Cleaning Islam’s holiest shrines

CLEANING: Cleaning is arguably one of the world’s oldest professions and is an industry that tends too often to be taken for granted. Danish equipment manufacturer Nilfisk-Advance has, however, achieved global success through attention to detail. This has led to some interesting applications in exciting locations, including recently the most holy shrines of Islam

Nilfisk-Advance AS will celebrate its 100^th anniversary in 2006. When the Bröndby- based company was originally formed – as Fiskar & Nielsen, after the names of the two founders – few would have predicted that it would eventually grow into the world’s leading supplier of professional cleaning equipment. That, however, is precisely the position the company enjoys today with operations around the globe and sales in excess of 550 million euros. It is not surprising, therefore, that Nilfisk machinery is used to clean some of the most prestigious buildings and sites in the world. Nevertheless, the recently awarded contract as the main supplier of equipment to clean the Islamic holy shrines of Mecca (Makkah) and Medina (Madinah) in Saudi Arabia, count amongst the most notable orders received by the company ever. As Joergen Klausen, General Manager, International Markets explains; “First of all the status of these sites is extremely significant. Everything has to look in picture perfect condition all the time, and the demand in this respect is exactly the same as it would be, for example, royal palaces. But unlike royal palaces, these sites are being constantly walked through by millions of visitors and are the focus of enormous public attention, so the challenge is immense. Given the circumstances, we really consider it a great honour to have been selected as the equipment supplier.”

Working constantly
One of the prime considerations of the contract was that the machines chosen for this work should be able to withstand the rigours of working under extremely difficult and demanding conditions. This is hardly surprising. The daytime temperatures can reach as much as 55 degrees C. with very high humidity as well, and the machines are used more or less continuously for 14 to 16 hours per day. But the real challenge is the number of people passing through these sites. During the month of Ramadaan, for example, more than 2 million pilgrims visit Mecca (Makkah) each day, leaving behind huge quantities of trash. There are also frequent food and drink spills on the marble and granite floors and on the many carpets. As Joergen Klausen points out: “This is as tough as cleaning can get. There is constant traffic and as soon as an area has been completed, it is time to go back and start all over again. Meanwhile the work has to be done as quietly and as inconspicuously as possible.”

     Mecca (Makkah) is the holiest place for Muslims all over the world. It was here that Muhammad was born, and it was this city that formed the focus of much what he did while he was alive. The city is the goal for the yearly pilgrimage for Muslims during the last month of the Islamic calendar. Going on such a pilgrimage at least once in a person’s life is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The city of Medina (Madinah) is where Muhammad went after he found little support for his ideas in his home city. Because he was welcomed in Medina (Madinah) and because he spent some important time there, it too has become a holy place. It was whilst Muhammad was in Medina (Madinah) that he had his followers face Mecca (Makkah) while they prayed instead of facing Jerusalem, which had previously been the focal point.

Successful mergers
Although Nilfisk-Advance traces its roots back almost a hundred years, the real take-off point for the company came just 15 or so years ago when it was acquired by the Danish investment group NKT. This spawned a number of growth activities, but the most significant of these was without question the 1994 acquisition of American marketleader, Advance Machine Co. Although the merging of these two companies was difficult, the result was a cleaning equipment manufacturer with a truly global outlook. This was something quite new since the American, European and Asian markets had tended to operate quite independently of each other.