Commercial cleaning businesses in Alicante: buying, selling and valuation

There is no official provincial figure for cleaning companies. What the INE publishes for Alicante are establishments providing services to buildings and gardening, a broader category. The cleaning group is only published for the Valencian Community as a whole.

If the shares in the company are sold, the employment contracts stay the same because the employer does not change. If the business is sold as an autonomous going concern (unidad productiva autónoma), the employees transfer to the buyer with their terms, under Article 44 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores (Spanish Workers' Statute) on transfer of undertakings. It is worth confirming this with an employment adviser.

Yes, especially if they have been in force for years and are spread across many customers. The buyer will ask whether they are in writing, whether they can be cancelled at short notice and whether any of them depend on a personal relationship with the owner.

Neither, on its own. It brings volume, but each contract has an end date and is put out to tender again. The buyer will assess how much of each award remains, the likelihood of renewing it and what share of turnover it represents.

Gather all customer contracts, a staff table with collective agreement, working hours and length of service, turnover by customer for several financial years, work and supervision procedures and any open employment claims. Reducing dependence on a single large customer before selling also helps.

It usually interests companies in the sector that want to gain customers in a specific area without having to offer lower prices to win them, and people looking for a business with recurring income. What is decisive is that the customer base stays after the change.