Meet the cleaning company that is fit for a King

Earlier this year, cleaning company Upbeat Clean became the first business in Derbyshire to be awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise in the Promoting Opportunity category.

The firm provides jobs that transform the lives of refugee women.

Here, in his own words, managing director Michael Gladwell charts the meteoric rise of Upbeat Clean.

If you’d said five years ago that our charity would have a cleaning company that was recognised by the King for changing the lives of refugee women, paying over half a million in salaries, partnering with some of the best companies across Derby and creating real management and leadership opportunities, I would have laughed.

But here we are. Upbeat Clean is building something different, something that will make a real impact to social mobility in Derby and beyond.

I’m Michael, and I lead Upbeat Clean, a Derby-based cleaning company with a mission: to create, especially refugee mums, many of whom have found it almost impossible to get a foot on the employment ladder in this city and support their families.

Our charity (Upbeat Communities) had been supporting many refugee women who had fled horrific situations with their children and had come to Derby to rebuild their lives, and we kept seeing the same thing: women who were motivated, reliable and eager to work, but who were stuck.

Either they couldn’t find jobs that fit around English classes, school runs and family life, or employers didn’t see the potential in them.

So, we sat down and researched more than 40 social enterprise ideas, from cafés to hair salons, trying to find one that could really scale to end that first job issue in the city for refugee women.

Something practical, something needed, and something that could create both first jobs and real management and leadership opportunities.

Cleaning rose to the top. It’s flexible. It’s always in demand. And it’s the kind of work where someone can start with no experience but can work hard and go on to lead a team, manage sites, or even move into other industries.

That’s where Upbeat Clean was created.

The early days were full of energy and a lot of learning. We started small, just three cleaners, a few contracts.

We’ll always be grateful to the charities and community spaces who gave us a chance right at the beginning: places like QUAD, Derby Museums and a number of local churches.

They didn’t just give us jobs; they gave us a chance to perfect what we do in preparation for scale.

Then Marketing Derby really came through for us, and that changed everything.

They started connecting us into the wider business community, and suddenly we had conversations and opportunities we’d never have found on our own.

We started to see that if the bigger companies in the city knew about us, they would see the potential to change lives through their huge cleaning budgets.

Being named Marketing Derby’s Rising Star was a turning point. It was the first moment we felt properly recognised. It was huge for our team.

Some of our cleaners cried when they heard the news because they were full of pride in what they had built with their hard work.

Since then, we’ve grown fast. In our first year, we turned over £24,000. By the end of this year, we’ll be turning over £1 million.

Our team has grown from just four cleaners to almost 60, with seven brilliant women now managing sites and leading the team.

All of them started as cleaners themselves. It’s been amazing to see what people can do when they’re given a chance and the right support.

We now work across Derby and beyond, cleaning 40-plus sites, from offices and community spaces to large industrial sites and an arena.

Some of our biggest clients include Vaillant, Getinge, and the Vaillant Live arena.

We also work with brilliant organisations like Reach Conference Centre, Derby County Community Trust and many others.

The thing they all have in common is that they want excellent cleaning, AND they are eager to change lives in the process.

I think that’s one of the most exciting things about Upbeat Clean, the way it creates a kind of virtuous circle.

Companies already need to pay for cleaning. But by partnering with us, that spend becomes an investment in people’s lives, real ESG in front of your eyes. It turns a line on a spreadsheet into a budget for transformation.

And the impact on the women we employ is massive. Many tell us that their lives and their families’ lives have changed.

For the first time, they’re able to support their families without relying on benefits.

Some have taken their children on holiday, something they never thought they’d be able to afford do. Others have built the confidence to take on leadership roles, speak in meetings, and train new staff.

Some have gone on to other work in the NHS, office work, or manufacturing.

And they all carry themselves with a renewed sense of pride.

Earlier this year, we were stunned to receive a letter telling us we’d won the King’s Award for Enterprise in the Promoting Opportunity category. No cleaning company in the UK has ever won this award before.

We felt genuinely honoured, not just for ourselves, but for what it says about Derby and the companies that partner with us.

This award belongs to our team: every cleaner who got up early day after day, stayed late and kept going even when things have been tough.

And we’re only just getting started.

Over the next decade, we will pay well over £5 million in salaries to refugee women and survivors of modern slavery.

We want to keep growing, keep partnering with companies who care, and keep building routes into work that change lives.

On top of this we are developing our franchising package so that we can help other charities across the country to have the same impact that we’ve seen here in Derby!

If you’re a business owner or decision-maker and you’re spending money on cleaning anyway, why not get excellent cleaning and use that budget to change lives?

Drop me a line at michael@upbeatclean.co.uk or visit Ethical Commercial Cleaning in Derby – Upbeat Clean .

We’d love to work with you.