On April 6th, exactly 10 years ago Christeyns started to produce its own dosing equipment.

Today, the company’s brand new building in Hungary allows Christeyns to develop high-tech equipment for all group’s divisions, a.o. Laundry Hygiene, Food Hygiene, Professional Hygiene as well as Medical Hygiene.

 

About Christeyns

Located in Ghent, Belgium, Christeyns started in 1946 as a small soap factory.  Since then, the family-owned company has grown into a major player on the global detergents market

Over the years, Christeyns has expanded its hygiene solutions for Professional Textile Care to Food Processing & Retail, Professional Cleaning and Life Sciences. The secret behind this impressive growth is its wide portfolio of hygiene solutions providing premium chemicals, reliable equipment and flexible service to its customers.

 

The Elis Corporation recently published their annual financial statement. In the corona year 2020, the company was able to improve its operating result despite a 14.5 percent drop in sales compared to the previous year, pay off debts and generate profits. The company reacted to the corona crisis with tough cuts. The savings strategy has had a positive effect and -although sales decreased – the textile service provider was able to resist the corona crisis. The international company expects to grow three percent in 2021.

CEO Xavier Martiré is convinced that the good result confirms the strategy that has been adopted: a variety of customers and a broad portfolio. In view of the still uncertain situation with regard to vaccinations, mutations and the recovery in international travel, the order port-folio is expected to stabilize in the first half of the year and even increase towards the middle of the year. 

Despite the positive forecast, Mr Martiré emphasizes that the current situation demands continued caution. Despite this uncertainty, the company intends to meet its corporate responsibility more closely in the future. A CSR (“Corporate Social Responsibily”) committee was therefore set up in November 2020 and an action plan until 2025 for all non-monetary goals has been developed.

US-based Crown Health Care Laundry Services – a provider of outsourced linen management services and specialty products to hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities – recently announced that The Pritzker Organization (TPO) invested in the company to help stimulate its next growth phase.

Consequently, Quilvest Capital Partners and affiliates – the company’s current financial partner – sold its majority interests as part of the investment deal. Blenheim LP – an existing minority investor – will remain a significant shareholder along with Crown management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

It would be exaggerating to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has been helpful to the laundromat industry or that the essential nature of the laundry business has entered spotlight due to the crisis. However, it is clear that new potential investors from other industries that were affected by the virus are being attracted to the relatively plug-and-play aspects of franchised or branded concept stores.

Of course, franchisees benefit from the transparency of the network, and everyone has a vested interest. When company-owned stores or another franchisee develop a successful process addition or marketing tactic, the entire group benefits. That is a major advantage over the independent DIY model. It will not be the beginning of the end for the independent laundromat owner or the small-town mum-and-dad operator, though.  

These stores and types of entrepreneurs built the laundry industry and remain the backbone of this business. However, those outside of the industry are beginning to invest in this essential business like never before. They are creating additional revenue streams for laundry businesspeople, and providing new entry points to this industry. In short, more people are thinking about the laundromat business than even just a few years ago.

Aimed at offering a distinctive service and being closer to its customers, Girbau worked together with Tecnolav Lavandería Sustentable in Argentina on an expansion project that enabled the Argentinean company to boost its washing capacity from 300 kg of linen a day to 20 tonnes.

The project was initiated with a view to high quality standards and reducing the environmental footprint. Thus energy costs could be cut and at the same time the productivity and profitability of the business could be improved. Fernando Argiró – head and founder of Tecnolav Lavandería Sustentable in Buenos Aires, Argentina, wanted a solid, dependable partner and chose Girbau because of this company’s philosophy. A Project Management document was drawn up that not only dealt with planning and device and the coordination and execution of the project, but also with fully equipping the laundry and supporting the client all the way through.

Thanks to the installation of the Girbau machinery, water consumption fell by 70%, chemicals used in the processes by 30%, gas by 20% and steam by 10% on the premises. Also, the end results in terms of linen were excellent and therefore the service provided was able to stand out from the competition, with a positive impact on clients.

ByNext – a US technology-driven company that provides eco-friendly laundry, drycleaning and residential home cleaning in NY and Washington DC – recently announced to have acquired WashBox, a Los Angeles-based laundry and drycleaning delivery company.

The acquisition will accelerate the company’s expansion into a new market and strengthen its position as a leader in the US home services market. Kam Saifi – ByNext CEO stated that by executing a omni-channel, omni-service business model for rapid expansion, it is the intention to become the single-source provider in garment and premise cleaning for homes and small businesses. In order to achieve that goal, growth is being planned both organically and through acquisition.

