For the coming period, until the big Final of the Global Best Practices Awards Program 2018 (October, 18-19, ExpoDetergo Milan), we will present you week by week, the most outstanding showcases selected by GBPAP18’s International Jury. The Finalist companies will compete for the trophies of the global Professional Textile Care industry.
The companies we will show you today are the following: Handlowa Pretty (Poland), Blue Lagoon Clean (Romania), Ayaks (Russia), Nr. One (Russia), Dobbi (The Netherlands), Elite Dry Cleaners (UK), LOD Benelux (The Netherlands), Jan’s Cleaners (USA), Laundrapp (UK) – from the Retail Textile Cleaning segment and Lavadero Berazategui (Argentina), Apparel (Argentina), NanTong Fornet (China), Bluesky TRS (China), BIH 77 (France), Alpirsbacher (Germany), Laundry Zone (Malaysia), Cotton Way (Russia), Lavanderia Romeral (Spain), Lips Plus (The Netherlands), Vendrig (The Netherlands), Rentex Floron (The Netherlands), Balghailam Bubble (UAE) and CanDo Laundry (UK) – from the Industrial Textile Services segment.
Retail Textile Cleaning
Jolanta Wielgus Firma Handlowa “Pretty” – Poland
The quality of the service generates customer satisfaction
Since the very beginning of setting up the activity, the company treats every customer individually. There is a special offer created for each one, meeting the needs and laundry technology is adapted to the item that needs to be cleaned. This year, in order to improve the communication between customers and shop, the organization implemented a management system in which the customers have the access to their own account where they have a an overview with general reports, laundry specification, insight to how much work is still to be done or is left for another laundry and how much is returned from the next laundry, marking notes into the specifications, generating dispatch reports to the dry cleaner shop.
Sustainability keystone of operation
Thanks to its management system, Jolanta Wielgus Firma Handlowa “Pretty” improved the communication between the customers and the dry cleaner’s and we also increased our reliability towards hotels.
In order to reduce the costs and for ecological reasons, the company has implemented a heat recovery system, with the support of one the suppliers. All the transportation routes are also arranged in such a way to optimize the delivery time as well as transport costs.
Blue Lagoon – Romania
Main goal: best experience for the customers
The services provided by Blue Lagoon Clean transform the cleaning service into an outstanding experience, by the following 4 strong points, that also represent the company’s business philosophy: technology, free pick up & delivery service, best price and an 100% insured service. Basically, Blue Lagoon responds to every need that the client might have, making the company one of the best choices in Bucharest. The business model evolved around the customer and what is important to him. In every decision, Blue Lagoon takes in consideration aspects such as an eco-friendly technology, reliable and with the least risk in damaging the garments, the quality, achieved by investment in equipment and constant training of personnel, as well as continuous innovation in services.
Sustainability, a key success factor
The company uses technology that reduces water, detergent, electricity and gas consumption. All machines are equipped with weighing systems of the garments, so it uses less water, when the machines are not fully loaded. They are also equipped with detergent pumps, that use so much detergent as needed for the quantity of garments that are being processed.
The driers have humidity sensors, that stops the program when the garments are dried, optimising electricity and gas consumption.
Ayaks – Russia
One of Russia’s most outstanding Retail Textile Cleaning showcases
The drycleaning shop “Ajaks” was established at the end of 1992. A standard two-floor soviet drycleaning building was bought out with further total modernization. Today, 26 years later, “Ajaks” is a well established enterprise with 1500 sq. meters of production facilities in Moscow and 10 collection points in Russia’s capital and its suburbs.
The main goal of Ajaks is a fast and high quality customers service. To make pickup procedure fast and convenient, all collection points have a digital system to accept garments and keep customer informed by SMS. They provide full spectrum care services for textile, shoes and interior items. The digital system provides full customers statistic and analysis. Loyalty programs, such as discount cards, are applied for customers. There are also permanent discounts in place, like, for instance 30% off for children’s garments. For the social media savvy
customers, there are season discounts and actions promoted in Instagram and Facebook. Through the social networks, customers can upload discount coupons.
