Hot Seat The Other Forsythe.

[Mikey P]

Tom Forsythe is Bridgepoint's lead chemist.

He's been lurking here since 2006 and just recently came out of the closet and is now filling the loss of the missing Shawn Forsythe, who was counted on to answer our more challenging chemical related questions.

So Tom..

• When did you go to work for the Hanks?
• Did they steal you from another cleaning related company?
• How much schooling is involved in becoming a chemist of you nature?
• Have you ever physically cleaned a carpet?
• When you coming up with something new or tweak an existing product who or what does the first round of real world testing?
• What product('s) are you most proud of and feel have made a significant positive change in our industry?
• Are knock off of your creations a compliment or a kick in the nuts?
• If Aramsco were to close your division, what competitor would get the first call?
• How much interaction do you have with your local cleaners? Do you go out and clean with them?
• How much do the 2%'rs on the internet play a part in how cleaning agents are formulated? And do you also create products for the 98%'rs who can't process math and think nothing of buying 4 to 1 pre sprays and pound and a half per 5 gallon rinses?
• How has the Armasco acquisition affected your job description, other than now being able to take part on the Boards and FB pages?
• Convince me again that temf Grout Master is not Flex, they look and smell identical.
• What's your favorite Truckmount?

Thanks Tom, mytee nice to have your here!

 

[John Olson]

I honestly and truly love Tom. He is a admirable and honest gentle Giant of a man. The Hanks were truly lucky he chose to work with them. Being down the street and a "competitor" Tom never once ever acted like we were competition. Even when I was being the Interlink killer on ICS and giving nicknames to their products that still stick today Tom never treated me differently. Not sure if I ever told him but his example was a big part of me changing my perception and opinions and behaviors towards the Bridgewater group as a whole. Him and Scott made it possible that Myself and Rob and even Gordon where able to have a great relationship before they moved on to their next adventure. Thank you Tom (and Scott) for being the great examples the two of you are.

 

[Tom Forsythe]

• When did you go to work for the Hanks? Started teaching an oriental rug cleaning class in 1996, and leather cleaning class in 1998. Started as Corporate Product Trainer full time in the fall of 1998. The Hanks brothers are responsible for my success as they turned over their formulations to chemist without professional training by around 2005.

• Did they steal you from another cleaning related company? I worked in the oriental rug trade for 12 years and supervised (hands on) the cleaning of oriental rugs for the last seven years using Bridgepoint Products in Columbus, OH and sold leather furniture (also in Columbus)while I developed oriental rug and leather cleaning classes.

• How much schooling is involved in becoming a chemist of you nature? I have a Masters degree in history and statistics. If I could of made a living of going to school, I would still be in school. In the early years of formula development (2001), we did a lot of hands on cleaning. My first real project was the Avenge Fabric Pre-sprays. We purchased a lot of furniture from the local goodwill store. We did multitude of side by side tests against the appropriate benchmark product. Once we were satisfied, we gave product for local cleaner’s to test. In short, my training was based on performance. I have access to some of the brightest minds in the chemical world who sold us raw materials. One of the gentleman gave me his cell phone number and I wore him out over the years. They are a cutting edge raw material supplier which is why I am so comfortable being on the cutting edge.

• Have you ever physically cleaned a carpet? Did some cleaning with a butler in the 1990’s, but primarily have used various portables to clean hundreds of rugs. I have periodically participated in cleaning with others trying out new products with various truckmounts.

• When you coming up with something new or tweak an existing product who or what does the first round of real world testing? I do a lot of lab testing using a spotting machine on various types of carpet that I have soiled over the years. Some products like spotters and protectors you can do a lot of testing in the lab.

• What product('s) are you most proud of and feel have made a significant positive change in our industry? We have made about 200 formulas. My favorites are Wool Perfect, Zone Perfect CC03, End Zone, Avenge Pro, All Solv Xtreme and Flex Ice because they were the hardest. We have about 40 products that have our Green Balance designation which I believe helps us be better stewards of our planet and are designed to not sacrifice performance.

• Are knock off of your creations a compliment or a kick in the nuts? Compliment. All of us learn from others. I have found it easier to improve on a competitors product than do the hard work of creating something totally new. Flex Ice was one of those projects and it is not perfect as there are some issues that I have been unable to fix. I have worked on this for 2 years.

• If Aramsco were to close your division, what competitor would get the first call? I imagine that word would get out and they would call me. My plan is to be carried out of the lab someday as the work is something that I truly love to do and retirement would be a step down in life. Lee Pemberton is my inspiration. I hope to be half as sharp when I am in my late 70’s.

• How much interaction do you have with your local cleaners? Do you go out and clean with them? Not as much as I used to do, but I have done it on occasion. It has mainly been oriental rugs.

• How much do the 2%'rs on the internet play a part in how cleaning agents are formulated? And do you also create products for the 98%'rs who can't process math and think nothing of buying 4 to 1 pre sprays and pound and a half per 5 gallon rinses? The internet alerts me to issues and trends. I make the most concentrated products that I can and figure that the competition can only match me and not beat me. Teaching math is not my concern, but making the best product that I can is my calling.

