap made from saponaria and natural sea sponges i.e. a safe way to clean carpet and upholstery. They spent £20 on leaflets that were distributed around Oxfordshire. One of the first jobs was to clean a sofa for a friend.

Their Bank Manager refused to lend any more money because he couldn't understand how sea sponges and foam would work so they struggled on without any more financial investment and Dad toured interior designers (especially in London) until some of them gave him a trial. Word of mouth helped to spread the business around London and reputation grew. They then stopped all advertising because the workload became so huge from their reputation.

They cleaned for the American Ambassador – Mr and Mrs Annanburg. Mrs Annanburg actually had some chairs flown over from the US to have them cleaned by hand by Safeclean! They cleaned in the Duchess of Grafton’s House – cleaned carpet which first appeared as a dirty grey with green roses, which ended up as a light green with pink roses. They did such a good job they were treated to lunch with the Butler in the kitchen, where the cruet set was worth £7,000! Other ‘big’ names they cleaned for included the Duke of Rutland (at Beaver Castle), Tony Curtis, Ava Gardner and they met Telly Savalas and Frank Sinatra when cleaning for Tony Curtis! They also cleaned for Nicholas Soames (husband of Churchill’s daughter) and met Mrs Hamlyn of Hamlyn book publishers, who they then enjoyed a particularly long-standing relationship and friendship with. Mrs Hamlyn gradually became their biggest client, travelling to France to clean within her chateaus and apartments, as well as their London and Gloucestershire homes. They cleaned wall hangings, furniture, tapestries, etc and Mum then ended up repairing ancient tapestries for her utilising her superb tapestry skills (although they were self-taught skills through the interest she had in sewing). They went to clean a flat in London where all furniture and carpets were white and just two weeks later were called back to clean it again before Julie Andrews arrived to use the flat!

They sold first the franchise on my 5th birthday – 3 May 1970. The bottom of the garage was then turned into the place where all the parcels were packed up to send the product to the growing number of franchisees and the 17 year old washing machine was taken over to mix the chemicals. Alongside this, the London business had to be kept running at the usual pace in order to keep the family and help financial set up of the franchising side. Then they had to develop a training programme for the new franchisees.

The training schools took place in village halls, town halls, etc. Mum used to do all the catering, producing fabulous home cooked food for the duration of the course. One time, my Auntie helped to do the cooking and put 5lbs of uncooked rice in the pan for 20 people! Pans and pans of rice ensued and only a fraction was taken from it to satisfy the requirements!

Dad was quite a character – very approachable, friendly, genuine and sincere. Everybody loved his huge character and his penchant for telling a huge range of jokes off the cuff! Once the business got going, he got into public speaking in quite a big way and used to speak at events regularly in London. One time he was on the train coming home from Paddington when he realised he’d left his shoes under the table at The Cumberland Hotel! Another time, we went to the conference and Dad left his dinner suit hanging off the garage door. It was left hanging there all weekend! He also had this terrible habit of hooking his glasses in the v-neck of his jumper that used to fall out as he stooped to get in the car then he’d drive over them!"

Emma Gilbert (nee Cook).