Executive Cleaning started
with one office, now covers
three states
P
ete Ibbotson and Hal Peeler had graduated from Georgia College. They
were asked to clean an office part-time, so they did it together. Working
out of the house, Peeler and Ibbotson formed Executive Cleaning Inc. in 1985.
“We wanted to do something on our own,” Ibbotson says. “One office went
to two, two went to 10 and then 20 — we were making money from day one.”
Ibbotson says the simple mission to network and do good work is what
propelled the business. Now, Executive Cleaning is in three states: Georgia,
Florida and Alabama. From what started as a two-person business, Ibbotson
and Peeler now employ about 350 people, providing services to more than
300 clients across their three states. They have regional offices in Columbus,
Ga., Dothan, Ala., Tallahassee, Fla., Panama City, Fla. and Milton, Fla. The
corporate headquarters is in Milledgeville.
“We have six area managers that manage these areas — we’ve got a good
organizational chart to maintain everything,” Ibbotson says.
The business does strictly commercial work and aims at providing a single
solution for a facility’s needs. Among a handful of other services, Executive
Cleaning provides general office cleaning, stripping and finishing any type of
floor, water/fire/smoke damage, pressure washing, lawn maintenance, pest
control and interior blow-downs.
“We put the emphasis on quality work,” Ibbotson says. “We just do what
we say we’re going to do. It sounds like
a slogan, but it’s true — that’s what we
do.”
With their rapidly growing business,
Ibbotson and Peeler had to invest in
office space. They initially got a ware-
house, and then in 1995 rented their
first office space. After another brief
move, they built their own main office
facility in Milledgeville in 2004.
Ibbotson, a 1983 graduate of Georgia
College, grew up in Stone Mountain. He
came to Milledgeville to go to school
and stayed with the establishment of
his business, as did Peeler, who is from
Macon.
Peeler’s son, Bill, works with Exec-
utive Cleaning as one of its area man-
agers. Ibbotson doesn’t see too many
changes coming in the future for Exec-
utive Cleaning. He says he doesn’t plan
on growing the business anymore geo-
graphically, but instead filling in all the
gaps between the three states where the
cleaning service is already located.
Primarily, Executive Cleaning serves
industrial and manufacturing facilities,
as well as government buildings, med-
ical facilities, educational buildings, fi-
nancial institutions, churches and other
commercial buildings. Executive Clean-
ing pledges to practice “Green Clean-
ing,” using Green Seal certified prod-
ucts.
200th l 83