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ZING HISTORY
THREE GENERATIONS OF CLEANING
How It All Started
1958-1960
The history of Zing takes us back to the first generation, Frank E. Necela. He started as an apprentice from 1958-1960, for Newton’s Terrazzo Floor Care Specialists, located in Homestead, Florida.
1960-1963
Frank worked with Modern Chemical Research, in Orange, NJ and Brooklyn, NY. While working with Modern Chemical, he learned about all aspects of the janitorial industry, from manufacturing, to sales and service. Soon, Frank moved up to become the Sales Manager, with thoughts of his own business brewing. This experience was his first interaction with a chemist, who in the long run would help in his future endeavors.
1964-1966
Frank created Garden State Floor Waxing in Caldwell, NJ. Now having a family to care for, he started his own janitorial service to pay the bills and pave the way for the next generation. At this time, floor care consisted of very basic methods, involving a low speed, very heavy machine, that worked with steel wool and paste wax.
1967-1969
Frank gets into distribution with Sunrise Sanitary Services, in Pine Brook, NJ. He begins supplying accounts that he already maintained, including some local supermarkets. Once he got a taste of distribution, he decided to leave contract servicing behind. During this time, he also had a small glue manufacturing business as well, called Kwikset Glue. However, as he began working with more supermarkets, he decided to exclusively work with supermarkets. During this time, Frank attributes a big part of his growth to Jere Cole, and Leonard Negro, whom he worked with at Sunrise until the very end.
1970-1980
In the summer of 1970, there was a major fire, which caused the entire company to be forced to work out of construction trailers. At this point, the second generation of Zing was introduced. Franks son, Michael, was 13 years old at the time of all of this, but that didn’t stop him from jumping right in and getting to work with fire salvaging and clean up. While working in with supermarkets, Frank established Dust Control, a mat rental company. Here is where Michael first started working, cleaning entrance mats. Frank also serviced floor machines, pressure washers, and vacuums that he sold to supermarkets. Soon after, he started Sunrise Equipment Services, which was run by his brother-in-law, John Zincgraf, as well as his cousin, Ernest Kusterer.
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In 1970, the name of the company was changed to Sunrise Supermarket Services, and they moved the operation to Fairfield, NJ. At this time, Sunrise really began to develop. From the equipment sales and services, to maintaining the rental mats for supermarkets, it was all coming together, but Frank knew he could achieve more. Sunrise got cleaning programs set up for every department of the store, from the parking lot, to the loading dock in the back. Following this, they also developed an ordering program to limit the amount of purchases entered monthly and control stock on hand.
This introduced Account Managers who helped maintain stock accountability. The next step for Sunrise was bacteria testing. Everyone involved went through training at The Milipore Corporation in Massachusetts. Sunrise Account Managers, then turned into Sanitation Managers, and they were in charge of test swabbing and incubation. Franks son, Michael, set up on-going testing with a man named Arthur Waldbaum, who was the son of the owner of Waldbaum’s Supermarket Stores. The objective was to see the effects of proper cleaning and sanitation within meat-rooms and other areas within the supermarket. At this point, Sunrise was almost complete!
1981-1988
Frank, at this point, decides he wants to manufacture his own products. To accommodate manufacturing, Sunrise moved into larger facilities in Wayne, NJ, then to Fairfield again.
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For a period of time, paste wax was still Sunrises’ biggest floor care product. The business expanded around the U.S. and over to France. Sunrise was a hit in France, where the fact that a cleaning program for the entire store was put together and simplified, was welcomed with open arms. Michael traveled to France while handling some business there, as well as some in the U.S. Franks other son, Tom, also got started in the manufacturing.
At this point, Sunrise had everything it needed; Manufacturing, distribution, equipment sales and service, bacteria monitoring, truck delivery, sanitation managers working daily, and sanitation managers working nightly. By 1988, paste wax for anything but bowling alleys was obsolete, and Sunrise became one of the early Pioneer Eclipse distributors when propane machines first his the market.
With all the changes in the industry since 1967, it was time to move forward...
Zing Is Born
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Zing International Inc.
