Working with soluCLEAN: How shared values has resulted in a strong partnership for Hako

Hako Machines’ Managing Director, Sylvie Giangolini, met soluCLEAN’s Helen McDonald at a sustainability workshop in Wakefield back in 2024. It was the start of a considered, values-led partnership that launched in July 2025 and is already redefining how Hako delivers cleaning detergents to its customers, with the strongest commercial results still to come.

Doing things better

Hako has always made sustainability a priority. As a UK subsidiary of a global German manufacturer, the business supports customers through the full lifecycle of their floor cleaning equipment, from indoor and outdoor machines through to aftercare, consumables, and beyond. More than 55% of the plastics in Hako’s new machine tanks come from recycled materials. The company participates in EcoVadis and measures its scope 1–3 carbon footprint. Its UK operation is, by Sylvie’s own assessment, “ahead of several of European players when it comes to environmental responsibility.”

However, consumables were a different story. Sylvie explains: “It’s a relatively small part of the overall offering, and for a time it simply hadn’t commanded the same focus.” The detergents Hako supplied were imported from the Benelux region. They worked. But in the context of a UK market that’s increasingly tuned into sustainable solutions, and against the backdrop of rising import costs following Brexit and COVID-19, the picture was shifting.

Prior to Brexit, shipping a container of machines to the UK cost in the region of £1,200 to £1,300. By the time those pressures had fully fed through, the same container was costing around £3,500, a near-threefold increase that had a material impact on the cost of goods. Lead times from the Benelux suppliers stretched to two to three weeks, making it difficult to respond to customer needs quickly. Some of the legacy detergent formulations raised enough suitability and environmental concerns that Hako chose not to stock them in the UK market at all. Bonded pallets and COSHH considerations added difficulties at every stage.

An alternative was needed with the right partner to make it happen.

The perfect partner was close at hand

It was We Are Wakefield, a business community, that brought Sylvie and Helen together at a sustainability workshop in 2024. “They were as passionate about the environment as us,” says Sylvie. “It was an opportunity to make a change, one that we could control internally.”

soluCLEAN manufactures its Solupak pre-measured daily cleaning pods in Wakefield, which happens to be, in Sylvie’s words, “20 minutes down the road” from Hako’s operation. The close proximity translates directly into faster replenishment, the ability to collect stock directly when needed, and the elimination of the bonded pallet and hazardous handling complexities that comes with the ready-to-use product supply chain. Where the previous products required a two-to-three-week lead time, soluCLEAN’s Wakefield location means Hako can move quickly with confidence.

The sustainability credentials were equally compelling. UK-based manufacturing means a reduced carbon footprint compared with continental imports. The formulations are considered well-suited to the UK market. Hako’s customers, many of whom are themselves focused on managing their own carbon footprints, appreciate the ability to buy a British-made, sustainably produced cleaning solution carries real weight.

With discussions around distribution commencing in early 2025, Hako had launched soluCLEAN’s Scrubber Drier floor cleaning products as part of its offering by July in the same year.

Changing behaviour

Introducing a new product into an established business and customer base requires more than a website listing. Hako and soluCLEAN agreed that conversion would need to work on two levels simultaneously, and the approach was built accordingly.

For those using the product day to day, the case is intuitive. soluCLEAN’s pre-measured concentrate pods eliminate the guesswork and waste associated with traditional liquid concentrates: the uncontrolled ‘glug’ of chemicals that leads to overuse, inconsistent results, and higher cost-in-use. Users who try the pods quickly understand that they’re using less, spending less, and getting a consistent clean every time.

However, the decision-makers are rarely the ones using the product, particularly in enterprise settings. Procurement managers, operations leads, and sustainability officers need a different kind of conversation, one built around cost analysis, sustainability evidence, and the kind of measurable proof that gets a change approved across a multi-site organisation. soluCLEAN provides that evidence, while Hako’s sales and customer support teams deliver.