• How has the Armasco acquisition affected your job description, other than now being able to take part on the Boards and FB pages? The acquisition has not changed my job at all, but I have noticed how it has affected a lot of other people’s jobs. I started to be on the board to help out Scott who had other new responsibilities. Even with everything else going on, I am still amazed at all he accomplishes in a given day. Scott has a great breadth of knowledge that constantly amazes me. We spend a lot of time discussing the next best thing.

• Convince me again that temf Grout Master is not Flex, they look and smell identical. We do not make Grout Master. Many are trying, but generally have not made it yet to the Flex standard.

• What's your favorite Truckmount? I am a portable guy as I want to see the chemical do the work and not the machine.

• What are some of your pet peeves (added my own question)?

1. Cleaners who proclaim that a product is light years ahead of another product when I have done the lab testing and know it is only average at best. I call these products the internet wonders, here today and gone tomorrow.

2. Cleaners who want to do business with people they can talk to and treat Interlink like a big monolith. Scott Warrington is the best guy that I know of in the industry and Interlink is a group of great and dedicated people that is here to stay. We are people, too.

 

[hogjowl]

So Sauger Sauce will be gone tomorrow?

WHO KNEW?

 

[BIG WOOD]

So Sauger Sauce will be gone tomorrow?

WHO KNEW?

I'm surprised Mark hasn't egged your house yet.

 

[ruff]

Great to hear from you Tom and learn from your knowledge. And Scott truly is a class act.
Two questions:

1. Why don't you also manufacture fragrance free products? Some of your products may have less fragrance but they still smell. Currently you left that market solely to SS .
2. Does the Ecologo certificate truly guarantee the consumer a more environmentally and personally safe product? Many think it is a more industry friendly than consumer friendly label.(Compared to Green Seal.) (I do understand that it is cheaper to get, but is it as safe?)

 

[Mikey P]

Why don't you also manufacture fragrance free products? Some of your products may have less fragrance but they still smell.

Maybe BP can knock off Saiger Green.

 

[Mikey P]

Convince me again that temf Grout Master is not Flex, they look and smell identical. We do not make Grout Master. Many are trying, but generally have not made it yet to the Flex standard.

I'm sorry, it's actually called Tile Master.

I've yet to see any pre spray as perfectly mixed with such consistent granular texture as FLEX.


and Tile Master is exactly the same.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Its called Tile Master but its for carpet?

 

[Mikey P]

No, Flex is a kick ass tile cleaner too.

 

[Tom Forsythe]

I am an analyst, not a prophet. I did not intend to throw the latest flavor under the bus. It would be interesting to start a thread about all of the juice over the years that were hyped and disappeared quickly. Generally for a product to have staying power it needs to get into the normal distribution system. The whims of the board can provide a quick start, but the vast majority of cleaners like to buy from their local distributor who fixes their equipment which I support. We make about 10 to 15 powder formulations and use a similar core of raw material ingredients. All of the high pH product we make use the same core of ingredients. There are consistent limitations on the amount of liquid that can be added to these formulas. Most of our powders will look similar because we buy the best raws available and have not changed their source for many years. If you have a product that works, then we stay with it. We do not get bored with using the best raws and sources available. There are actually 4 ingredients used in the formula mentioned that are not in Flex. If you were to measure the pH and compare dissolving then you would see the differences. We have a thorough process with great equipment along with consistent raw materials which earned Mikey's praise "I've yet to see any pre-spray as perfectly mixed with such consistent granular texture as FLEX." This is true of most of our powders except for Flex Ice and Viper Peroxiblast which have a large amount of either sulfamic acid or coated sodium percarbonate which do not play as well with liquids in the formulation.

I do not know much about Eco Logo certification. We have products approved by Green Seal and the EPA DfE, third party certification organizations. The Gold Standard in 3rd party approval, in my opinion, is the EPA DfE. They provide a Safer Chemical Ingredient List which provides documentation for me to effectively double check our manufacturing standard of Green Balance. We also have many formulas without fragrances (probably about 30), but odor free is hard to do when many ingredients have an odor profile of their own. We actually had our Clean Free formula criticized for odor by a homeowner recently and it is about as innocuous as you can make. I will not have time to respond further until next week.

 

[Mikey P]

That reminds me, I need to take a crow bar to my jug of ICE and break up the party in there..

 

[Mikey P]

Tom can you tell us about the BP line of fabric and carpet protectors?

 

[T Monahan]

Nice articulated answers!

 

[Tom Forsythe]

Mikey, you caught me just before I went off line until next week. The attached articles in Cleanfax sum up my perspective on protectors. Personally, I believe you need both types to adequately protect the various carpet fibers. http://www.cleanfax.com/carpet-cleaning/protectors-oleophelic-fibers-fabrics/ Includes our Advanced Protector with Teflon, especially a new formula being made today with significantly better oil repellency than previous versions. We also have a Groom Solutions formula called Relax that fits into this category for carpet. Both of these can be used as an upholstery protector, but our Maxim Advanced for Upholstery with Dye Loc, not designed for carpet, is our best fabric protector.
http://www.cleanfax.com/carpet-care/protectors-for-nylon-and-wool/ Includes our Maxim Advanced and Maxim Advanced for Wool. Encapuguard Green has some of these characteristics, but is not as durable as it does not have a fluorochemical.