In 1988, Frank Necela sold his business, Sunrise, after working with supermarkets for 20 years. During those years, floor machines went from running at 168 RPM’S with paste wax and steel wool, to over 2000 RPM’s. This advance in machinery could make floors shine like mirrors.
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Frank and his wife, Janet, decided to travel around Europe together, and learn about the cleaning technology available around to world, with the plan of bringing their new knowledge to the U.S. What they found was less than revolutionary; the technology and techniques being used were not that different from what was already in place back in the States. In fact, many methods even seemed to be a bit outdated.
Floor Prep was introduced as a partner to CPC. This was made to tackle high stress areas within buildings, were foot traffic took a bigger toll on the floors. Zing Floor Prep was made to remove embedded/ground-in dirt, without removing any floor finish. This was a major break-through in the floor care industry. Soon after, Dust Control, Entrance Carpet & Mat Cleaner, and Stays Kleen Carpet Care were added to program. Stays Kleen Carpet Care featured the use of what they call “Encapsulation Technology”. A Zing floor finish was added, as well as different tools and equipment needed for the program. A low-speed floor machine, and a high-speed burnisher were designed according to these Zing products and specs. Microfiber was added, and proved to be one of the greatest accessories to the floor care program.
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In the early 90’s, while working in Europe, Frank was introduced to Microfiber. “I remember using these cloths with just water to clean. I participated in numerous shows promoting microfiber, where I gave away small sample cloths for eyeglasses. I always think back to all the skeptical people there. Look at microfiber today!” Zing continued to flourish, introducing training seminars groups, utilizing the “Train-the-Trainer” concept that was popular during Franks Sunrise business.
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Zing, like Sunrise, is a business designed to help bring the best products and procedures to the industry, especially to those doing the cleaning themselves. At Zing, it’s our goal to help others clean smarter, and not harder. Today, there are 3 generations of Zing all working together. Kyle, Michael’s son and Frank’s grandson, is the newest member. He started off by stripping floors and maintaining floors three times a week, to learn about taking care of a facility.
Here at Zing, with 3 generations of clean, you can feel confident that you’re getting the best products, from our family, to you.
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During this time, the biggest issues were presented in facilities open 24 hours; working around people presented to be challenge. After the application of floor finish or restorer, the treated area(s) had to be closed off. With paste wax products, people were able to walk on the floor, but again, not after floor finish was applied. Unfortunately, this wax could only be used in combination with floor machines running at no more than 300 RPM’s. This reduced the amount of shine given, which people were beginning to expect.
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After returning from Europe with his wife, Frank met up with an old friend, who happened to be a chemist. Together, the worked diligently to create a new kind of paste wax, that be used with floor machines running at an RPM of 2000+, while producing a spectacular shine.
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In 1989, Frank introduced his product to his eldest son, Michael. Together, they got to work. First, they met with a contract cleaner who worked to maintain all Winn-Dixie supermarkets within South Florida. In the beginning, Michael was skeptical.
“The product dad handed me was in a small tub. It was in a gel form, and it was measured with a small coffee scoop”. At the time, propane machines were used within these supermarkets, meaning they were working with the fastest machines on the market.
“I remember the first time I saw the product, because it made such an impression. It not only made the floor pop with shine, but it also made the floor safer to walk on! You could feel the extra traction under your foot.”
Later, the product was sent to UL, an independent lab, and tested for slip resistance. What they found was the product actually exceeded the current ASTM standards. At this point, they knew they were onto something special. This became the beginning of what would eventually become Zing International, Inc.
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Over time, the product was transformed into a cream, and put into a tube so the product could be easily squeezed out. From this product, and the overwhelming amount responses, the company name emerged. “This product is Amazing!” people would rave. Because of this, the company took the new name of Amazing Products. Soon after, the name changed to M-A Zing Products, after the discovery of a company in California that already had claims to the original name. Over time, people would call asking for “that Zing stuff” or they would say “I want to zing my floors”, so eventually the company took the name of Zing International, Inc. Zing then went on to create a complete floor care system, working within Europe through previous connections made during Franks first visit with his wife.
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At this point, the new product was easy to use, could be burnished to a high shine, was compatible with 99% of floor finishes on the market, and a single pint could cover 225,000 square feet! Thus, CPC (Cleaning and Polishing Compound) was born.