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Domus and Alpine Set a New Standard For Visible Cleaning with Tennant’s X6 ROVR™
Background
Domus Building Cleaning, an Alpine company, provides commercial and retail facility services across Eastern Canada. Based in Ottawa, the team supports a portfolio including shopping malls, plazas, and large-format retail.
When a flagship shopping center in Ottawa opened a competitive bid for cleaning services, Domus worked with Tennant to propose a service approach supported by autonomous cleaning technology. The three-level property spans roughly 880,000 square feet and welcomes nearly 8 million visitors each year, making consistency and a visible cleaning presence especially important.
Challenge
After working with the previous cleaning provider for nearly two decades, the shopping center’s ownership group was ready for a change and was looking for a more consistent, higher-quality clean throughout the property.
For Domus, the objective was clear: deliver an improvement quickly while introducing autonomous cleaning as part of the approach. That meant building a plan that could reliably cover large floor areas — approximately 15,000 – 18,000 square feet per hour — without disrupting retail operations.
Because this was Domus’s first robotics deployment, the plan had to be right from the start, from how the space would be mapped and zoned to how the robot would run across overnight and early-morning shifts. Domus relied on Tennant as a hands-on partner during the bid and implementation process.
Solution
With the expectations clear, Domus and Tennant shifted quickly into planning how the program would run day to day. Jordan Sumner, VP, Eastern Canada at Domus, worked closely with Tennant Commercial Manager, Jason Curotte, to build an operational plan for the shopping center.
Together, they assessed the environment and outlined how autonomous cleaning could support consistent floor coverage. They identified the Tennant X6 ROVR™ Robotic Floor Scrubber as the best fit for the space and the operating requirements.
“Domus needed an autonomous scrubber that was compact enough for a busy retail environment, while still delivering high productivity and a simple day-to-day user experience. The X6 ROVR matched the operating windows available at the site and met the team’s requirements for ease of use and performance” - Jason Curotte, Tennant Commercial Manager
For Jordan, Tennant’s service and support ecosystem was also critical — especially for training staff and managing the change that comes with a first robotics deployment.
To translate the plan into execution, Jason guided Domus through the full setup process, including mapping the shopping center, establishing zones and routes, and setting up the workflow and app-based monitoring that supports daily operation.
“Our staff would usually be occupied running manual floor cleaning equipment. Now they’re available for other priority tasks — detail cleaning, millwork, carpet extraction, windows, and glass. It frees up time to do a lot of the high-touch work.”
Jordan Sumner
VP, Eastern Canada
Domus Building Cleaning
“He walked me through the QR code process, showed me how to pull information in the app, and helped us map the shopping center. Once we won the work, he came on site to help set up the initial routes and zones and support troubleshooting during ramp-up.” - Jordan Summer, VP Eastern Canada, Domus Building Cleaning
Results
Domus says the ownership group has responded positively to both the cleaning results and the day-to-day presence of autonomous cleaning on site. According to Jordan, the change from the previous provider was noticeable quickly.
“We’ve gotten really positive feedback — it’s been a night-and-day difference compared with the previous provider,” says Jordan. “And we’ve gotten a ton of feedback from customers on the robotics, too.”
Operationally, autonomous cleaning helped Domus shift team time away from routine floor cleaning and toward higher-detail work across the property.
“Our staff would usually be occupied running manual floor cleaning equipment. Now they’re available for other priority tasks — detail cleaning, millwork, carpet extraction, windows, and glass,” says Jordan. “It frees up time to do a lot of the high-touch work.”
Performance at a Glance
- 20 hours/week typical autonomous cleaning time (with some weeks 30+ hours)
- More than 2.5 hours/day of autonomous cleaning on average
- 99.2% of runtime in autonomous mode
Jordan adds that the robotic cleaning data has become useful beyond this one site. Domus is now using production rates and labor inputs from the autonomous program to support future walkthroughs and bids.
Positioning for What's Next
Jordan sees autonomous cleaning becoming a standard expectation in competitive bids. With Tennant’s support during planning and ramp-up, Domus now has a proven approach for evaluating where autonomous cleaning fits and deploying it successfully as part of its broader service program.
“For future opportunities, we plug in the production rate and labor costs to model the ROI,” says Jordan. “It’s been a big value add in our bid process.”
