50 Years of Floorbrite, 1972 - 2022
50 years of Floorbrite, 1972 - 2022
Now one of the leading commercial cleaning and soft FM providers in the UK, our Dad, Martin Wyers, began Floorbrite in 1972, before we were born and before he’d met our mum, Linda. He moved to Manchester from the Midlands at the age of 21 to work as a carpet salesman, after he’d travelled the world for two years on his wits and a shoestring budget. Following a conversation with his then girlfriend’s father, the manager of a Tesco branch in Sale, Manchester, the father mentioned he was having problems with his cleaners. After a quick look at the figures and never one to doubt his own ability, our Dad declared “I’ll do that for you” and so, Floorbrite was born.
Dad sold his pride and joy, a Vauxhall 101 in order to start the business. He worked alone through the nights, falling into bed at 4.00am. With little sleep, he then put on a suit to go out searching for more business.
He soon realised that he would need a hand as business really started to take off, so he employed his first three cleaning ladies, Emily, Maud and Falder and the four of them began operating as a compact team.
Soon after, Martin met our mum, Linda and opened his first premises, a small ground floor office and store room in Altrincham, Cheshire. The room consisted of Dad’s desk and chair and was filled to the brim with an assault course of mops, buckets, vacuums and floor scrubbing machines. It wasn’t long before he moved again to a shop with an office in Timperley to deal with the increasing demand.
Dad and Mum were very hands on in the early days – covering every job role possible. Friday evenings were spent delivering wages and cleaning supplies to the cleaners. Mum even became Floorbrite’s first Salesperson, wearing 1970’s white, knee length boots and a mini skirt. Unsurprisingly, she did very well.
Over time, as the cleaning team steadily grew and business continued to flourish, Floorbrite moved twice more to industrial locations in Sale, employing office staff for the first time. Dad held legendary Christmas Warehouse parties and ‘Scrubbers Balls’ in The Embassy rooms in Sale, where everyone was invited. Floorbrite now had large offices and a purpose-built warehouse to ensure the company could cope with rising demand, but our Dad’s outlook never faltered. Always at the helm and able to put a name to all staff members, he was the first to arrive and last to leave the office. And when work got a bit too hectic, Alex, Nik and I and our services were enlisted during school holidays to ease the load. All four of us proudly continue running the business today, Mum as Chairman, Alex and Nik as Joint Managing Directors and myself (Nina) as Marketing and Brand Director.
Floorbrite is a true family business and with the help of a second generation’s hard work, commitment and passion, we have seen the business expand from the North West into Yorkshire, the Midlands and now throughout the rest of the UK. In our Dad’s famously understated words, we and the business are “coming along” nicely.
Sadly, Dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2007 and passed away at the age of 61 in 2010. Although Dad is no longer here with us, his legacy continues to live on through Floorbrite; we’re a multi-million-pound family run business, with over 1600 staff. 2018 saw us move our warehouse operations to a second larger site. 2019 we launched a full rebrand and structurally transformed and renovated our existing Head Quarters to become a market leading, purpose-built training facility, while our office expanded to include new social and welfare areas available for all staff to use.
By diversifying our offering and expanding our geographic reach, we’ll ensure that there is a bright future for the whole Floorbrite family and look forward to what the next 50 years of business will bring.
By Nina Wyers, Marketing and Brand Director at The Floorbrite Group
