Floor Cleaning Equipment Market

Market Overview

The global floor cleaning equipment market size was valued at USD 11.7 billion in 2022. It is estimated to reach USD 23.58 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 8.1% during the forecast period (2023–2031). 

Continuous technology development and an increasingly technically sound population favor the gradual shift from traditional cleaning products to automated machines such as vacuum cleaners, floor sweepers, and scrubbers, contributing to the market's growth.

Floor cleaning equipment refers to machines and tools designed specifically for cleaning and maintaining various flooring surfaces. This equipment is used in commercial, industrial, and residential settings to ensure clean and hygienic floors. One of the most common types of floor-cleaning equipment is the vacuum cleaner. Vacuum cleaners are versatile machines that use suction power to remove dirt, dust, debris, and other dry contaminants from floors. They are available in various sizes and types, including upright, canister, backpack, and robotic vacuum cleaners. Vacuum cleaners are effective for cleaning carpets, rugs, and hard floors, making them popular for routine floor maintenance.

Floor scrubbers are another important type of floor cleaning equipment. These machines are specifically designed for deep cleaning and scrubbing hard floor surfaces, such as tile, vinyl, concrete, and hardwood. Floor scrubbers typically consist of a motorized scrubbing pad or brush that rotates or oscillates to agitate the floor surface, along with a water tank and a squeegee system for water and solvent recovery. This combination of scrubbing action and water-based cleaning solution helps to remove stubborn stains and dirt and clean and sanitize the floor by removing dirt and grime. For maintaining the shine and luster of hard floors, floor polishers, also known as burnishers, are commonly used. Floor polishers utilize high-speed rotation to buff and polish the floor, resulting in a glossy finish. These machines are particularly effective on marble, granite, terrazzo, and polished concrete floors. Floor polishers, such as in hotels, shopping malls, and office buildings, are often used in commercial and industrial settings where maintaining the floor's appearance is crucial.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Growing Preference for Cleanliness and Hygiene Maintenance

Cleanliness and hygiene are the two most important factors in maintaining high standards in any commercial sector, such as restaurants, hospitality, medical places, and entertainment venues, to name a few. It is necessary to ensure the proper health and safety of the staff and create a good perception among the customers. These days, consumers are very specific in selecting places that offer clean and healthy ambiance. Regarding customer satisfaction, which is the prime concern and focus of all service providers, cleanliness plays a crucial role. For instance, a recent study by a hotel booking site reported that about more than 60% of hotel guests read reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp, AAA, and others before selecting their stay, wherein about 71% of guests look for places that have "above average" cleanliness ratings.

Similarly, consumers focus greatly on cleanliness and hygiene before choosing their dine-out outlets. Apart from the food quality and service, the popularity of any food outlet also depends highly on the cleanliness of the surroundings. Restaurant workstations have a high possibility of unclean floors due to frequent food spills. In addition, dining areas in a restaurant also require extremely clean floors to maintain a healthy eating ambiance.

Growing Residential Sector Driving the Application of Floor Cleaning Equipment

Factors such as increasing urbanization due to Population growth and movement have led to the residential industry growing. Consumers have been actively impacting the demand for floor-cleaning equipment to keep a healthy and clean atmosphere at home. Continuous technology development and an increasingly technically sound population favor the gradual shift from traditional cleaning products to automated machines such as vacuum cleaners, floor sweepers, and scrubbers. This, in turn, is contributing to the significant growth of the global floor cleaning equipment market. In addition, the rising trend of dual-income families and limited time for domestic cleaning chores will likely drive the demand for automated floor cleaning machines, favoring the global market growth.

Market Restraints

Noise Level Regulations for the Automatic Equipment

Consumers are often concerned with noise generation by this kind of equipment owing to electric-driven machines with rapid movement of brushes and other parts while operating. Thus, daytime cleaning often demands low-sounding machines in residential complexes and commercial spaces such as schools and hospitals. At the same time, high sound-emitting equipment can be devised for night cleaning applications for commercial usage owing to less foot traffic where the noise level of machines will not be a primary concern.

In addition, government regulations imposed on the selling of different floor cleaning machines also pose risks to their application and require efforts by manufacturers to produce low-sound emitting equipment. According to the European Commission, the new EU ECODESIGN 2014 directive demands the fulfillment of new standards of household appliances by the manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, stating the required data of the products in terms of energy, economy, and efficiency.

Market Opportunities

Rapid Development in the Infrastructural Sector

Rapid development in the infrastructural sector led to increased demand for effective cleaning tools, like floor, surface, furniture, and carpet cleaners in the cleaning industry. Rapid expansion in the hospitality sector is a key driver for expanding the commercial segment. An increasing number of hospitals and hotels, particularly in developing nations such as India, Vietnam, and China, will likely contribute to the floor cleaning equipment market growth. According to studies, China witnessed a huge increase in the number of hospitals, with 21 thousand hospitals in 2010, which increased to 25.4 thousand in 2020. Additionally, excellent growth opportunity in the hospitality sector by the country also offers lucrative growth for floor cleaning equipment.

In addition, global growth in the travel and tourism industry also poses positive growth toward increasing the global hospitality sector. According to findings, Travel and tourism contribute over 10% to the global GDP, of which the Hotel Industry accounts for half of the revenue when clubbed with the food and beverage industry. Therefore, the commercial sector offers key growth drivers for the market because of the increased application of floor-cleaning equipment.

