Susanne Zänker
A.I.S.E. Director General, Brussels, Belgium

“It may seem counter-intuitive in our modern, increasingly sophisticated European society, but cleanliness is more important today than it has been for a long time,” says Arndt Scheidgen, president of A.I.S.E. the Brussels-based International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance products.

And how right he is. As, indeed, the Sepawa Congress’ move to Berlin this year to accommodate its growing size attests! 

Our cleaning and hygiene industry delivers significant benefits to the European economy, as a recent socio-economic study commissioned by A.I.S.E. has emphatically shown. The study, by the Huggard Consulting Group, estimated that the industry supports some 95,000 jobs directly and 360,000 jobs indirectly in Europe, making a gross value-added contribution of close to €25 billion throughout the value chain (1). 

And those are the readily quantifiable measures. The harder-to-measure indirect benefits of improved productivity in the workplace and improved wellness and wellbeing generally make this contribution even greater.

In fact, a recent report by A.I.S.E. member, the German Cosm ...