Ray Chow knows food service. Since 1997, Chow owned and/or managed several restaurants and catering business in and around Raleigh-Durham, NC. Today, he spends most of his time – about 12 hours a day – ­at Catering Concepts. This commissary kitchen serves as home base for Chow’s busy catering business. He also rents space to ten food truck owners who use the kitchen to prep, cook, and store their own food. 

Keeping Catering Concepts’ floor clean has been a challenge for Chow, particularly with so many renters coming and going throughout the day. It doesn’t help that the floor is made up of six-inch-by-six-inch ceramic tile, meaning that there are tons of grout lines to grab and hold on to dirt. The biggest challenge may be that Chow’s renters are just not as invested in cleaning as he is.

“Everybody says they sweep and mop, but the floor ends up a mess by lunch,” Chow says. “I’m tired of mopping every night and the floor still looking like it’s not clean.”

Chow recently saw a demonstration of the UniVac® by Kaivac and was intrigued. He couldn’t understand how something that “looks like a shop vac” could perform better than a mop. After learning about the machine’s methodology, Chow was ready to give the UniVac a try. He was amazed by the result.

 “We tested the UniVac by cleaning our section of floor, including moving and cleaning under six different pieces of kitchen equipment,” Chow remembers. “The UniVac never ran out of water or chemical, the floor was so much cleaner, and the time savings were immediately noticeable.” 

Chow then started using the machine to pick up spills on the fly. “Before we might use the mop, if it was clean and ready, or just grab some paper towels,” he says. “Now we bring out the UniVac. I spilled some margarine the other day and it was a three-minute clean up.”

Even Chow’s wife, a self-described clean freak who also keeps Catering Concepts books, is sold. “I brought the UniVac home to try on our 20-year-old tile floors in the kitchen and laundry room and the difference was amazing,” he says. “Our old method was just diluting and spreading. The UniVac let us experience what clean really is.”

The UniVac let us experience what clean really is.

Ray Chow, Catering concepts

Back at work, Chow’s employees took to the change immediately. “They liked how easy the UniVac is to operate and said they would use it all the time,” Chow recalls. He plans to train all ten of his renters and their employees on the new cleaning protocol and then throw away his old mop and bucket. Chow bets no one will miss them. 

“A wet mop is really heavy, and we’ve broken the wringer handle trying to dry it out enough to pick up moisture. The UniVac will make things significantly easier. I will set the machine up so I can control the how much chemical gets used at first. I also plan to track my tenants usage with the KaiNect™ App,” he says. 

Always busy, Chow admits he could use another full-time employee. Now he can devote more time to selling catering services, prepping and cooking orders, and running the rest of the commissary business, without worrying about the floors. “The UniVac is going to make things a lot easier,” he says.