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There
is nothing quite as unbiased as a third party opinion,
and therefore this section is dedicated to a small selection
of the coverage that Kleeneze has received in the newspapers
over the previous years.
Kleening
Up CATALOGUE
shopping firm KLEENEZE is giving away 11 new cars to its
top distributors. Most started out putting catalogues through doors and now run their own teams of workers.
One of them, Bob, (left), now supervises 5,000 salespeople and distributors and took home £400,000 last year. The ex-teacher, 53, from Billericay, Essex, said: “Big sellers when I started in 1992 were silly things like apple corers. These days things to do with health and beauty have come to the fore.” Another successful distributor is Chris, 49, of Salford, Bristol. The former dry cleaner runs a team of 2,745 people — and took home £212,751 last year. The firm is owned by EUROPEAN HOME RETAIL, which also owns website Iwantoneofthose.com and eeZee, the home shopping TV channel.
Share tips - the business European Home Retail is a new name for home-shopping group Kleeneze and it now has a balanced business in internet TV and catalogue shopping. Benefits from the new operations will be visible in the next two years. With profits upward of £6.3m this year and £8.4m expected next year, the shares look cheap at 121p. Shares in Brady, specialists in commodity trading systems, have suffered contract delays which led to a profits warning. But commodities trading is booming and new regulations drive system upgrades. With the
firm worth £14m and £4m in cash on the balance
sheet, the punishment endured by its share price looks
too severe. Buy at 39p.
Kleeneze
back on the home straight The first-half turnaround accompanied a 4.9 per cent increase in sales from existing operations to £79.3m, helped by the acquisitions of some assets from costume jewellery company Cabouchon and I Want One of Those.com. The group’s chief executive, William Rollason, said the company believed it would be able to meet its full-year objectives. Mr Rollason said over the reporting period, Kleeneze had taken "significant steps" in its bid to transform the firm into the UK’s leading home shopping specialist with a number of acquisitions, including I Want One of Those, and its 50 per cent stake in a joint venture television shopping channel on Sky 659, which is to be rebranded eeZee TV. "We are excited by the contributions these businesses will make to the group in the future," Mr Rollason said. Swindon-based Kleeneze’s return to pre-tax profitability was helped by the disposal in July of its five per cent stake in Premier Direct Group. Overall turnover rose to £79.3m, from £75.6m last time. The company, whose agents distribute catalogues to more than a million homes a week, said its European division had also returned to growth, with sales per distributor continuing to increase. "The launch of our Dutch business has been a success and we have already recruited 1500 distributors since September," the company said in a statement. Chairman Sir Clive Thompson said: "We are excited by the contribution that our investments in internet and television shopping will make to the group. "The complementary nature of these distribution channels and our networks will significantly increase our product range as well as our market penetration and geographic coverage."
Monaco bound Three West Midlands sales people are jetting off on the trip of a lifetime to Monte Carlo tomorrow as a reward for their success. Minesh, from West Bromwich, and Terry and Christine, from Solihull, will attend the Kleeneze 2002 European conference. They will join 140 other distributors from across the UK and Ireland and were chosen because they had sold the most household products.
The
big cleanup A move away from traditional household goods lifted profits at door-to-door catalogue group Kleeneze. The average purchase from its old catalogue was £4, but it now sells garden furniture for up up to £150. August half-year pre-tax profits rose from £3.2m to £3.8m. Dividends rose from 1.95p to 2.15p.