The operational architecture Hako has built around soluCLEAN reflects this dual approach:

• The CRM has been updated to feature soluCLEAN accordingly.
• Every new pedestrian machine that leaves Hako’s operation includes a free soluCLEAN trial pack, putting the product in users’ hands from the moment they take delivery.
• Engineers are prompted during service visits to discuss detergents, demonstrate the pods, and leave samples.
• Customer support runs a structured three-monthly contact strategy to keep the conversation active.
• Trial packs have been supplied to every member of the sales team and engineering workforce.

This approach allows users to experience the product and gives decision-makers every reason to say yes.

Committed internally

Perhaps the most telling sign of genuine commitment to a partnership is what a business is willing to do internally. On that measure, Hako has been unambiguous.

At Hako’s annual company conference in January, attended by the whole UK business, soluCLEAN was the only non-Hako department given a platform. UK Product Training Manager, Mark Foster, presented the product’s benefits and ease of use to colleagues across every function. It was, by Sylvie’s account, a stand-out moment: “watching the room absorb the simplicity and logic of pre-measured pods and seeing the shift away from the old “glug” mentality happen in real time. “We saw the penny drop for people,” she says. “That was a real highlight.”

soluCLEAN’s branding and samples have featured at Hako’s biannual engineer cluster meetings. In-office visual prompts have been installed to keep the product front of mind. Hako has launched an e-commerce platform with soluCLEAN products listed, with technical guidance on dosing quantities, pod sizing, and pack configuration provided by soluCLEAN’s Marcus ensuring accurate product representation and a smooth customer experience. The range is set to expand further as Hako looks to grow basket size and customer retention through consumables.

What’s next

While it’s still early days in the partnership’s commercial life, several enterprise customers are actively evaluating broader adoption, with change approvals working their way through internal processes. The structural timelines of large organisations, compounded in some cases by merger and acquisition activity among key accounts, mean that the biggest numbers are still to come.

The foundations are solid. Sampling activity has been extensive. Internal champions are in place. The e-commerce infrastructure is live. Following Hako’s engineer cluster meeting in July, both companies are expecting to see a material step up in commercial impact by Q3 2026.

The external response has been encouraging too. A major forklift truck company has expressed strong interest in the soluCLEAN solution. That an enterprise customer of that scale has responded positively, even amid internal M&A complexity, is a signal of the proposition’s strength.

Sylvie is equally direct about what she has found in soluCLEAN as a partner. From the earliest conversations with Helen, through to working with Marcus on pod sizes, dosing quantities, and e-commerce listings, the experience has been straightforward. “The technical and commercial support has been super easy,” she says. “It’s been great from start to finish.”

A partnership built to sustain

The story of Hako and soluCLEAN is, at its core, a tale of alignment. Two businesses operating in complementary spaces, sharing a genuine commitment to sustainability, have found in each other a partner that makes the day-to-day easier rather than harder.

That alignment runs deeper than a traditional supplier relationship. It is demonstrated in the way Hako has embedded soluCLEAN into its internal culture, from conference workshops to engineer cluster meetings to the trial pack tucked into every new machine delivery. It shows in the way soluCLEAN has supported Hako’s commercial teams with technical guidance, sampling infrastructure, and the kind of responsive, no-fuss service that a business 20 minutes down the road can genuinely deliver. It shows in the shared understanding of what good looks like:

• A product that works better
• Costs less to transport
• Sits lighter on the environment
• Gives customers a reason to feel good about what they’re buying.

For Hako, the partnership has already delivered on its original promise: offering a simpler, more sustainable, and more responsive solution. For soluCLEAN, Hako represents exactly the kind of partner through which a better product reaches the customers who need it most: a trusted, established brand with deep customer relationships and a genuine appetite to do things the right way.

Some business relationships begin with a contract. This one began with a conversation between two people who cared about the same things, and that, perhaps more than anything else, is why it is going to go the distance.

“The soluCLEAN team were as passionate about the environment as us. It was an opportunity to make a change, one we could control internally,” adds Sylvie Giangolini, Managing Director of Hako Machines Ltd.

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