Cleaning crew gets job done right

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Apr 23, 2004 by Spohr, George

ENDWELL - David Maione pulls no punches when he talks about his company.

"The job of office cleaner is not very glamorous - and seldom thankful," he says.

Maione should know. His company, The Night Shift, employs more than 100 office cleaners. When he talks about company pride, he first mentions employee loyalty.

"I am most proud of the fact that we have always treated our employees with great respect," he says. "We strive to treat each employee with the dignity that they deserve, and it has made a great difference in the way they perform their work and [in] the duration of their employment."

Many of Maione's employees have been with the company for more than 15 years impressive considering the company's only been around for 25.

The Night Shift began when Maione, 41, was just a teenager.

"I didn't have much experience prior to starting our company," he says. "My partner (and older brother) Tony had done some work for other cleaning companies as a teen and realized that very few cleaning companies existed that had professional management. He saw an opportunity, and we filled it."

David Maione is president and chief executive officer of the company, and his older .brother is vice president and chief financial officer. David says his relationship with his brother is one of the company's strengths.

"We have been successful as a family business because of the relationship between my brother and me," he explains. "We have always been best of friends, and we have complementary personalities. I have come to realize that this is not the norm in family businesses."

Their company provides cleaning services to a variety of businesses. Most of its customers require nightly cleaning. Cleaning services include tile-floor stripping and refinishing, carpet cleaning, wood floor care, window cleaning, restroom cleaning, and additional services.

"The most difficult part about operating this type of businesshas been the management of our work force," Maione says. "There is a great deal of logistics involved in getting all of our customers' buildings cleaned to our standards on a nightly basis."

He says he's proud of the way the company has risen to that challenge, though, and he's happy he's stuck to the company's business plan.

"If I had to start over, I would not change too much, other than not being intimidated with large accounts," Maione says.

The company has spun-off a second business, Core Management Service. That company, now eight years old, provides cleaning programs to facility managers that helps them manage their own housekeeping and janitorial staffs.

"We saw it as a means to grow our business without all the labor issues, as the labor used in our programs is that of our customers," Maione says. "We have since provided consulting service to Fortune 500 companies all over the country, with our programs I responsible for maintaining hundreds of millions of square feet daily."

The company's Core Management Service customers generally have facilities of one million square feet or more.

"We feel that in terms of revenue growth, Core Management may have more potential based on the size of the market - we are now all over the U.S. and have expanded into Canada" than The Night Shift's market - primarily the Southern Tier and outlying areas, Maione says.