Relieving tensions

摘要

The cleaning and maintenance (jansan) industry is vibrant and growing-with estimates of U.S. annual revenues ranging from $100 billion-$200 billion. However, it is also currently experiencing some of its greatest upheaval in decades. The center of the storm involves the increasingly tense relationships between the manufacturers and the distributors that sell to the end customer, the Facility Service Provider. For many jansan distributors, these tensions and problems have been accen- tuated because they are fighting for their very business survival. There has been a 70 percent decline in the number of jansan distributorships in the United States in the past decade. Some of this is the result of mergers and acquisitions, but much of it is simply the result of distributors going out of business.