The acquisition of WashBox and its integration onto the technology platform accelerates a strategic move to the US West Coast and provides an opportunity to scale up, since WashBox is vertically integrated with lockers in over 500 buildings. It will be a trailblazer for penetrating LA and the Southern California markets.

Wasserij Korsow, located on Curacao, has brougth quality and hygiene management within the company to the next level using the Cerclean® step by step certification program. Recently audits were executed succesfully so the company acquired the Cerclean® Quality Management (level 1) and Hygiene Management (level 2) certificate. We congratulate Wasserij Korsow with this great result!

 

Cerclean® has strong pillars

The Cerclean® program is based on the international acknowledged standards ISO9001:2015 and EN 14065 “Textiles – Laundry processed textiles – Biocontamination control system. Next to this best practices from all over the world are integrated . By this Cerclean® offers an universal standard worldwide to achieve efficient, cost efffective, safe and sustainable processing of textiles which meet required quality levels, also when it comes to hygienic criteria. Cerclean® offers an integral quality and hygiene management system.

Get started with Cerclean®!

The development of such a complete and effective quality and hygiene management system is challenging. To help companies CINET developed Cerclean®, a comprehensive program offering full support to enable anyone to gain essential knowledge. By following the step-by-step approach, a comprehensive quality management and hygiene management system is implemented. A system tailored to the individual company, processes and customers in various market segments in which they operate.

 

CINET continues the initiatives in creating international open-platforms for sharing knowledge and experience during the coronavirus crisis with three Global Online Streaming Events. 

Following the outstanding success of The Global Best Practices Awards Program 2020 (Nov 4-5), CINET aims to organize global (virtual) PTC events supported by numerous reputed experts, national associations, international suppliers and other organizations to underline challenges & opportunities of sustainability, hygiene, digitization & innovation in profiling the Professional Textile Care industry. New ideas, new business models and new market opportunities for the after-Corona perspectives of PTC industry will be presented in these events. 

• CINET LIVE! Sustainability First! (April 28 at 15:00 CET)
• CINET LIVE! Hygiene as a driver in Corona times! (RTC: June 2 at 15:00 CET // ITS: June 3 at 15:00 CET )
• CINET LIVE! Digitization & Innovation generate growth! (RTC: July 7 at 15:00 CET // ITS: July 8 at 15:00 CET )

---

JOIN CINET LIVE! PTC Special: Sustainability First! (April 28 // 15:00 CET)

The first free webinar of the CINET LIVE! PTC Specials series will be focuses on Sustainability for both Retail Textile Cleaning and Industrial Textile Services. The program will revolve aroung 3 main topics:

I. Best Practices in PTC processing. Professional cleaning is up to five times more sustainable than washing at home;

• Water savings of 35-80%,
• Energy savings of 17%
• Reduction in CO2 emissions of 24%,
• Almost Zero environmental impact of plastic microfibers will also increasingly come to the fore.

 

II. Sustainable textiles in modern societies

Textiles are increasingly polluting the environment worldwide. Because of the fast-growing population worldwide, this is becoming a major problem. At the same time, some 85% of all manufactured textiles are very limited used (f.i. extensive wardrobes). wasted after a short time or not sold at all. Hence CINET took the initiative with The International Sustainability Manifesto of textile supply chain talks to improve this by:

• Recycling of “slow fashion” and other textiles
• Stimulating purchase/sales options
• Introduction of Hygienical Clean Textiles a& New to you fashion

 

III. Circularity in the Textile Supply Chain

The need to develop and use circular textiles is growing rapidly. Initiatives in many countries are taken to stimulate use and reuse textiles again. The industry has started cooperations, supported financially by government bodies with research institutes, NGO’s and waste experts & consultants to improve this situation.

If the textile care sector succeeds in joining forces chain-wide, it will have all the capabilities in-house to open the doors to a thoroughly restructured future and to put itself on the map in an impressive way.