Quality comes first
The service quality is an integrated part of the sustainable development concept. Professional knowledge and skills are important to ensure
and maintain quality. The basis of quality is, for Ajaks, permanent personnel training and staff management.
Nr. One – Russia
A success story of constant business growth in the heart of Moscow
Nr. One is a group of companies that represents a well-functioning model of business process organization. In fact, the business entity owns 2
factories with 1500 m2 in area and office premises located in a business centre. The history of the company started with the idea of creating the first premium dry cleaning shop on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, one of Moscow’s most important boulevards. In 10 years, the company opened more than 30 collection units and they don’t intent to stop growing. Over 50,000 customers are serviced and many others have also benefited from the expertise of the Nr. One Himchistka’s experts.
A high-performant team, the number one priority for Nr. One Himchistka
The company considers the development of a qualified, high-performant and cohesive team to be the primary goals of its personnel policy, so the human resource is of a high importance for the group. There are 192 people working at Nr. One. This company has developed a system of
encouragement and work motivation for the employees on performance-based consideration.
Dobbi – The Netherlands
Network of textile cleaning companies
Dobbi is a platform that connects the modern consumer with professional textile cleaning companies throughout the Netherlands. Every partner in the network undergoes an intensive audit by an external independent agency. Different measurements and examinations are performed. The textile cleaner has to meet strict environmental and quality demands. In addition, the workplace and installations are also assessed for correct use and layout. The dry cleaner has to meet all the standards for both the Quality Guarantee Certificate and the Environmental Certificate of the Dutch Textile Cleaning Association (NETEX).
The process
Dobbi offers a simple step-by-step process: 1. Place an order in the app, 2. The first time, you receive a starter kit with a personalized laundry bag in your mailbox the next working day, 3. The driver picks up the laundry within your chosen 2-hour time slot, 4. The order is processed the next working day and you receive an email with an overview of items and pricing and a payment link, 5. Complete the payment of your order, 6. The driver will deliver your cleaned laundry on a weekday of your choosing, within a 2-hour time slot, 7. The order is delivered in a personal ‘Dry cleaning bag’ or ‘Wash&Fold’ bag.
ELITE – UK
The elite of professional textile care
Elite Drycleaners have and always will endeavour to deliver the best customer service possible, by constantly striving to improve the position in the market place, proud of the quality of service and delivery of quality finish to each and every one of the customers. The range of equipment and cleaning techniques differentiates Elite from its competitors. The company has invested in the latest drycleaning, wet cleaning and finishing equipment. The drycleaning machine has 3 tanks, where the third tank is dedicated purely to white and light coloured garments and also has a large 16kg drum size therefore giving it a bigger capacity to clean larger curtains which is especially beneficial in their area.
A model of environmental friendly organization
The company has a strict environmental policy to recycle and reduce carbon footprint for the business model. They have a “clean as we go” policy to reduce the build-up of any residual waste product. All residues are removed by a licensed waste provider which is a requirement of the dry cleaning permit with SEPA. Elite has consistently met and exceeded the permit requirements and they can where possible only source biodegradable products or items that have a low environmental impact.
Laundry on Demand (LOD) Benelux – The Netherlands
The future of PTC
With the Laundry on Demand mobile application, the future of textile care has come to Benelux. Customers can now outsource the complete management of their laundry needs with the click of a button. Laundry On Demand (LOD) provides a technological platform, consisting of a mobile app and a website, that connects customers to dry cleaning and laundry professionals. All the customer needs to do is use the app to place the order and LOD will take care of the rest, from picking up the items and cleaning them to returning them to a location specified by the customer.
Laundry management, easier than ever, through an innovative initiative
LOD Benelux was founded by 14 well-reputed laundry cleaning companies, who saw the need to set up such a service in order to give the market a much needed impulse. The company works with some of the best laundry cleaners available, and it cooperates with the successful mobile app Laundrapp to create a solid technological base and learn from their learnings.
