No pane, no gain...window cleaner with 3,312 reasons to cheer
A WINDOW cleaner who began by knocking on doors with his brother has reported a 63 per cent year-on-year rise in his firm’s sales to £12.1million after winning contracts with the Cooperative Group and Santander.
Thornton Tasker, 49, was the fourth generation of window cleaners in his family – but his vision has proved the clearest.
Nationwide Window Cleaning, headquartered in Leeds, has increased its workforce by 120 over the past two years, bringing the total to 285.
Co-founded in 2007 by Tasker, it received financial backing of £3million from the Business Growth Fund in July last year to expand its operations and is now considering acquisitions.
Tasker said: ‘When I was 18 and my brother 17, we went knocking on doors locally. We had this old car that cost £200 and we financed it over six months. But we were so broke we couldn’t meet the first couple of payments. It was very, very humble beginnings.’
NWC, which is Tasker’s second window cleaning firm after he sold the one he founded with his brother, now cleans the windows of more than 20,000 buildings in the UK. It counts universities, hospitals, retailers and other businesses – such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Asda and the British Museum – as clients. The British Museum’s Great Court represents a special challenge as it has 3,312 panes – no two of which are the same.