Draft Outline

• Moderator: Peter Wennekes, CEO of CINET
• Panel:
  • International Suppliers
  • Scientific Experts; a.o. Simon Hemmes, Dr. Ir. Henk Gooijer
• Content:
  • Key drivers:
    • Sustainable PTC processing following Best Practices
    • Sustainable textiles in modern societies
    • Circularity in the Textile Supply Chain
  • Info/Update/Latest trends & news
  • Insight/expert views
  • Research info & results study
  • Showcases presentations & animations
  • Interactive discussions

 

REGISTER NOW! FILL IN THE FORM BELOW

Interested in the CINET LIVE! PTC Special event “Sustainability First”? Join it FREE OF CHARGE. You can also register below for the next CINET LIVE! PTC Special events:

• CINET LIVE! Hygiene as a driver in Corona times! (RTC: June 2 at 15:00 CET // ITS: June 3 at 15:00 CET )
• CINET LIVE! Digitization & Innovation generate growth! (RTC: July 7 at 15:00 CET // ITS: July 8 at 15:00 CET )

If your company operates in the Retail Textile Cleaning segment (drycleaning and/or wetcleaning) and you  are interested in delivering top processing quality, then this online course is for you! CINET presents a new Professional Textile Care course format aiming to strengthen their practical skills for the Retail Textile Cleaning professionals that want to integrate Best Practices in their operational activity. The full-module online session of PTC Excellence are presented by Mr. Masashi Shimenoki (Japan).

 

Courses’ content.  (6 courses // 90 minutes per course):

• #1 Natural fibers
• #2 Man made fibers
• #3 Finishing
• #4 Wearing Care
• #5 Storing Care
• #6 Cleaning & Care Labelling

 

Practical Info:

• Start: April 2021. Further info will be available. The course will take place on a (bi)weekly basis
• Environment: online streaming
• Exams: June 2021*
• Language: English
• Fee for full module = Euro 325,-
  • For 1st course registration: Euro 100,-
  • 2nd course registration: Euro 75,-
  • 3rd course registration: Euro 50,-
  • 4th course registration: Euro 40,-
  • 5th course registration: Euro 30,-
  • 6th course registration: Euro 30,-
• Special discounts
  • For 2nd participant – 10% discount
  • For the 5th participant – 25% discount
  • CINET Members – 15% discount
• Bonus: 3 months access to WOPCOM International database
• Excellence Certificate RTC

*) depending on Corona participation

 

MORE INFO – ON THE COURSE’S BROCHURE (LINK HERE)

 

Interested? For registration, please fill-in the form below:

 

About Mr. Masashi Shimenoki

Mr. Shimenoki has been active as a PR planner for major companies and public institutions since 1980. In 1984, paying attention to the consumer trouble of dry cleaning, which had become a social problem, with the aim of disseminating the knowledge about new textile materials and fashion processing to consumers and the dry cleaning industry, he launched a tabloid newspaper called “The After”. Ca. 500,000 copies of this monthly tabloid were distributed from ca. 10,000 dry cleaners all over Japan.

The E-TEXTILE CLEANING STARTERS course is a part of the e-learning courses for the Retail Textile Cleaning specialists. All the steps in a dry cleaning operation are explained in this course and will provide you the basic knowledge.

Among the course’s chapters, you can find the following:

• Professional Textile Cleaning Process
• Intake and inspection
• Cleaning process
• Spotting
• Finishing
• Basic principles of Wet cleaning

By attending the (online) E-TEXTILE CLEANING STARTERS course from the Level C of The World of PTC Business School, you will gain and strengthen the following skills:

1) Know the purpose of textile care

• Know the purpose of textile care
• Know the processes in dry cleaning operations
• Know the processes in wet cleaning operations

2) Be able to select the appropriate cleaning process

• Know the importance of the intake and sorting process
• Be able to select the appropriate cleaning process

3) Get to know the dry & wet cleaning process

• Know the importance of spotting
• Know the different finishing processes
• Know the difference in wet and dry cleaning

The World of PTC – Business School is a training initiative developed by CINET in cooperation with international suppliers, specifically designed for professional laundry and dry cleaning stakeholders. Through this initiative CINET aims to strengthen and stimulate the development of the PTC (Professional Textile Care) industry.

You will find easy accessible information on Retail Textile Cleaning and Industrial Textile Services on the following levels:

• Starters (Level C): Basic level of education and knowledge for people who likes to start in the textile cleaning industry:
• Operational Excellence (Level B): Advanced level for operators, employees for detail knowledge and skills of the textile cleaning process
• Management (Level A): Excellent level for managers and employees on legislation, improvement methodologies, operational management, business modelling & cost structures and marketing

The product range of The World of PTC – Business School consists of E-learning & (on the job) Training courses, Practical Workshops & Webinars and a vast PTC online library & Book series. Select the courses that match your professional (both individual and company) needs and become a Master in PTC!

More info, on the E-INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY STARTERS course  in The World of PTC – Business School – here!