Lockdown idea is a clean sweep for Luke and Cain

By Martha Brennan

WHEN a pair of young West Cork friends got tired of sitting around during lockdown, they decided to do something productive and create their own cleaning company, In ‘n’ Out Cleaning Services.

Luke O’Leary (24), originally from Kinsale, was working in The Church restaurant in Skibbereen when the pandemic hit. Like many, he soon found himself out of work and while stuck at home with housemate Cain Twomey (22), decided to do something about it.

‘We were both working in hospitality until the end of March and then Covid happened,’ Luke said. ‘It was fine sitting around for the first few weeks but we wanted an excuse to get out of the house and do something productive.

‘We had a brainstorm and thought, “well everyone is going to be cleaning now and it will probably last a long time”, so we decided that we’d start up a cleaning business.’

The pair started by securing a job at the Fresh Fish Deli in Skibbereen and began cleaning the factory five days a week.

From there, they took on another six clients around the area.

After investing in a sanitation fogging device, In ‘N’ Out also started offering sanitation services and secured a weekly job with a popular gym in Skibbereen.

The friends have now rolled out their cleaning services across West Cork and also specialise in construction clean-up for those getting ready to move into a new house.

‘I realised that there was potential for this to become a career,’ Luke said. ‘So I packed up my previous job and we’re giving it our all.’

When it came to building the business, Luke and Cain admit that they ‘winged it’ a bit.

‘We’re very happy with how it’s going so far. We had no business experience, but we have the skills and our previous jobs helped us massively.

‘We’ve got to know loads of people around West Cork and we’ve been getting great advice along the way. Hopefully, we can build on it and grow the business further.’