Our President, Doug, a former CFL player, investment advisor, and his wife, Angela Kelman, a Juno Award singer, started Wash Safe Canada in 2010.
Our Story
It all started when we noticed a moss growth on the roof of our country home, just outside Courtenay, on Vancouver Island. As the property fronts 1000 feet on the Brown’s River, we take our water from a well and have kids and dogs running around, we were very reluctant to use any of the advertised chemical roof moss and algae cleaners. The instructions warned about using protective clothing, covering plants, and especially warned about using around rivers, streams or ponds.
After much research we found a company on Cape Cod, Ma, called “Wash Safe Industries”, who were selling an environmentally friendly, non toxic cleaner. We had recently sold our company, so Doug, as Angela put it, needed an activity “to keep him out of the poolhall”. The cleaners worked so well, that we acquired the Canadian distribution rights and formed Wash Safe Canada.
Recently, after 8 years in business we decided to take a hard look at our business model, our products and our website to ensure we were still giving our customers exactly what they needed. During the latterpart of 2017 we talked to retail store owners, sales people, and our consumers as to how we could improve.
Several things became clear:
…We were told that we had too many similar products with overlapping functions, confusing salespeople, and customers alike.
…Our retailers were concerned that using U.S. packaging did not meet Canadian regulations and could cause problems with Gov’t inspectors.
…Our sales figures made it abundantly clear that the Roof, Deck, Cedar and Household lines were by far the best sellers, and
…they also said they liked our liquid cleaners, “Rust Off” and “Spray and Clean Composite Deck Cleaner”.
We ran with this information, combined the best ingredients from all the products and created three “super” cleaners, “Oxy All Roof Wash”, “Oxy All Wood Wash” and “Oxy House Mold and Mildew Wash”.
We have entered into an agreement with a local manufacturer making us proudly “Made in Canada”, and renamed the distribution group for our three new products to “Pacific Northwest Green Cleaning Products”.
We retained distribution of the two liquid products according to our customer’s wishes.
Whew, been busy times, eh!!!