Open
door for change AS a successful quantity surveyor, David found himself having to put in around 50 hours a week to cope with his heavy work load. Then a friend introduced him to catalogue selling company Kleeneze. His friend was also a professional type and David says he was amazed to hear his story - especially as catalogue selling household products didn't quite fit in with his image. But David liked what he heard and got involved to see if he too could earn a little extra cash on the side. He says: "I felt like going out with a balaclava on the first time, just in case any of my building clients saw me delivering the catalogues. "I had also never sold anything in my life, but amazed myself by earning £100 in my first week, from about 10 to 12 hours' work." What appealed to David initially was that running a Kleeneze business did not require a major cash investment to get up and going. For less than £100 he got his catalogues and started to put them through nearby doors. David, who is 34, says it takes about an hour to deliver 100 catalogues and a couple of hours to collect them a few days later. But having a car really helps to distribute the goods quickly. Another advantage is that there is no need to sell face-to-face, as the catalogue does all the work. There are many "network marketing" organisations around, but the lack of large initial investment is one aspect to look out for. If a company want their distributors to buy a lot of stock up front then the distributor effectively becomes the customer and in the worst cases can spend more than they earn. With Kleeneze, the distributor buys only the goods ordered, so there is no need to buy in and hold any stock. In David's first year, he earned more than £5000 and by year four, he has given up his day job to concentrate full-time on Kleeneze, with the expectation of earning more than £40,000 this year. He and wife Fiona recently won a Caribbean cruise, courtesy of Kleeneze, on the strength of their success as one of the 50 fastest-growing distribution networks in the UK. The two fears people often have about network selling organisations are that those who just want to earn a little cash will be harassed into signing up their friends in order to push up their sales, but David says Kleeneze are happy to take on those who only want to work a few hours a week like he did. He says: "Anyone can make money with Kleeneze provided they are prepared to work hard. "The level of income people earn is proportional to the effort he or she puts into the business. There are people earning £50 per week and some £15,000 per month." The second fear is of NOT being able to sign up friends and family, as greater income comes from building up a team of distributors further down the line. The larger the team and turnover, the larger the bonus cheques. David's emphasis has therefore switched to training and motivating others rather than just distributing catalogues, although he still services some loyal customers. He says he is back working 40-50 hours a week but it's on his own terms and he can take time out to walk the dog whenever he wants. He praises the company for the strength of its training support and points out that his background hardly qualified him for what he does now. Yet he has enjoyed spreading the word and helping other people's incomes to rise in the way his own has done. No network marketing is easy money and no-one at Kleeneze promises something for nothing, but becoming a distributor for a company like this can offer a flexible career alternative.
We're
the millionaires who've all made a clean sweep Seven years ago single parent Lynn was a door-to-door saleswoman and money was so tight that she needed Income Support to buy food. Now 38, she turns over £1.3 million a month selling cleaning products and lives in a four-bedroom home in Livingston, Scotland, with her children Leigh, 14, and Linzi, 13. This is Lynn's story... The late 1980s were the worst time of my life. I was a single mum living in a tiny rented one-bedroom flat and I never knew where the next meal was coming from. During the week the children stayed with their dad, which was the only way we managed. I was working ten hours a day trying to sell carpet and upholstery cleaners door to door around Glasgow. Most of the time I had the door slammed in my face. If I got over the doorstep, I'd spend around two hours cleaning to try to get a sale. Eight out of ten times I failed. In a good year I made £8,000 but plenty of times I made nothing at all. In the blackest moments I pawned my jewellery and I even sold the television to get money to feed us. When the children weren't there I would skip meals to save money, and once I had to apply to Income Support for a Crisis Loan to put food on the table. Our knives and forks were plastic ones from takeaways, and the kids slept in sleeping bags on the floor. If they asked me for 20p for sweets I had to say no. That was the hardest part of all. Things started to look up in 1992. I saw an advert in a national newspaper that said, "Earn extra cash quick", and I phoned up. The company was Kleeneze, which also sells cleaning products door-to-door. That put me off at first, but I decided to give it a go. My boyfriend at the time, Bob, joined me in the venture. We sold our two old bangers and had £1,500 to get started. We had to buy our own catalogues and distribute them to houses, then call back and see if anybody wanted to buy anything. We were told we would make on average £1 per catalogue, but after sending out 150 books we ended up with just £85. I was very disheartened but then Bob told me about network marketing within the company, which involved recruiting a sales team, teaching them the business and motivating them to go out and sell. We'd get a monthly cut of the sales they made, plus bonuses from subsequent salespeople they recruited. It worked immediately. I made £525 profit the first month which went up to £2,000 the second month. It was more money than I knew what to do with, but I knew I had to be wise and reinvest it in the business. I didn't spend anything on myself, but the children did get a few packets of sweeties. I also treated them to a trip to the cinema, something I'd never been able to afford. We had the works - hot dogs, ice creams, Cokes. It was