A message from Matt Graves, President at Cleen Detailing
Hi there and thank you for wanting to learn more about the people behind the scenes here at Cleen Detailing. My name is Matt Graves and I am Cleen's President. I'd like to share with you a little bit more about the Cleen Story - how we got to where we are today, and our big plans ahead to make a difference as Canada’s most loved mobile car detailing experience currently operating in Ottawa, Toronto, Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Vaughn, and more in GTA.
Cleen Detailing was founded in 2015 by two Ottawa students (Sawyer & Carson). who started the business out of their parent's basement as a way to earn money for school, and to provide work opportunities to students in their community.
They wanted to create an innovative mobile car detailing service that would save people hours of their day, and eliminate the slow, painful, & time-sucking experience found at traditional detailing shops.
And so Cleen Detailing was born - a fully mobile, on-demand car detailing experience that comes you, rain or shine.
As it turns out, this was a service that people desperately wanted...
Imagine the time you could save if you no longer had to...
... Waste time with back-and-forth emails and phone tag, just to book a service.
... Sit around in waiting rooms for your appointment to finish
... Spend valuable time dropping off & picking-up your car
... Take the dreaded shuttle service back and forth from the detailer shop
These things cost you your most valuable assets: your time.
With Cleen, you are able to:
Fast forward 5 years to 2020, and this new service had become a huge hit with customers. Cleen grew across Canada to also service Toronto and Vancouver. Thousands of happy customers rely on Cleen to keep their vehicles in amazing shape, while giving them back the the gift of time.
Hundreds of 5-star reviews later, Cleen had successfully reinvented how people got their cars detailed, and created a modern, and convenient way for busy people to get their cars detailed, from the comfort of their home.
At the end of 2020, Sawyer & Carson passed on the ownership of Cleen to me (Matt). As a fellow young Canadian entrepreneur, I had been a mentor to the Cleen duo while I was at Queen's University just a year ahead of Sawyer in the business program.
As the new President of Cleen, the first step I took was to bring on the incredibly talented Eugene Ling to lead Cleen’s operations. Eugene is a recent graduate from Carleton University’s Civil Engineering program, and has been working with Cleen for several years, perfecting our innovative mobile car detailing system.
The first thing that Eugene and I did was sit down together and define what we wanted to accomplish with Cleen over the next 3 years. We wanted to get clarity on our real "Why" behind Cleen (more than just providing the most convenient & delightful mobile car detailing experience in Canada).
Both of us grew up working hard to pay for our schooling, and always respected employers who treated their employees like family, cared about their goals, and ultimately compensated them with a fair, livable wage.
We believe that every business - big and small - has an obligation to work progressively towards compensating all employees at least a Living Wage.
We’ve made it our goal to create 100 Living Wage jobs in Canada through Cleen by 2023.
If the pandemic has revealed one thing, it's that income inequality remains a critical issue in our rapidly changing technological environment here in Canada. We feel that the onus is on business owners to strive for continuous improvement in their business with the goal of being capable of paying their employees a Living Wage. That's why we’ve made it our goal to create 100 Living Wage jobs in Canada through Cleen by 2023.
Today, we are proud to provide more than 15 Living Wage job across our locations that provide mobile car detailing in Ottawa, Toronto, Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Vaughn, and more in GTA. We will be re-opening our Vancouver location car detailing soon, and moving on to more Canadian cities for 2022 and 2023.
As a newly Living Wage-Certified employer in 2021 - we are trying to break the mold in the service industry. We understand the incredible financial challenges typically faced by small business owners. It’s a tough reality that 90% of businesses fail within 2 years. For Cleen to be successful (and profitable) as a Living Wage employer, we prioritize investing heavily in our people, equipment, and technology, so that we can provide amazing service to our customers at fair prices.
Cleen’s detailing team consists of a group of incredible, hard working individuals who all have their own unique story and life goals. Whether it’s paying down student debt, saving up for a first home, or helping provide for a loved one - how the Living Wage positively impacts our team, and the greater community is something special to be a part of.
We’re extremely excited to bring Cleen’s Living Wage Pledge across Canada as we look to bring our services to new communities. None of this would be possible without the incredible support from our customers, who continue to rely on Cleen to provide the best mobile car detailing experience year after year.
On behalf of the Cleen team, thank you for taking the time to read this and learn more about our story.
If our Living Wage pledge resonates with you, don’t be shy - we want to hear from you! You can post or message us on Facebook, email us at hello@cleendetailing.com or give us a call. We hope you’ll help us spread word about our service and work we are doing, and help us on our way towards 100 Living Wage jobs in Canada by 2023.
Sincerely,
Matt Graves
President, Cleen Detailing