Customers can place their order via the mobile app, after which the company will pick up the indicated items, bring them to the chosen laundry services provider, pick them up again, and deliver them back to the customer.
Jan’s Cleaners – USA
A successful story
From a staff of one (Jan herself) to a staff of 20 people, a plant that has been expanded four times, tremendous service diversification and more certificates than can be counted on one hand: Jan’s story is one of success. From day one, that story has also involved an incredible commitment to the environment and to the community. Jan has participated in numerous efforts to improve practices in the textile cleaning industry and has made it her mission to not only educate her employees, but the whole community.
The sewing and alterations department moved from a 3×2 sewing room to a 1,000 square foot house, complete with a drapery table for making custom draperies. Drapery services include in-home take down, pick up and transport to the plant for cleaning, and re-delivery and re-hanging.
Part of the community
In 1997, together with a contingent of dry cleaners, Jan proposed a Small Business Remediation Act to legislators in Washington DC. The bill was aimed at establishing liability limits for ground water and soil contamination from dry cleaning solvents. Furthermore, as president of both MILD in 1999 and of DLI in 2013, Jan has been instrumental in environmental planning and training on state and national level.
Laundrapp – UK
Laundry & dry-cleaning revolution
Laundrapp has managed to redesign a long existing bricks-and-mortar service so that it easily steals thunder of other rapid & flexible services like Über and Deliveroo. Customers can order a laundry pick-up online or in the app, the laundry is cleaned in a professional facility nearby and delivered back to the customer where and whenever he wants. For this, Laundrapp uses a self-designed unique, proprietary technology that tracks these orders and connects them to the Laundrapp drivers and its national network of textile cleaning companies.
UK’s leading on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service
Laundrapp is the only on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service app to offer nationwide coverage and did not become that overnight. Creating a digital revolution in the dry-cleaning business and changing how consumers think about doing laundry or using dry cleaners requires a well thought out approach. The app was launched with a fully integrated marketing campaign that encompasses different methods to reach the modern (online) customer. Through social media, search engines, emails, tv commercials and more, people learn how easy it has become to make use of the services of professional textile cleaners. All of this is tracked via self-built attribution technology.
Industrial Textile Services
Lavadero Berazategui – Argentina
Healthcare Textile Services at its best
Specialized in providing services to healthcare facilities, especially sanitary treatment, conditioning, provision and rental of hospital clothes. This is what best describes Lavadero Berazategui, a family owned laundry with 30 years of experience in the Argentinian industrial laundry industry. With a staff of 70 people, the facilities and technology meet the most demanding national and international quality standards. As one of the first companies of its kind, Lavadero Berazategui received three certifications based on ISO 9001: 2008, ISO 14001: 2004 and OHSAS 18001: 2007.
Continuous innovation
With the opening of a new plant in 2013, Lavadero Berazategui became one of the first industrial laundry in an industrial park in Argentina. Currently the machine park contains a CBW machine, four 200+ kg wash extractors, one 100-150 kg wash extractor, and one 0-50 kg extractor.
In 2016 a new line of ironing Brand Image of Thai origin, with an ironer of 2×1200 mm with an output 700 sheets / hour was introduced. Also the RFID system is incorporated. Its traceability solution drastically eliminates all contingencies, errors, downtime, sterile human resource costs, and weaknesses in inventory control and inherent information leakage, loss, applicability criteria of rotation and life of the garments.
Apparel – Argentina
State-of-the-art equipment for a sustainable company
Apparel Argentina S.A.is an industrial laundry company situated in Buenos Aires, the capital and most populous city of Argentina. It is one of the leading companies in the local market, with more than 15 years of presence and uninterrupted growth.
