Allowing Tong Li Supermarkets To Manage Their Own Cleaning

Tong Li is a modern and innovative chain of Asian Supermarkets in NSW.

Tong li is the largest Asian grocery supermarket chain in NSW, with 17 stores across many of the major shopping centres and business districts in Sydney. Tong Li have a focus on implementing innovations in their operations.

2 years after Tong Li rolled out the i-mop across their chain of stores, we caught up with Thomas Jin, Managing Director, to reflect on the implementation of in-house cleaning of the supermarket chain.

Here is what Thomas had to say about the previous challenges of outsourced cleaning operations:

“The biggest issue is the security issue, because you use a contractor and the contractor employs someone else that’s out of your control. You had to give them a key and a security code to get in because they were doing it after hours and we didn’t have any staff onsite. You trust the owner of the cleaning company, but what about the employees? The senior staff, you know they’re honest, and they’re not going to muck around.”

Prior to taking the cleaning in house, Tong Li used contract cleaners across all sites at an average cost of $150/day per site. Mostly their supermarket floors were just getting mopped, with occasional use of a floor scrubbing machine.

Taking the cleaning in-house on a large supermarket chain is not for the faint-hearted, but Tong Li were focused on the outcome. And 2 years on, they are loving the improved control they have through managing cleaning themselves, and the superior facility appearance the i-mop floor scrubber gives.

Read how the i-mop supports supermarket cleaning at IGA Rostrata.

Some key insights from Tong Li:

- i-mops have been implemented across all stores
- Most sites have 2 i-mops for cleaning the floors – mix of xl & xxl models
- Security risk of outsourced cleaners has been eliminated
- Costs have been reduced vs external contractors
- Existing staff are used to perform cleaning during normal hours. No overtime required
- Daily cleaning with the i-mop has dramatically improved floor appearance
- In house cleaning has proved to be more flexible. Staff are instructed to take the time to pay attention to clean a dirtier section of floor with the i-mop if it needs it.
- The i-mop has been excellent for cleaning up spills with minimal interruption to shoppers