SPRAYING FOR SAFETY
Go Fog It Windsor co-owner Beau Dubois uses a disinfectant fogging machine to clean arcade machines at the Super Bowl bowling alley Wednesday in Windsor. The new franchise aims to help stop the spread of COVID-19 by killing the virus on surfaces.
Belle River native Beau Dubois has had his eye out for an entrepreneurial opportunity and he found one in a fog in London.
Dubois and co-owner Scott Woodall opened the doors to their Go Fog It Windsor franchise on May 16 and have been busily spraying away COVID-19 with an environmentally friendly disinfectant ever since.
“I’d seen this technique used in South Korea and other countries that have been successful in flattening the COVID-19 curve and they just seemed more advanced than us,” Dubois said.
“We began to do some research and that’s when we discovered the London Go Fog It start up. We met with their team and they were brilliant.
“We are their first franchise licensees.”
Go Fog It’s co-founders, Diana House and Melissa Mcinerney, earned $20,000 and business and technical support for their start up earlier this month by winning the first of two Recovery and Rebuilding the Region Design Challenges sponsored by Libro Credit Union, Pillar Nonprofit Network and Techalliance.
The competition required entrants to submit an idea for a product or service that aided in the fight against COVID-19 but also provided an economic benefit to southern Ontario.
That goal is proving a spectacular success as the fledgling company has now also added a Central Ontario franchise and interest is only growing.
“Their whole management team is female, which is really great to see in a new business,” Dubois said.
“I was so impressed with their foresight and knowledge. They saw the future and an opportunity to serve industry and business.”
The Windsor franchise will cover Essex County and extends up to Chatham.
Dubois said the local operation has three employees, including himself, but he expects that number to increase as the business is growing.
“As Ontario starts to reopen, business owners, employees and customers want to feel safe walking through those doors,” Dubois said of what attracted him to the business.
“I think there’s definitely been a change of perspective and demand on the importance of ensuring public spaces are sanitized. There’s more responsibility for business owners.
If an employee or customer becomes sick, they’ll have to shut down to clean and possibly have to deal with the Ministry (of Health).”
Though Dubois said the business is still in the phase of educating the public about the service, the variety of customers in the first 10 days reflects a widespread demand.
“Wherever people congregate, we’ve been spraying,” Dubois said.
He said the company has sprayed down everything from manufacturing plants and greenhouses to bowling alleys, homes and recreational trailers.
“We have ultra light volume foggers and we use a 360 degree technique to spread it,” Dubois said. “We let the fog do the work.
“It’s a mist that settles into all the nooks and crannies. It evaporates and kills 99.99 per cent of contaminants, allergens and eliminates odours.”
Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved the spray for general use and listed it as a proven killer of the COVID-19 virus.
The disinfectant is a plant-based product. The fog droplets degrade into water and salt that evaporates after 30 minutes, leaving no film and requiring no wiping.
The only lingering after-effect is a fresh, lemon grass smell after
It’s safe even if it got on food, pets, people or things like computers. There’s nothing flammable, toxic or corrosive in it.
about an hour.
“It’s safe even if it got on food, pets, people or things like computers,” Dubois said.
“There’s nothing flammable, toxic or corrosive in it.”
Dubois said they use a couple of testing methods to measure the before and after virus load at a location. The cost of the treatment will vary depending on the challenges presented at each site.
The company offers weekly, bi-weekly and monthly spraying plans.