wonderful not having to ask their dad to buy the school shirts and shoes, but I was still cautious for another couple of years. I couldn't believe the bubble wouldn't burst. We stayed in the flat until 1995. Even though the money was rolling in I had trouble getting a mortgage as I had been in debt in the past. Eventually we got a three-bedroom cottage. It was a dream come true for the kids to have their own bedrooms. We also had our first proper holiday. We went to Crete and had the worst weather for 20-odd years but we didn't care. I couldn't say no to the kids. If they asked for flippers and diving masks, they got them. Ice cream was on tap. Now I've learned not to spoil them, but I had to get that indulgent phase out of my system. I upgraded my clothes from cut-price boutiques to M&S and bought a Mondeo Estate. Bob and I split up in 1996, but we are still in business together. In the past seven years we've had a turnover of £37 million and my monthly cheque is around £24,000. The children and I now live in a beautiful four-bedroom house in the posh end of Livingston. The flat we lived in would fit inside our living-room today. I feel lucky to have found Kleeneze, but I also believe that you make your own luck. I've worked very hard to build the business up and it is only in the last couple of years that I've started to enjoy the fruits of my labour. I slowly progressed from M&S to Next and have only recently started to buy designer clothes. I can't even pronounce the names on the labels, but I blew £,000 in ten minutes in Paris. This year I've been very naughty. I've just splashed out £42,000 in cash on an azurite blue Mercedes convertible sports car and I've taken three holidays to Gran Canaria with the kids and my fiancé John, a songwriter. The kids have their own televisions and videos and all the computer games they could wish for, but the most important thing they have gained from all this is me and my time. I do a few hours' work a day and I can take them to school, be home when they get in, and enjoy all their leisure time with them. The best thing about having money is it buys you time to be with people you love. Geordie Gavin really cleaned up when he left shipbuilding to get into into mops and buckets. He became an agent for home-care-company Kleeneze, distributing catalogues and taking orders. That was back in 1992 when he had a backlog of credit card bills to clear and monthly outgoings of £1,000! "Within three months I was earning £2,000 a month and I haven't looked back since," he said. Gavin, 36, built up a network of 1,400 agents who now sell £8 million worth of Kleeneze products a year - ranging from polishes to picnic gear. He earns more each month - up to £12,000 - than he was paid annually in the shipyards. He has been able to buy a £130,000 flat and a brand new Series 5 BMW. His income comes from a percentage of his own orders plus bonuses linked to orders from his agents. These include his mates Alan and Elaine, who've also gained a BMW and more besides thanks to Gavin. He pestered Alan, 42, to become an agent and he agreed three years ago. Alan and Elaine's business had been knocked sideways by recession, leaving them owing £3,500, with only £100 a month to live off. In the first year as Kleeneze agents they sold £50,000 worth of products and now their annual turnover is £2 million, giving them an income of £70,000 from the business. The job has also taken Gavin and Alan to lots of exotic spots for Kleeneze conferences - from the Bahamas to Hong Kong.
Kleening
up the eze way If you want to start your own business but don't have any ideas, cash in on someone else's. Many of our most successful businesses, including Body Shop and McDonald's, operate as franchises, encouraging outsiders to use their own money to open shops under the parent company's umbrella. But you need money to get started. With McDonald's, for example, you're talking about at least £40,000. This week we tell the story of a couple who started with nothing. A CHRISTMAS card from a former colleague with the message "Give us a call some time", changed the lives of Roy and Margaret. Their business selling perfume and health foods had just gone bust, leaving them £43,000 in debt. They called their friend, who told them how well he was doing selling for the Kleeneze homewares company. "At first we thought: 'Poor guy, he must be desperate to be selling mops and brushes door-to-door'. "We soon found it was nothing like that," Roy says. "When he provided evidence of his earnings, we decided to give it a closer look. We had nothing left to lose so we thought we'd give it a try." They paid £35 for a business starter kit and became Kleeneze sales representatives. "It is similar to joining a franchise operation but without the heavy start-up costs." Just as well. The couple were so broke they had to turn the sofa upside down to find enough change to put petrol in their car and get on the road. They began their venture by putting 200 catalogues through letterboxes each day. In eight days they had made £300 and in seven months had raised enough to clear their debts. Three years on they are among Kleeneze's award-winning agents having clocked up sales worth £6.5 million in three hectic years. They made £51,000 in their first year and expect to earn £120,000 this year, from direct selling and from training and advising several thousand agents in Britain and Ireland. Says Roy: "The business is very simple. It's like being a postman - you deliver catalogues to people's homes, then call back two days later to collect their orders. On average two homes out of ten produce orders, usually about £10 a time. "The secret is to establish a core base of 2,000 customers who buy regularly. That gives you a steady income on which you can build. "But it's entirely up to you how much you want to earn. Many successful agents can earn £2,000 to £5,000 a month working purely part time. Others make £8,000 to £16,000 a month full time. "Business is expanding rapidly and we have an exciting new catalogue with about 600 different products. One of our best sellers, would you believe, is an orthopedic toenail clipper." KLEENEZE started in Britain in 1923 and is now part of the Farepak food processing and mail order giant.
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