While the service side of the janitorial industry is battling highly publicized labor and scheduling issues, the product manufacturing sector — the companies formulating, packaging, and chemical-blending the products — faces an entirely different set of structural, regulatory, and chemical hurdles.
Fuller Industries Inc., a legacy commercial cleaning product manufacturer based in Great Bend, is actively addressing these industry-wide friction points to pioneer the next generation of facility care solutions.
"The landscape of chemical manufacturing is undergoing a profound structural shift," said Joe Mann, General Manager of Fuller Industries. "We are no longer just mixing chemicals; we are engineering highly precise, sustainable solutions that interface with advanced robotics and meet rigid environmental and state-by-level regulatory standards. Navigating these complexities requires agility and deep chemical expertise."
According to industry analysts, commercial cleaning chemical and product manufacturers are currently navigating several intense market pressures:
· The bottleneck of regulatory approvals: Getting new formulations to market has become an expensive, slow-moving game of regulatory patience. Manufacturers nationwide are pushing for streamlined pipelines within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clear backlogs on science-based reviews of regulated cleaning products and disinfectants. Compounding this is a fragmented legislative landscape, where companies must navigate a patchwork of differing state compliance laws—such as localized pushes to ban scented products — that vastly drive-up production costs and complicate inventory management.
· Formulating "green" without sacrificing performance: Market demand from procurement officers has shifted aggressively toward safer, low-toxicity, low-VOC (volatile organic compound), and plant-based ingredients. Fuller’s advanced chemistry provides the industry with probiotic cleaners and non-disruptive surfactants that preserve a healthy surface microbiome. One of Fuller’s strongest innovations in this space is their MicroE product line.
· Additionally, newer architectural materials require specialized, gentle chemistries — like advanced peroxide-based formulations or hypochlorous acid — that lift soils effectively without damaging expensive building assets over time.
· The physics of "ultra-concentration": Shipping heavy, water-logged liquid chemical jugs across the country presents severe financial and environmental challenges due to rising fuel costs and scope-3 emission tracking. To adapt, manufacturers are transitioning to products like Fuller’s monopods, ultra-concentrated formats, solid tablets, powders, or dissolvable sheets. This evolution forces chemical manufacturers to also become hardware engineers, designing foolproof automated dosing and dispensing systems to ensure precise chemical-to-water ratios. Manufacturers are also heavily investing in circular, plastic-free packaging that can safely store volatile industrial chemicals without leaking or degrading.
· Designing products for a robotic workforce: Chemicals historically formulated for human use with a mop or trigger sprayer often disrupt autonomous cleaning machinery. Robotic equipment requires specialized low-foaming, rapid dry, and anti-redeposition agents so that automated floor scrubbers and smart devices do not suffer clogged vacuum lines or false sensor errors. Product manufacturers must now co-engineer and validate their formulations alongside robotics Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) safeguard delicate components and sensors inside high-value autonomous machines.
"At Fuller Industries, we view these industry disruptions as an opportunity to reinforce our commitment to innovation and contract manufacturing excellence," Mann said. "By aligning our Kansas-based blending capabilities with advanced packaging technologies and greener formulation sciences, we ensure our partners stay ahead of regulatory curves and technological evolutions."
About Fuller Industries Inc.
Based in Great Bend, Kan., with a rich heritage dating back over a century to the Fuller Brush Man, Fuller Industries is a leading American manufacturer of industrial products, including cleaning chemicals and supplies, as well as brooms, mops, brushes and more. Fuller serves manufacturing, commercial, institutional and agricultural clients across the Western Hemisphere. Call 620-792-1711 or visit Fullerindustriesllc.com.