Press Release: Biokleen sells, exits Pacific NW -- Azure Clean Ramps Up
Pacific NW still has Manufacturer of Earth-friendly Cleaners with Azure Clean as Biokleen Moves Out
The Pacific Northwest has had to say good-bye to Biokleen. “Our businesses kind of grew up together,” explains David Stelzer, founder and CEO of Azure Standard, a bulk and natural foods distributor that has carried Biokleen products for nearly 30 years. “We both started our businesses in the mid-late 1980s, and it was very nice to have a manufacturer of environmentally-friendly cleaners so close to our distribution center here in north-central Oregon.” And thus begins the story that David tells about the importance of non-toxic cleaners for health and the environment... and how Azure is stepping up to fill a gap now that Biokleen has been sold to Weiman Products and manufacturing is moving to Illinois and New York.
Pacific Northwest loses a family-owned business
Biokleen, the natural cleaner manufacturer based in Vancouver, WA, announced to its distributors in November 2019 that it had been acquired by Weiman Products, LLC on August 30, 2019. Production has been moved to Gurnee, Illinois and Elmsford, New York. Weiman Products is a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, an equity firm with $222 Billion in assets. The Biokleen manufacturing plant in Vancouver had been producing 5000 bottles of environmentally-friendly cleaners daily according to an article in The Columbian (January 13, 2019).
When Big Corporations Buy the Little Guys
News of the acquisition was sad to David Stelzer. He has seen what has happened to other family-owned businesses that are bought out by larger corporations, and fears this Biokleen buy-out will have the same results.
“All too often when small companies with a heart and soul for doing the right thing are bought-up, they just become a small part of a portfolio of the larger corporation,” David explains. “This is often done in order to ‘greenwash’ their image and be a decoy to make them look like they are not destroying the environment.” He says he hopes that’s not what Weiman/Carlyle Group is up to, but says it already looks to be the case since Biokleen will give them a “green” line to offer in addition to their other “toxic cleaner” lines. By selling both eco-friendly cleaners and conventional chemical cleaners they are able to control more of the cleaners market.
Biokleen products will be discontinued from Azure Standard’s offerings once the final shipment from their Vancouver facility sells through.
Azure’s dedication to healthy cleaners
Although growing and distributing organic foods has been Azure’s main focus over the years, they have offered earth-friendly cleaners since early on. “Actually, when we started putting little clip-art pictures in Azure’s price list back in the mid-1990s, the first one we printed was a picture of Life Tree brand Bathroom Cleaner. Boy, did we sell a lot of bathroom cleaner then!”, David reminisces. Azure Standard distributes quite a few “green” cleaner brands, including Country Save, Charlie’s Soap, Maid Naturally, Planet, Safer Soaps, and others.
David figured earth-friendly cleaners were very much in line with Azure’s mission to create a healthy planet. But, since most of them did not work well he decided to pursue the idea of manufacturing a line of a few superior cleaners under the Azure name. So, back in 2016, he connected with Mike Harvey. As David describes him, Mike is “an environmental scientist and chemical engineer with a sterling reputation, who is an Oregon resident with an absolute passion for keeping the rivers and fields unpolluted.” Mike agreed to help, and in partnership with Azure, created a line of cleaners that would be very effective yet even more environmentally friendly than other “green” cleaners on the market. Mike and David were diligent to not compromise their common principles in caring for the earth and its inhabitants.
New “Azure Clean” Brand Cleaners
Fast forward to 2019, and the news of the Biokleen buy-out. A truly earth-friendly line of cleaners as an alternative to Biokleen was needed. And, with the previous experience from the 2016 introduction of Azure cleaners, David felt that Azure was in a good position to be the Pacific Northwest company to fill the gap Biokleen left. So, in a whirlwind of activity, Mike Harvey again stepped in to create more cleaners so Azure could directly fill the void. “We have several very new products, plus new fragrance options on many of our other cleaners,” David explains.
The cleaning products inside the bottles were truly superior. But, the old labeling was plain and not store-shelf attractive, so the line didn’t receive wide-spread use except among Azure’s direct customers who felt they had found a secret treasure.
“We’re re-launching the line in January 2020 under the brand name ‘Azure Clean’. We’ve redesigned our labels to be bright, colorful, and informative so they’re more attractive on store shelves. Plus, we’ve improved the packaging by converting some gallon sizes to easy drain-back bottles.”
Stench-X: the new alternative to Biokleen’s Bac-Out
Azure Clean boasts equivalent replacements for many Biokleen products, including Biokleen’s flagship product Bac-Out. “With our Stench-X odor and stain removing product, people can get the same enzyme action as they did with Bac-Out without supporting a mega-corporation and without trucking it across the nation first,” David said.
Making “Azure Clean” Available Everywhere
Find more information at www.AzureClean.com The Azure team is working to make Azure Clean available in stores everywhere, but in the meantime, all Azure Clean products are available to purchase at www.azurestandard.com/azureclean.
Sources:
https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/jan/13/future-sparkles-for-vancouver-based-biokleen/
https://www.carlyle.com/our-business
/azure-life/blog/meet-mike-harvey-azure-cleans-expert/TqyLR65yNc5y20N5/
/azure-life/blog/biokleen-sells-out-azure-steps-up/o27BMXa6J3RFYDOS/
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Media Contact: Susan Booth
mediarelations [at] azureclean.com
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