Regional Analysis

Based on region, the global floor cleaning equipment market is bifurcated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa.

North America Dominates the Global Market

North America is the most significant global floor cleaning equipment market shareholder and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% over the forecast period. North America is projected to account for a market share of 43.1% in the floor cleaning equipment market by 2028 due to large infrastructural investments in countries such as the U.S. and Canada. This leads to increased penetration of floor cleaning equipment in the regions above. Increased penetration of hardwood flooring in the region has developed the need for safer cleaning options without causing damage to the floor, and thus, floor cleaning equipment witnesses greater application here. The rising trend of wooden flooring has also increased the prominence of effective cleaning equipment in the residential sector, such as manual sweepers, mops, and floor wipers. These products have higher demand in residential applications owing to convenience and low cost.

Europe is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 8.4% over the forecast period. The regional market is expected to observe an average growth over the anticipated period owing to increasing expenditure on floor covering materials. Europe witnesses the highest expenditure and revenue generation in the floor covering materials markets, such as wood blocks, parquet panels, laminate flooring, self-adhesive strips, carpets, and textile coverings. Thus, manual machines and small equipment such as sweepers, mops, wipers, and brushes are increasingly prominent. Therefore, consumers believe in preventive maintenance to avoid breakdown repair costs and are more inclined to invest in effective floor-cleaning equipment. They are ready to bear a one-time capital investment for this equipment and reduce the incurrence of repeated high investments in repairing the floors.

In Asia-Pacific, the floor cleaning equipment market is expected to observe the fastest growth over the anticipated period, owing to the increasing expenditure on advanced equipment related to floor cleaning methods. Consumers in the region depend heavily on applying mops, brooms, and brushes for manually cleaning surfaces and floors. Thus, there is an underlying potential growth opportunity for floor-cleaning equipment in the residential sector.

In Central and South America, Innovative development in different flooring materials for sustainable flooring in the region is increasing the penetration of soft and manual cleaning devices such as mops and wipers. For instance, Brazilian cherry wood is produced from a legume tree grown in the rainforest of Brazil, and Brazilian walnut flooring has introduced a new concept in the hardwood flooring segment, which is an eco-friendly derivate. This type of flooring requires minimal spending on purchasing floor cleaning equipment for residential sectors due to lesser maintenance due to higher resistance to scratches, scrapes, and dents. Thus, the increasing application of manual floor cleaning products is widely influencing the growth scenario of the global market.

The Middle East and African countries witness a steady increase in demand for carpets and textile floor coverings, increasing the growth potential for residential vacuum cleaners in the region. The increasing hospitality sector in the region has also contributed as a major driver to the steady increase in several carpets. For instance, FIFA World Cup 2022 will be organized in Qatar and is expected to boost the hospitality sector in the country. Thus, the rising application of vacuum cleaners in the residential and commercial sectors with increasing penetration of different walk-behind floor cleaning equipment in the commercial sector is expected to boost the regional market.

Segmental Analysis

The global floor cleaning equipment market is bifurcated into products and applications.

Based on products, the global market is bifurcated with walk-behind scrubbers, sweepers, vacuum cleaners, manual sweeper brooms, mops, floor wipers, and others.

The walk-behind scrubbers segment dominates the global floor cleaning equipment market and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period. In 2020, this product accounted for 11.7% of the global floor equipment market revenue on account of the greater efficiency of the machine in removing oil stains, chemicals, grease, liquid spills, and other sticky materials in a commercial space. These machines offer effective cleaning liquids with special scrubbing pads to loosen the dirt and clean floors. According to a survey, walk-behind models of floor cleaning are twice as effective as ride-on models for smaller floor space, and these are made available in different sizes, making them easily adjustable to any business, from grocery stores to large warehouses.

In addition, these machines also possess an instant drying feature, which allows individuals to walk on the cleaned floor right after the machine has been operated. Thus, it reduces the constant need for wetting and mopping the floor. In addition, this kind of equipment is suitable for different types of floorings, such as concrete, stone, rubber, vinyl composition tiles, and laminate floors, owing to the availability of various brushes and accessories, which offer flexibility for different kinds of floors.

Based on application, the global market is bifurcated into residential and commercial.

The residential segment dominates the global market and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 8.1% over the forecast period. The demand for floor-cleaning equipment in the residential sector is growing owing to increasing infrastructure development. As per the National House Building Council, between July and September 2018, builders in the UK registered 43,578 new homes for construction, resulting in a 15% hike compared to the same period in 2017. The demand and adoption of residential cleaning services are popular mostly among wealthy consumers seeking more free time and two-income households. Consumers in the residential sector prefer vacuum cleaners, mops, wipers, brooms, and other cleaning products to walk-behind floor scrubbers and sweepers, owing to their lower price and limited space applications.

Recent Developments

• March 2023- Nilfisk announced the launch of its new CordZero S350 cordless floor scrubber. The CordZero S350 is a lightweight, portable floor scrubber designed for easy use in homes and businesses.
• February 2023- Karcher announced the launch of its new FC 7 Cordless Premium robotic floor scrubber. The FC 7 Cordless Premium is a self-guided robotic floor scrubber designed to clean floors without human intervention.