THE HISTORY OF KERRICK AND ITS ADOPTION INTO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Established in 1937 Kerrick has a long standing history of providing heavy duty cleaning solutions to a number of industries. It all started with providing steam cleaners to the automotive/transportation sector and then branched out into supplying steam cleaners, water blasters, vacuum cleaners and high pressure pumps to various industries including logging, construction, hospitality, contract cleaning and more. This long standing presence and a reputation for quality products that perform has earned the Kerrick brand a strong place in the market. So much so that the term “Kerrick clean,” at first used colloquially amongst those in the automotive sector, has become a standard of measure across a number of industries.
There can be no greater honour for a company than for its brand name to be adopted into the English language under a positive light. Naturally curiosity has gotten the better of us and we’ve done some investigating into how our brand name has been used over the years, some snippets of the examples we’ve found can be seen below:
“A motor reconditioner does his Kerrick cleaning;...”O'Donnell, BGM, (3 Mar 1961). Sulphur corrosion of telephone equipment. New Zealand Engineering. Vol. 16 Issue 3
“A Perfect Day for a Kerrick clean up” V8 Central Pitlane (2005) (http://www.v8central.com/pitlane/racenews.asp?newsitem=464)
“...all it wanted was a good kerrick cleaning…” Ken Anderson (2009). Servicing Caterpillar. C & S Publications
It appears that the Kerrick brand has become so well known that we’ve found a few examples of it being written into employment contracts in both New Zealand and Australia.
“22.5 Plant operator – Kerrick cleaner
Employees engaged in operating a ‘Kerrick Cleaner’ shall be paid $1.65 extra per day or portion of a day during which they are so engaged.”
AP809074 - General Service Officers and Related Classifications (Australian Capital Territory Public Sector) Award 2001 (https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/consolidated_awards/ap/ap809074/asframe.html)
“ENGINEERS CLASSIFICATIONS
..... (b) Engineering work is defined as all engineering maintenance work, including work done by factory engineers, toolmakers, patternmakers, industrial instrumentation service persons, tradepersons assistants, metal workers assistants, automotive engineers, vehicle servicepersons and trainees, battery workers, garage attendants, tyre fitters, Kerrick cleaners, and related engineering trades and assistants.”
Tertiary Education Union, University of Canterbury and EPMU Collective Employment Agreement - General Staff, including Maintenance Workers, Cleaners and Medical Practitioners. 1 July 2012 – 30 June 2015. pg 55
(http://teu.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2012-12-14Amalgamated-UC-General-Staff-Collective-Agreement.pdf)
To be recognised in such a light by our loyal customers is both humbling and encouraging and we will continue to work hard at maintaining the quality and trust associated with the Kerrick brand. If you have a query, need a quote or are looking for technical advice contact us via the website or call your local branch on 0800 253 774 from anywhere in New Zealand.