Articles

Consensus Group

Categories: ISSA Member Spotlight

Some cleaning companies set out to simply do right by their customers and employees—and that’s a noble enough ambition—but other companies have their sights on something bigger. With a focus on innovation and a mission to make the world cleaner and healthier, the Netherlands-based Consensus Group seeks to have a positive impact on the industry, while still offering excellent customer service and a collaborative company culture.

Father-and-son team Frank and Glenn Laurentius, both founders and managing partners of Consensus Group, say that ISSA membership and the ISSA portfolio of global shows have been instrumental in building their business and discovering new innovations to bring to their local market.

Early beginnings

Frank Laurentius has been in the industry since he was 18 years old when he left the Netherlands for Canada and became a janitor, working for a friend of his fathers who owned a cleaning company. When the company acquired a contract to clean floors for large retailers in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Frank was assigned the job and was introduced to ultra-high-speed floor care. Frank became increasingly interested in the industry, eventually joining his father’s distribution company. Together, they went to their first ISSA Show in Las Vegas in 1987, where they enrolled as members. Frank met industry leaders and acquired mentors, and his network within the industry and interest in cleaning innovations began to grow.

As a result of Frank’s early start, his son, Glenn, grew up in the industry. “The cleaning industry got into my blood, and I started working with my father when I finished school,” Glenn said. Then Glenn worked for a different company where he acquired a wide range of hands-on cleaning experience, including cleaning yachts and private jets. Eventually, he took his cleaning knowledge back to join his family’s distribution company.

The ISSA impact

Frank notes that attending the ISSA Shows opened many doors for the company, exposing them to new technology, systems, and business concepts. They were able to learn new skills in training seminars and build their network with other industry players.

“We met a lot of friends, learned a lot, were inspired by that, and then took those concepts back to continental Europe and tried to introduce those systems or technology here, in our world,” Frank explains. “That’s been a big contribution [to the company’s success], but also to be part of a group which stands for making this world safer, cleaner, a better place, a nicer place for people to live and work in—a mission that both my oldest son and I stood for.”

Five years ago, the family sold their distribution business to focus solely on facility management with Consensus Group. Frank reflects that everything he’s learned over the years from ISSA they now use daily in their business, as well as share their knowledge with people around Europe.

Glenn adds that they attend multiple ISSA shows each year, allowing them to learn about the systems and products that are popular in other parts of the world. Consensus Group then leverages this knowledge to introduce new systems and innovations to local markets, setting them apart from their competition. Glenn also points out that these shows are an opportunity to build community as industry members meet to share experiences and discuss challenges like labor and sustainability.

Innovations in health and hygiene

Consensus Group’s mission is “to provide current and future generations with solutions and systems that create a safer and healthier world to live in,” Glenn states. To this end, the company is always seeking out new innovations and looking for ways they can have a positive impact on the industry and the world.

In one example, Consensus Group introduced the ultra-high-speed floor cleaner Pioneer Eclipse in Europe. “We were able to bring our customers here tremendous savings, not only in labor, but in chemical usage, spillage, floor care coatings that needed to be stripped and recoated, etc.,” Frank explains.

Consensus Group has also embraced innovations, such as aqueous ozone technology. “We’re very focused on cutting chemicals when we can. We’re making it safer for people to use. So, these are a lot of innovations all along the way that we were able to pick up through being ISSA members,” Frank shares.

Building the team

“Our company is called Consensus; it means we always look for consensus,” Frank says, going on to explain that this ethic is one of the things that attracts and keeps good workers. “We are owners, but we work as a team,” he says. In their company, working hard and doing right by the customer is important, but so is having fun. Frank and Glenn want their company to be a place people enjoy working.

“We present ourselves as game-changers in hygiene, health, hospitality, and happiness,” Glenn says, explaining that they really want to change something within the industry. “We want to create impact, which means that the team members also need to think freely. They need to be creative to change something.” Frank and Glenn believe their innovative approaches to both cleaning technology and company culture help draw employees who want to work with them.

When asked about their competitors, Frank and Glenn share that other companies sometimes try to imitate their approach, which they take as a compliment and inspiration to find the next innovative idea to try. They share their belief that competition keeps them sharp, and they learn from their competitors as well. “You can also work in co-creation with a competitor,” Glenn points out, and this is just one more way to make an impact in the industry.

Looking ahead with excitement

True to its mission, Consensus Group is always attracted to game-changing ideas, so they look forward to adopting and adapting whatever the technology of the future has to offer. “There’s a lot of innovations, a lot of people doing smart things,” Frank says.

As an example of the technology that excites them, Glenn shares that they have introduced a new smart, self-disinfecting door handle. The handle contains a cartridge and tracks how often it has been used, alerting the cleaner when it needs to be changed. Glenn explains that this technology provides information to facilities that will help them adjust their cleaning contracts and ensure a safe and healthy environment for everyone, even between cleanings.

It’s the promise of innovations like these that keep Frank and Glenn inspired as they attend ISSA’s global shows to strengthen their network and seek out the next industry-changing idea that will make the world cleaner and healthier.

Learn more about Consensus Group at: linktr.ee/ConsensusGroup and watch or listen to to a recent ISSA Impact interview with Consensus Group here. 

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