Article by The Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business:

Concepcion Martinez and her sons Carlos and Tino started Dura-Shine Clean in 1993 to make a little extra cash.

Sixteen years later, the small office cleaning company that started in Othello, has 40 employees and a fleet of 11 vans.

Carlos Martinez said the family didn’t know much about cleaning when they started.

“One of our family members worked for a company and they were always complaining about how poor the cleaning was,” said Martinez, senior vice president and CEO. “They were just frustrated with the quality of the janitorial service. We thought, ‘It doesn’t make sense to pay a lot of money and be unhappy with the result.’”

The family started Dura-Shine with a primary focus on office cleaning and janitorial services in a single office.

And after about nine years cleaning part-time, Carlos Martinez knew he had to make a choice.

“I reached a crossroads,” he said. “Do I stay with my day job and leave this? Or do I do this full-time? I decided to do this full time. It needed more attention and I decided to go for it.”

In 2004, Dura-Shine opened its Tri-Cities office. Hapo Credit Union contacted the company about construction site cleanup and after some research in the area the family decided it would be a good place to open an office.

The original office is still run by Concepcion Martinez.

Martinez said Dura-Shine saw 30 percent growth in 2008 and business is up 20 percent in the first six weeks of 2009, he said.

Beverly Rivas, Richland branch manager of the Bank of the West, said she was impressed with the company after just a few weeks of service and surprised at the attention to detail.

“We’ve never had our phones cleaned before,” she said. “The first day we came in after a cleaning, we were just amazed at how outstanding it was. I’ve been very pleased.”

About 90 percent of Dura-Shine’s business is commercial or industrial, Carlos Martinez said, and the rest is homes.

“At first I wasn’t even going to monkey around with residential,” Martinez said. “But we ended up doing a lot of businesses and we’d have executives and even employees asking if we could do their homes because we did such a good job on the business. They trusted us at their office and they knew they could trust us in their homes.”

That trust is important to the Martinez family.

“We’re serving our clients,” Martinez said. “People are giving us the keys to their facilities and trusting that when they come in the morning, everything will still be there. We take that seriously.”

Dura-Shine Clean offers virtually all cleaning services, including windows, carpet and hard floors, upholstery, construction site clean-up, exterior washing and janitorial training.

“I’ve always felt that we’re based on quality. If you put up a good product, they’ll buy it. In this industry, a lot of companies will try to go for the dirt-cheap businesses, going for the lowest bid, but you get what you pay for,” Martinez said.

The company has about 40 employees, with 22 working out of the Tri-Cities office and they expect to hire more workers this year.

The Martinez’s consider their employees part of the family.

“Our first employee is still our first employee,” Martinez said. “That’s unheard of in this industry.”

Most cleaning services have high employee turnover, he said.

“We have high retention and low turnover – that makes a difference, and it makes a difference in our quality,” Martinez said.

Martinez said he tries to treat his employees well and hopes to provide benefits like healthcare and retirement plans to them soon. He said that most workers make more than minimum wage, and the company tries to reward its employees.

Last year, the family took employees and their families –more than 170 people –to Silverwood Theme Park for a day. The company paid for tickets, meals and travel costs. The trip cost more than $7,000.

They have also helped employees get GED’s and learn English. They would like to provide those opportunities to more employees and might make a company-wide effort on education and citizenship. Employees know the management hasn’t let their suits and ties change their attitudes.

“I can sit here and talk about quality all day, but if they don’t keep it up we’re not any different from anyone else out there,” Martinez said. “I’m not afraid to go in and clean a toilet. I’m glad to do that. We’ll go in as a staff and clean the place for the first time, setting the standard, then they keep it up.”

Cleaning costs depend on the size, number of employees and frequency of cleaning. Some businesses have daily service; others opt for weekly and some are bi-weekly. Residential cleaning prices fall under the same guidelines.

Martinez said the company offers cleaning services 24-hours per day, seven days a week, to fit into any schedule clients need.

Carlos Martinez said he knows his company doesn’t have the lowest prices, but said they offer the best services.

“This industry has so much turnover of janitorial services,” he said. “The national average is that there’s a turnover in janitorial staff every 24 months. That’s because so much of the time people take the lowest bid, which is not usually the best quality.”

One of Martinez’s goals is to continue growing Dura-Shine.

“We’re going to continue to be committed to quality,” he said. “Often as a business grows they lose that commitment, but we’re not going to do that. We want to have measured and controlled growth.”

Martinez said he would like to open another office in Sunnyside or Yakima in the next five years.

Quality, while important, is only one part of the business. Martinez is a member of all the Tri-Cities chamber of commerce organizations and attends many community events. Since the business has had stable growth, he’s been more involved.

Those kinds of connections are invaluable, he said.

“It’s very important to us to be involved with the community and give back,” he said. “We want to continue to do that and continue to grow our business. Our first client is still our client, and that’s something we’re very proud of.”

Dura-Shine Clean is at 1841 Terminal Dr. in Richland and (509) 946-2018.  They are online at www.dura-shineclean.com.

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