Jeremy Wayne’s Best Business Choices: CClean, Chappaqua 

If you need your office cleaned, your high-touch surfaces disinfected or your terrazzo floors restored, Joe Pizzimenti’s your man. His business, CClean, founded 40 years ago by his father, Enzo, has recently been inducted into the Westchester County Business Hall of Fame.  

But don’t go rushing up to company headquarters in Chappaqua with that party dress you just spilled red wine on or your old living room drapes. CClean is a strictly commercial cleaning company, one with a stellar reputation throughout Westchester and Fairfield counties. They delivered comprehensive janitorial services to a wide range of clients, across such diverse fields as health care, education and even the entertainment industry. Yes, the team will come and clean your kitchen – but not if you’ve just been too lazy to wash a few pots and pans. They specializes in thoroughly cleaning commercial kitchens for fine dining establishments, as well as private clubs, so a few cans of lager lying around the sitting room after the game or some sad vegetables at the bottom of your refrigerator that need clearing out isn’t going to cut it. 

CEO Pizzimenti’s honors go beyond professional cleanliness. His Outstanding Community Partner award, presented in March at the Association of Development Officers Philanthropy Awards Breakfast in Tarrytown, recognized his effect on the Westchester community, supporting local nonprofits through leadership, funding, in-kind contributions and volunteerism.  

He’s also been acknowledged for his extraordinary efforts during and after the pandemic to keep the county’s hospitals, medical offices and therapeutic private schools clean and safe. Pizzimenti said working in residential educational settings that serve children with special behavioral, developmental and psychiatric needs has been both challenging and rewarding. 

Since taking over from his father – now retired – the company has gone from 65 to 130 employees and revenue, too, has more than doubled. Client retention is 95% year on year and employee retention is almost double the industry average for cleaning companies. 

Aside from hard work, Pizzimenti puts the company’s success down to a rare combination of old school values coupled with new technology. A heavy user of software and data – he even commissions his own apps – he said the latest technology informs quality assurance and customer service, which in turn reduces staff workload and leaves more time for interaction with clients. 

Can you construe from all this that Pizzimenti’s own home is spick and span, a veritable temple of cleanlinees, a paean to hygiene? “Short answer:  I have two kids,” he said. “For me, clean is good, but comfort and balance win the day. Besides, I don’t want my friends and family to think I’m checking their baseboards for dust when I visit them.”  

For more, visit cclean.it.