The RKA Success Story

Small beginnings...

During the month of November 1970 Robin King started a part-time cleaning job at the trade section of the French Embassy in Customhouse Quay that he handled in conjunction with early morning paper rounds. In 1976 Robin was offered the Dorchester Apartments common areas and window-cleaning contract as the incumbent cleaners had difficulty handling the high-rise window work out on ledges. An introduction to Paul Hastings, well known in commercial real estate, followed as Robin started to clean the offices and common areas in his Lambton Quay premises. This proved to be instrumental in the formation of our cleaning organization – Robin King & Associates

Turning point...

By way of referral, Paul Hastings recommended Robin King to the Public Trust to handle the common area cleaning in Hallenstein’s House in late 1983. The first major contract commenced in April 1984 and has continued down to this day, likewise Dorchester Apartments mentioned earlier. No advertising was undertaken until 1990 and yet from that point in 1984 when Robin King decided that 15 years of early morning paper rounds was enough, the cleaning business had blossomed magnificently in an orderly way.

Associates and...

As expansion occurred so did the need to share the load. A conscious effort was made never to ask people to work for Robin King & Associates but to accept requests for work from friends and acquaintances that had good work ethics and the ability to co-operate together. Robin King & Associates therefore became an organization of self-employed cleaners with the combined talents to handle all cleaning assignments for general office routine, to specialised hard floor care, to high-rise windows and more.

We believe that our “modus-operandi” has played an important part in the growth of our business. By rewarding our Associates by paying them well above the award wage, RKA has achieved a very stable work force which our clients have appreciated. The philosophy established in 1985, challenged unsuccessfully by the Union and approved by the tax regime, remains in place today although a number of employee cleaners are operating in contracts where Associate members are unavailable because of the set timeframe for duties to be handled.

Sharing responsibilities...

With the growth of our company came the management challenge. In late 1988 Graham Russell joined Robin as a partner to share the responsibility while they accomplished like personal goals.

Our own offices...

Having operated out of shared offices for a period, it was a milestone in the RKA story for Robin King to buy a commercial building for the business. The business moved to moved to 4 Arney Street, Newtown in July 1992 and operated from the offices we built in the premises and the associated warehouse facilities. This allowed us to focus more effectively on CLEANING than ever before.

TCS came into existence as we created separate divisions for window and carpet cleaning. Being the certified contractors for “Capture” dry-cleaning of carpets in Wellington has added the strength and variety to this aspect of our operation.

And here we are...

With more than 90 personnel comprising cleaning, specialised service technicians, supervisory and office support staff, and an effective shared management, RKA has made its presence felt. We are here to stay. RKA is a $2,500,000.00 business operating in one city – Wellington. From Robin King dashing around cleaning as a one-man-band years ago, we have developed to being the preferred cleaning company to tenderers to many of the major institutions and businesses in our city.

Our services now cover a wide range of activities...

RKA core business has been enhanced by well planned and carefully selected hygiene services and specialised environmental products including:

We will continue to improve and develop our expertise to ensure we provide maximum value and quality to our clients both present and future as evidenced by our recent ISO Quality Assurance Certification.

The current RKA management team comprises Graham and Margaret Russell, Partners, providing hands-on team leadership and guidance to our cleaning and hygiene services personnel. Quality Assurer/Sales Manager, Tony Swenneker, with expertise in customer satisfaction and professional sales and service, contributes to our delivering premium quality, customer focused solutions.

Contract Managers and Supervisors Niko Kalolo and Trevor Lobb possess a wealth of expertise and specialised knowledge of all aspects of hygiene and environmental cleaning and maintenance standards; provide guidance and training to new and lesser experienced staff and initiate a proactive problem solving culture throughout our service, technical and on-site supervisory staff.

The future...

RKA are entering a new phase of sustainable growth and consolidation with a goal of providing the widest range of quality building services available in Wellington, incorporating highly trained professional personnel, total support for and compliance with Building Services Contractors of New Zealand Code of Practice and continuing commitment to quality assurance in all aspects of our business.