We're cleaning up your cars... and the unemployment rate

A CAR washing firm which doesn't use any water has taken a unique approach to both cleaning vehicles and hiring its staff.

No Wet Waterless opened its first permanent site on Corstorphine Road yesterday and has recruited 12 staff who were all long-term unemployed.

The business, which uses a special spray formula to wash the inside and outside of cars, teamed up with organisation Ingeus, which specialises in getting Edinburgh residents off benefits and back into work.

The deal has been hailed for helping find work for at least a dozen workers who had either been made redundant in the past, or were unable to work for other reasons.

It is also a new venture for the company, which set up as a mobile business 15 years ago but now has an actual base for the first time.

Owner William Struth said: "We found out about this technology in America, went over there to learn how to do it and brought it back.

"We've been mobile for years, attending clients' homes then leaving again, but we'd been looking to get a place of our own for a couple of years."

He said the company would benefit from using employees hungry to rejoin the working world.

"We had one guy before from Ingeus, so decided it would be worth doing for this site," he said. "It makes life easier for us, as they take care of all the recruitment, sort out the best candidates, then put them before you.

"The calibre is extremely high and they are eager to get back (to work]."

Ingeus, a UK-wide set-up which has offices in Edinburgh, held trial days for the tasks that would be involved in the work.

A total of 68 people signed up with the organisation applied for jobs at the unit, which offers full and part valets and a drive-through wash while polishing the car at the same time.

Craig Purves, employer and partnerships co-ordinator for the government-endorsed firm, said he hoped the project would be as successful as a similar one last year which saw a city Co-op take on workers.

He said: "I'm really happy this is off the ground. They were very pleased with the standard of people we put in front of them.

"There's a lot for companies to benefit from. We take care of the entire recruitment side of things and it is free, the people they get in are very keen to get back to work and businesses are also helping the local community by reducing unemployment."

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