Meet the GBPA18’s outstanding PTC showcases: Vic Textiltvatt (Sweden)

For the coming period, we will present you week by week, the most outstanding PTC showcases that were officially nominated for The Global Best Practices Awards Program 2018. The profiles of these companies are also present in the WOPCOM platform, which you can access here.

Vic Textiltvatt AB (Sweden)

Welcome to beautiful Kallered, Sweden with exceptionally clean laundry at Vic’s Textiltvatt

The company grounds are clean and the building looks shiny under the sunny sky, which seems blue-er here somehow. Welcome to Sweden, a country of stunning nature. The building of Vic Textilvatt headquarters is also surrounded by trees, everything about this place is fresh; in this amazing content one of the most important Swedish retail textile cleaning companies operates.

All equipment varies in size and capacity. Which machine gets put into action depends on many variables: size of the item, the type of textile, the degree of dirt, eRTC. Each single machine has its own optimal capacity and possibilities. This allows Vic Textiltvatt to offer a very wide range of cleaning services, from ‘ordinary’ laundry to wedding dresses, from carpets to curtains and much, much more.

The factory facilitates three of its own shops in a 50 kilometre radius, the factory also has a small shop on the grounds. Each shop has the capability to execute a quick shirt service, but all the larger and more specific items get brought to Kallered by one of the four company trucks. “The structure in Kallered houses fourteen machines in total, three for dry cleaning with different solvents, and eleven wash machines in different sizes. Six of these machines are also used for wet cleaning.”

Equal work, equal pay

Scandinavian governments are known for being pioneers in terms of equal rights, there are little places in the world where equality in gender is as high of a priority as in Sweden. Vic Textiltvatt ensures employee satisfaction by implementing and executing such gender equality among their workforce. Every entrepreneur knows that their business is as good as their best employee, Vic Textiltvatt has certainly taken this to heart. They believe that every single company should have a gender equality program in place, not just to be and do the best they can, but also because it makes a company more competitive.

At this successful textile service company job satisfaction is ensured by ‘equal work, equal pay’, the fact that they adhere to the guidelines set by the Swedish Laundry Association and there is even a game room and a relaxation lounge on the premises.

Quality as a company goal

By keeping the employees happy and trained, quality is almost a given. However, to make sure Vic Textiltvatt stays on top of their guarantee of quality, they have an annual audit performed. Being a member of the Swedish Laundry Association makes them able and obliged to have their work and facilities checked by an external agency. The audit consists of over 80 points in areas such as environment, hygiene and of course quality.

Roller with a folding machine

Safe and sustainable textile cleaning is reached by for example using modern equipment, conducting maintenance and preventing leaks. Vic Textiltvatt is very conscious of their responsibility to reduce emission and works hard on taking that responsibility very serious. Every single day, all machines in the company are checked, it is part of the daily routine; checking for leakages, control of gaskets and such. Each and every machine the company uses has its own journal, which are filled out by the employees on a daily basis.

Special attention gets paid to solvent usage, this is also part of the daily audit: how much has been used? What is our impact? If an urgent problem shows up during one of the daily rounds, it is acted on immediately. Furthermore, the production manager of the site gets a monthly report, so he can act on deviations promptly.

To ensure complete safety in the company, a very strict housekeeping plan has been put into action. All chemicals are handled with a safety tray; no spilling will take place. All machines on the premises are placed on safety trays also. Waste produced by the dry-cleaning machines gets stored in closed containers, these containers get handled by a certified company to make sure the waste gets destructed in a responsible manner.

The future is now

The fact that Vic Textiltvatt cleans 60 carpets, 500 shirts and all the linen for several hotels every single day shows that they are doing well in terms of customer base. A lot of this business is realized by using internet to its fullest extent.

Facebook and Instagram are popular tools amongst the people working in the VIC office. Google advertising is used to draw traffic to the website, for which the over 100 contract customers have their own log in.

This full service textile service business knows how to use the modern tools available to support their business; the 30 companies (like supermarkets) that act as agents and contract customers can call on any of the four drivers to come for pick up at any given time. Because all of these services are carried out digitally, optimal pick up routes can be calculated, adding to a responsible way of doing business.

But that’s not all

Apart from digital solutions, Vic Textiltvatt also invests in a better future. Soon the factory will be eco-friendly by doing all dry cleaning using alternative solvents. An environmentally friendly company with a modern and conscious mind, that takes good care of its customers and staff.

One of the four trucks used by the service minded drivers