REPORT - CMS Berlin

Photo: Messe Berlin
Photo: Wiedenmann
Page 6 www.cms-berlin.com
VIRTUAL MARKET PLACE®
Continuous exchange
Messe Berlin offers exhibitors,
trade visitors and journalists an
information and communication
platform with the CMS Berlin Virtual
Market Place® at
www.cms-berlin.com,
which enables the
three target groups to
exchange information
and opinions all year
round. More than 340
exhibitors are currently
showcasing themselves,
with company
profiles, contacts and
products. Virtual Market
Place® provides
constant advertising
presence for the exhibitors
and can be
accessed in the Internet
from anywhere in the world.
It offers small and medium-sized
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE OF GROUNDS CARE
Everything‘s fine outside
Grounds care is one of the main
focal points of the CMS Berlin 2011.
This is because an ever-increasing
number of companies in the trade
are no longer just making sure that
rooms and offices are clean, but are
also looking after the outdoor facilities.
CMS Report tells you everything
you need to know about this
increasingly important sector.
Any company wishing to persuade
its customers to place orders for
all-inclusive building maintenance
packages cannot afford to leave
the care of exterior surfaces, green
areas, paths, beds, playgrounds,
sports facilities or resting places
out of its portfolio. This is a lucrative
segment that creates tangible synergetic
effects and offers a means
of avoiding productivity losses by
linking inside and outside activities.
At times when the weather makes
it impossible to care for the outside
facilities, the team simply works
inside the building. This eliminates
idle times and ultimately reduces
costs. Such flexibility imposes great
demands on the team, of course.
After all, one can‘t expect every
building cleaning worker to have
green fingers. Nevertheless, he
or she must be capable of mowing
lawns and pruning shrubs just
as professionally as cleaning glass
panels, parquet floors or sanitary
facilities and it is extremely unusual
for someone to be able to do
this without the need for any investments
in further training or an
internal exchange of knowledge.
Add-on or built-on sweepers are predominantly used
to ensure thorough, economic cleaning of roads and paths.
Just one example: the members
of the team must know whether a
shrub buds from the previous year‘s
branches or new shoots. If a plant
is not pruned properly, it will fail to
flower in the following spring.
Equipment pool required
The proper technical equipment
is just as important as know-how.
Ride-on mowers or lawn tractors
are needed to mow lawns, for example,
which account for the largest
proportion of work as a rule,
with around seven cuts per season.
But chain saws, scarifiers and the
good old hedge shears are also
part of the obligatory equipment
for the proper care of most grounds
and properties. The machines are
businesses, in particular, a means of
selectively positioning themselves
and opening up new markets. Companies
can also use the platform to
obtain a good general overview of
the market and the competition,
as well as for effective networking.
Trade visitors are able to find out
about the market, the exhibitors
and their respective innovations
with just a few clicks before travelling
to the fair, thanks to a selective
search function. The visitors can
then contact the exhibitors and
request additional informative materials
by e-mail, for example. The
platform also boasts a calendar and
route planner for optimum preparation
for and follow-up to the trade
fair visit. Incidentally: a new design,
optimised user guidance and the
introduction of an online job exchange
are planned for 2011. Companies
can use this to find qualified
personnel all year round and meet
suitable candidates in person at the
fair.
by no means silent, which means
that it is important to observe the
mandatory rest periods laid down
in the municipal ordinance. These
are times in which the team can
perform noise-free work on or inside
the building. Most building
maintenance service providers
leave caring for plants, tubs and
bowls, and even new planting to
the landscape gardeners. However,
as far as the customer is concerned,
it is a good idea to involve the
grounds care service provider at an
early stage, when planning the layout
of new premises, to assess how
subsequent care will be affected by
the layout and composition. Pieces
of land with deciduous bushes and
trees are very labour-intensive in
the autumn, for example. Evergreen
ornamental bushes offer one
possible alternative to these.
Every season is different
Winter services are an important
aspect of grounds care during
the darker months of the year.
They involve clearing and gritting
roads and paths, as well as remov-
Photo: Wittmoser
2009 EXHIBITOR
2009 EXHIBITOR
Photo: rationell reinigen
Photo: rationell reinigen
ing the cleared ice and snow from
the premises. However, lawns and
sports facilities, graveyards and
parks already make special demands
on the care personnel as early as the
autumn and preparations must be
made in good time. When the leaves
start falling from the trees, they
must be collected and destroyed
at regular intervals. A covering of
leaves would devitalise the growth
of the grass and diminish the lawn‘s
fitness for playing on. Apart from
this, the leaves offer an ideal climate
for the proliferation and propagation
of vermin. And last, but not
least, rotting leaves on paths also
increase the risk of slipping. Power
sweepers with collecting boxes are
very helpful when it comes to removing
leaves - as are leaf blowers.
Although their use is a controversial
issue because of noise and pollution.
But they do offer an advantage,
because useful microorganisms are
left alone to a great extent.
Care in spring and summer
When the first rays of sun reveal
what the winter has left behind
A well-tended lawn is not the product of mowing alone.
Comprehensive maintenance operations are essential.
Hako-Werke GmbH
„We are very pleased with our results at
CMS. The meetings we had with visitors
were of a very high standard. There a
large number of decision-makers at the
fair whom we were able to show our new
products and complementary services.
By the second day of the fair there was
already a 40 percent increase in specific
visitor inquiries over the last event.“
Arne Schmid, Sales Director
Germany
Mobiloclean Handelsgruppe GmbH
„Customers expressed keen interest in
the products and services which were exhibited
at our Cleanworld in cooperation
with the manufacturers. Numerous small
and medium-sized enterprises attending
CMS for the first time were able to find our
about the product highlights at the fair
from the Building Cleaning Forum.“
Frank Fischer, Managing Director
in the green areas, it‘s time for a
spring makeover. Plaster, slabs and
paths must be cleaned thoroughly
and any remaining leaves and vegetation
removed. The lawns that
play a decisive role with respect
to the overall appearance of the
ground must also be brought up
to scratch. Scarification is advisable
in most cases, irrespective of
the general condition of the lawn.
This is because the winter usually
leaves a layer of dead grass and
possibly moss behind. This layer
stops the grass growing freely
because it prevents sufficient oxygen,
nutrients and water getting
to the roots. The scarifier‘s rotating
cutting cylinder throws up the
dead material and slits the surface
of the soil. This produces a hoeing
effect that can be stabilised
on a long-term basis by applying a
layer of washed sand. The summer
is marked by purely maintenance
operations, regeneration and
cleaning work, regular watering,
fertilisation and weeding. All in all,
grounds care is much the same as
building maintenance: quality and
substance can only be maintained
by means of continuous care.
Grounds care from A to Z
If you would like to know more
about grounds care and the
various seasonal demands, visit
the archives at www.rationellreinigen.de
and expand your
knowledge in preparation for
the CMS.