The business has now passed through three generations
Jonathan and Kieran Paxton at Equip2clean in Kirkby(Image: )
Eric Paxton still rings his son Jonathan “every day” to check in on how the business is doing. The 90-year-old may have been retired for years, but he is still keen to make sure his baby is thriving.
The Liverpool-born grandfather founded his business Equip2clean nearly 60 years ago. The long-established, family-run equipment supplier, now based in Knowsley, has evolved dramatically over the decades, taking on several different incarnations since it first began in the 1970s.
Back then, Eric, a Royal Navy veteran, started building and supplying pressure washers after leaving the service. In the early days, the former Mayor of Maghull ran the business with the help of his wife Sylvia, who acted as an unpaid secretary. Supplying tradespeople and local businesses, the company grew through reputation and word of mouth.
Fast forward to today, and the firm has won the Knowsley Small Business Award for two consecutive years and is forecasting a £10m turnover next year.
Staff at Equip2clean in Kirkby(Image: )
The company supplies professional cleaning equipment to start-up and established businesses across the UK, with an emphasis on helping customers build sustainable operations rather than focusing solely on transactional sales.
Current managing director Jonathan, 59, from Maghull, told the ECHO: “My dad rings me every day to ask about the figures, even though he has nothing to do with the business anymore.
“He started it from a garage on Avondale Avenue. My earliest memories are of him welding frames in the garage, making small cold-water pressure washers. The business was fairly steady, with ups and downs like any other.
“I officially joined him in 1988, focusing on marketing and new ways to reach customers. My dad was the engineer, and I was more of a salesman.”
Jonathan washing an elephant at Knowsley Safari Park with the Mayoress of Knowsley at the time(Image: )
By the early 1990s, the business was established enough to feature in the Liverpool Echo. In 1992, the paper ran a story on the family firm “bucking the recession” as it marked 25 years of supplying pressure cleaning equipment across the region.
In 2006, Jonathan formally launched Equip2Clean as a brand, supplying equipment directly under the family name. This included developing the Kiam range, named after his two children, Kieran and Amber. The business remained family-owned and run, operating in a largely traditional way for many years.
When Jonathan’s son Kieran joined the business in 2020, the challenge became how to modernise without losing the strong local reputation built over decades. Like many small businesses, the Covid period forced the family to rethink day-to-day operations, particularly around online sales and customer support.
Jonathan and Kieran Paxton at Equip2clean in Kirkby(Image: )
Since then, the company has changed significantly, even compared with just ten years ago, with the local team expanding to support that growth.
More recently, the business moved into larger, fully refurbished premises on Knowsley Industrial Estate. The family said their recent award win “felt like recognition of long-term growth rather than just one good year”.
Kieran, 29, a University of Liverpool graduate, said: “I wanted to go into finance, but Covid hit. Because we were selling cleaning equipment, we suddenly became really busy. I came in to help my dad out, and it grew from there.
Eric with the Liver Building in the background(Image: )
“We do have conflicts working as a family, but that’s because we all want to do well. Sometimes we just have different ideas about how to get there—but we’re all fighting for the same positive outcome.”
Today, the family business attracts millions of views through its satisfying cleaning videos shared across Instagram and other social platforms. Most revenue now comes directly through the company’s website, rather than Amazon and eBay as in earlier years.
Jonathan added: “My dad, Eric, is incredibly proud to have Kieran on board – and so am I. We have photos of my dad from the late 1970s working in the trade, and in years to come there will be similar photos of Kieran to look back on.”