A Deep, Deep Clean
E&A Cleaning’s 30-Year Commitment to Polk County Institutions
PHOTOS BY JORDAN RANDALL | WRITTEN BY LAUREN LAWSON | DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH E&A CLEANING
E&A Cleaning Owner Eric Torres with his wife, Nubia, outside their office on W. Brannen Rd.
Keeping Polk County clean and maintained is an absolute passion for Eric Torres. Today, as the owner of E&A Cleaning, his approach is simple: provide service with excellence and integrity.
The company focuses on consistency, accountability and people, and offers everything from janitorial and floor care to emergency maintenance and construction services.
“It’s not just what we do,” Eric says, “it’s how and when we do it.” That philosophy is steady, intentional and detail-driven.
E&A Cleaning, founded in Lakeland in 1994, serves commercial, medical, educational and corporate clients throughout Central Florida. The company provides floor and carpet care, window cleaning, parking lot and lawn maintenance, painting, construction and more. The foundation of those services reflects the same values Eric Torres learned as a child.
By the age of 7, Eric was already learning what honest work looked like. The eldest of three sons, he tagged along with his father, Isaac, on weekends to clean a medical building in Long Island, NY which required a two-hour round trip. While his father moved from room to room, Eric dusted, picked up trash and watched closely. His father’s mantra was simple but uncompromising: “Do everything you can do, never say no.” Those long nights often ended around 10 p.m., and were followed by sleep and another early start, quietly laying the foundation for a work ethic that would define Eric’s life.
E&A owner Eric Torres has machines to do any commercial cleaning job, but his primary focus remains on the people, the product and the process.
When Eric was 10, his family moved to Crystal River, Fla., where his father’s upbringing on a farm and experience butchering motivated him to chase his dream of owning his own farm. Isaac purchased a 10-acre farm and started a new cleaning business that supported the family. By age 12, Eric was working multiple nights a week, helping clean Kmart stores from 9 p.m. until morning. Saturdays were always off by his father’s rule so Eric could be rested for church on Sundays. That steady rhythm of work and rest instilled discipline.
As a teenager, Eric’s responsibilities only increased. While still in high school, he began training others without subtracting anything from an already demanding schedule. During his senior year, his days often started at 3 a.m., when he would clean a small grocery store before heading to school. After classes and sports practice, he’d clean two banks, return home to complete chores on the farm, knock out his homework and finally sleep. At 16, amid exhaustion and routine, Eric realized he wanted something of his own one day—a company built on pride that would require hard work to create and sustain.
While his parents taught him a great work ethic through the cleaning business, they wanted him to consider going into ministry. Eric was sent to Pensacola Christian College but left during his sophomore year, and immediately started creating marketing packets for a cleaning business he hoped to start. When his father discovered he had left school, he flew up to bring Eric back, reuniting father and son in the business once more. His father later enrolled him at Spurgeon Baptist Bible College in Mulberry which brought Eric to Polk County. Around that time, Isaac gave Eric a $5,000 carpet-cleaning machine, which Eric would pay back as he earned money. He went door-to-door offering to clean entire homes for $60, so confident in his work that he would tell skeptical clients he offered a money-back guarantee—if they weren’t satisfied, they wouldn’t pay. That persistence and trust-building marked the beginning of E&A Cleaning.
Eager to put his skills and vision into practice, Eric began cleaning a travel agency twice a week for $20, hoping business owners would notice his work and recommend him to others. One day, a man named Harold from Adventure Outdoor Resorts asked him his story. Impressed, he offered Eric a three-story building to clean, the company’s first major account. Following his father’s philosophy to “say yes and figure it out later,” Eric visited each suite and expanded services as the company grew. His reputation for reliability and thoroughness attracted more clients. Clark and Daughtry Medical Group, later acquired by Lakeland Regional Health, entrusted him with their facilities for 12 years, after which Lakeland Regional awarded E&A all of its off-site locations. Watson Clinic hired E&A 17 years ago and remains a long-term client with multiple contracts. E&A also clean churches, a division that Eric’s wife, Nubia, is the team leader of.
The E&A Cleaning team have built a sterling reputation as local leaders since 1994.
Today, E&A stands firmly on people. With 125 associates, Torres may not know everyone personally, but he works hard to build trust through leadership. As he says: “Where the head goes, the body follows.”
Eric believes strongly in promoting from within and surrounding himself with leaders who have proven themselves over time, many of whom have been with the company for more than two decades, including operations manager Jeremiah, office manager Deanna, and Miguel, who works in facilities. Through servant leadership and long-term partnerships, Eric has built more than a company–he has built trust, one job at a time. He and his team show appreciation to clients with lunches or small gestures, reinforcing relationships cultivated over time.
He is also grateful to have his youngest son, Noah, as his chief sales associate and excited to see what the future holds for him at the company.
Through decades of hard work, careful leadership and a commitment to doing things the right way, Eric Torres has built more than a cleaning company–he has built a legacy of people-first service that continues to shape every floor, office and partnership E&A touches.
Torre says he strongly believes in taking care of the people who make his business run.
“I love our associates/employees,” he says. “We demonstrate that by annual lunches and dinners, birthday cards with gift certificates, turkeys for Thanksgiving, Christmas gatherings and bonuses. We take great pride in our associates.”