July 26, 2016 Proud Promenades

Volume 6 | Issue 5

Castle Rock Industries continues to bring new and innovative technological advances to the floor care industry. April Terreri is your guide.

Everyone reacts positively to a clean floor. Whether we are in a retail store, in the hallowed halls of a university, or in a hospital lobby, we respond automatically and subconsciously to pleasant and comfortable places. No other company understands this better than Englewood, Colo.-based Castle Rock Industries, Inc., a leader in providing products and services to the floor-care service industry.

While Castle Rock might not be as well-known as Windsor – one of four brands comprising the Castle Rock family – customers will certainly be giving Castle Rock a lot of notice as they begin to learn more about the cost-effective and innovative products this family of brands brings to the floor-care industry. Castle Rock helps customers dramatically reduce their annual cost of floor maintenance. The other brands in the Castle Rock family include TecServ, Graco, and Prochem.

“Windsor is probably the best-known name in the floor-care marketplace, and people out there are really giving Castle Rock a second look as we bring complete floor-care solutions to our customers through a bundled approach,” says Vice President of Marketing and Channel Development Jeff Pease. “Castle Rock has combined these four superior brands of products and services so that our customers reap significant value propositions.”

Greatest Times Four
“We’ve been known in the industry as Windsor, which focuses primarily on soft-floor (or carpet) cleaning products such as vacuums and extractors – but we’ve evolved into a much greater presence in the industry under the Castle Rock banner,” Pease says.

This is good news for customers, because, through the diverse range of products and services offered by Castle Rock’s family of brands, they receive a full complement of not only Windsor’s innovative and well-respected floor-care equipment, but TecServ’s equipment service, Graco’s commercial floor-care parts, and Prochem’s carpet care chemicals and truck-mount carpet extractors. “We are unique with respect to the products and services we offer,” Pease says. “There are other companies that sell just the equipment and others offer service – but not many offer the solutions we provide in terms of the equipment, a complete nationwide service network, innovative cleaning chemicals, and all of the necessary parts and accessories.”

Castle Rock is comprised of:

• Windsor: Englewood, Colo.-based Windsor is highly respected in the industry for its professional floor care equipment. This includes everything from upright vacuums and walk-behind extractors to industrial equipment such as ride-on scrubbers and sweepers for both hard floor (such as tile) and soft floor (carpet) applications.
• TecServ: TecServ, located in Blackwood, N.J., services Castle Rock equipment, as well as floor-care equipment by other manufacturers. At select locations, TecServ can also service and repair material handling and refuse/recycling equipment. TecServ operates a powerful nationwide network of service centers for the convenience of customers.
• Graco: Also located in Blackwood, Graco sells aftermarket parts and accessories for just about every piece of equipment produced by every floor care manufacturer.
• Prochem: Headquartered in Chandler, Ariz., Prochem focuses on the professional cleaning market and primarily on the manufacture of truck-mounted carpet extractors and chemicals used in professional floor cleaning equipment. “Prochem sells truck mounted equipment to end-users and caters to franchise groups such as Sears, ServiceMaster, Rainbow, Coit and Servpro. If you have ever had your carpet professionally cleaned, your cleaner likely used a Prochem machine,” says Pease.

New Horizons
There is always something new being developed at Castle Rock, as product development is driven by technological innovations. “Our newest Windsor products are innovative and they are grabbing the attention of the industry,” Pease says. One such product is GlossTek™ 100, a technology-driven chemical solution providing customers with a non-yellowing clear floor coating. “This new product uses high–performance water-based urethane technology to create a durable finish,” continues Pease. “Normally, only one coat a year is needed to protect hard floors against abrasion while maintaining a high-gloss finish with a high-slip coefficient.”

“Typically, customers use acrylic finishes that require frequent burnishing in order to restore the finish’s shine, which dulls as people walk on the floors and create scuff marks,” explains Pease. “Throughout the year, these floors have to be stripped and then have up to seven new coats of acrylic applied to protect them. Soon, floors you walk on at retail stores, airports, and supermarkets will be maintained with GlossTek products.”

On the other hand, Windsor’s GlossTek floor care products can reduce the cost of floor care maintenance by as much as 45 percent, Pease says. “This is because there is no need to periodically strip and burnish the floor, thereby saving customers a lot of time and money in labor and material costs. GlossTek also offers a much higher slip coefficient which translates into added safety.” This product is sold under the company’s Peak Performance line of products, which also includes RedCarpet™ for soft floor (carpet) applications.

“Historically, we have been known at Windsor as a soft floor equipment manufacturer, but we’ve introduced a number of hard floor products that have been getting a lot of attention in the industry,” Pease says. “Our industrial ride-on scrubbers and sweepers have a lot of new features including a four wheel base, which increases stability, safety and overall maneuverability.”

Bright, Shiny Outlooks
With more than 400 distributors nationwide, Castle Rock is always available to its customers with great customer service and support. “We are a customer-centric company whose goal is to offer a customer-intimate focus.” What this means is the company does its best to learn everything about its customers’ needs in order to truly understand their exact requirements.

Hosting frequent round table meetings, the company brings in current and potential customers. “We show them our equipment and we ask them what we might do to improve the equipment to better suit their needs,” Pease says. “So, the point is that we take a lot of care in going through this process of developing our products to cater to the various requirements of our customers. We then use innovative engineering techniques to make sure we manufacture just the right product for the right application in the appropriate market segment.”

Some major markets include education (elementary schools through universities); health care organizations such as hospitals and nursing homes; retail stores such as supermarkets and big-box retailers; hospitality (Marriott is one high-profile client); building service contractors (BSCs) such as private cleaning contractors who clean office and retail floors every evening, and GSAs or government-related agencies such as military bases.

Castle Rock will continue to roll out the red carpet for its customers so its customers can do likewise for their discerning customers. “We continue to outperform the industry in growth, sales and profitability because of the full complement of our products and services and because of our customer-intimate approach,” Pease says. “We will continue to work to develop our complete floor care solutions by finding new and innovative ways to bundle the products from our family of brands so we can bring extraordinary value to end-users,” Pease says.

Subscribe to Industry Today