GOT AN "IMPOSSIBLE" CLEANING JOB?

Immigrant's son cleans up with industrial-strength goo

By Lorraine Woellert
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Jimmy Kaplanges got his start more than 40 years ago, mopping floors in his father's restaurant. Dad made his own soap, a mix of boiled fat and lye.

Times change, but not all that much. Mr. Kaplanges is still getting dirty on the job and, like his father, he makes his own soap. But now he's earning more than minimum wage.

He has moved from mopping floors to cleaning graffiti off Baltimore schools, soot from the Fort McHenry Tunnel and grime off equipment at Baltimore Gas & Electric. The secret to his success id GP66, an environmentally correct "miracle cleaner" that has built a reputation from here to China.

"They all came seeking me", Mr. Kaplanges said. "I wasn't sophisticated enough to do that king of marketing. My forte was doing show and tell."

The effectiveness of his product, some luck, hard work and the support of friends and family helped Mr. Kaplanges build a multimillion-dollar company, GP66 Chemical Corp., which makes and markets industrial GP66 cleaner.

The company's clients run from Bethlehem Steel to Popeye's fried chicken. It's sold in Japan, Taiwan and, most recently, China.

"Can you imagine, me doing business with the communists? I grew up in the McCarthy era," Mr. Kaplanges said.

He suspects that Chinese officials saw his cleaner on television in 1985 when New York Mayor Ed Koch used it to clean graffiti off city schools. A few years ago, China National Chemical Construction Corp. contacted Mr. Kaplanges and flew to Baltimore for visit.

GP66 threw a parade for the dignitaries and Mr. Kaplanges and took them to see his cleaner in action at a local General Motors plant, where some of his old high school buddies worked. One of the Chinese officials was very impressed.

"He said to me, 'I see you're very kind and friendly to the workers. Why are they so happy?' I said because we pay our workers," Mr. Kaplanges said.

The son of a Greek immigrant, Mr. Kaplanges earned a degree in chemistry and made his start with a small business selling janitorial equipment. On the side, he experimented with his own concoction of ingredients, which he perfected in 1966. He named the nontoxic pink goo "Greek Power 1966" and set out to sell it.

He mixed the solution in steel vats in a small Baltimore factory he built. Having no capital, he packaged GP66 into discarded 55-gallon steel drums, which he got for free.

He cleaned, painted and stenciled eh drums, "made them look all nice and pretty" and loaded them into his truck. The sales pitch was easy - he'd mop floors, wash cars and scrub equipment for any potential client.

"I had a small little garage in [Baltimore's] Greektown right next to the tracks," Mr. Kaplanges said. "My wife was my secretary at home at the kitchen table. She'd handle the phones. They always thought I had an office."

By selling in bulk, Mr. Kaplanges was able to lure big customers. He established himself with the Baltimore Port Authority, the city schools, the Maryland State Police and others.

The cleaner's reputation preceded it. Demand led to an ad hec response when Mr. Kaplanges' sons would fill empty milk jugs with the cleaner to sell to their teachers at school. It wasn't until the 1970s that the company had the money to begin packaging GP66 for the retail market. Today the cleaner sells for about $9 a quart.

GP66 has been able to fend off the industry's big players - DuPont, Procter & Gamble and others - because of Mr. Kaplanges' personal attention to service and because of the product itself.

"It's the best value for the money," said Michael McLaughlin, a senior generation analyst with Baltimore Gas & Electric, which keeps GP66 in stock.

Because GP66 works on so many kinds of dirt, it replaces several types of cleaners, which saves warehouse space. GP66 also is faster-acting than most of its competitors' products, Mr. McLaughlin said.

The final selling point, Mr. McLaughlin said, was Mr. Kaplanges himself. He took a personal interest in making sure BG&E got the best return on its purchase.

"There were times that he wouldn't let us use it until he trained our employees how to use it," Mr. McLaughlin said. "I find that pretty refreshing."