The company provides services for washing and provision of textiles, sterilization of textiles and also cleaning of buildings. It executes these services with diverse and relatively new machine facilities like washer-extractors and centrifuges in several production capacities. It has dryers, calendar machines and several special logistic input techniques available to get the laundry in certain machines more easily and try to minimize uncomfortable manual handling. An ironing tunnel system is also in place.
Daring equipment investments
The use of state of the art equipment proves the innovation level of the company. There are washing tunnels available of the latest European technology of 2016 and autoclaves from 2013 for the sterilization of textiles. The company has designed and implemented special introducers for the calendars to heighten quality and reduce labour effort. It considers innovation as one of its main strengths, being one of the first laundries in Argentina to incorporate the tunnelling technology for washing and ironing in entire South America.
NanTong Fornet & Ycloset Ltd. – China
Collaboration of 2 successful companies
NanTong Fornet & Ycloset Ltd. is a partnership between Fornet and Ycloset. It consists of establishing a warehouse where Ycloset runs its own clothing rental operations and a laundry facility where Fornet provides textile care services at the same location. The operations process flow between both sides is fully integrated. The entire laundry facility is located in Nantong, a harbor city in the province of Jiangsu in the East of China. The productivity of the state of the art facility can reach 30.000 garments per day with the actual set-up but can increase at this location to 60.000 garments if a second production line is installed.
Quality control directly by the customer
The requirement of quality before Ycloset sends the clothes to the final customer are very high. An Ycloset quality control department is in charge to control the quality of each garment after cleaning. Each piece is scanned and recorded in their system. Any rewash/re-press/re-spot garment is also recorded in the database. Fornet and Ycloset have a daily high efficiency communication feedback to maintain and improve the cleaning quality. Warehouses and laundry facility are side by side. The transportation of garments from laundry to the warehouse are done by conveyors rails.
Bluesky TRS – China
A role model for the Chinese specialized laundry in hospitality
Blue Sky is an outstanding laundry with state-of-the art equipment and a fully automated RFID system. The company has invested intensively in the technology in order to increase the sustainability. They claim to be the leading Chinese laundry when it comes to water treatment and the automation of the facility. All this to serve top hotels in the Beijing area.
Impeccable organizational structure
The factory uses a continuous washing machine, which can recycle the washing water to a certain extent, directly reducing the input of clean water, thereby reducing the generation of sewage. In addition, the factory uses more direct-fired drying and heating equipment, which can reduce the use of steam boilers, avoid the secondary exchange of thermal energy, and maximize the use of natural gas, thus reducing the generation of natural gas combustion exhaust. Through technical transformation, the installation of the disc filter system on the continuous washing machine can effectively enhance the recycling of water, and at the same time drive the savings of heat energy and detergent, further reducing the sewage discharge and detergent input. By scientifically and rationally arranging the maintenance process, the energy consumption and the failure rate of the equipment can be effectively reduced.
GCS BIH77 (GCS Blanchisserie Interhospitalière) – France
A sustainable company in various ways
BIH77 (Gcs Blanchisserie Interhospitalière) is a laundry company that opened its doors on 1 April 2013 under the impulse of 6 hospitals of the district Seine and Marne to regroup their linen function allowing an investment in modern equipment and at the cutting edge of technology. The company is located in the industrial zone in the North of Meaux (France). The laundry currently processes 24 tons of linen per day, mainly hospital and household linen, while maximum capacity is 30 tons per day.
Human Resources’ active role in the organization
BIH77 is a social company that values its staff and is willing to offer changes to people in precarious situations. It has several training programs to improve staff-quality. Recently a partnership agreement with the SCOFOB was established on opening a training center laundry. In the recent years BIH77 has taken a number of actions in terms of hiring, with the integration of people in precarious situations and / or disabled persons. Working locations have been adjusted to these people to enable them to do their jobs. This resulted in winning a prize in the MNH contest on hiring people with disabilities.
Alpirsbacher Wäsche-Service – Germany
German service’s impeccable quality standard
Alpirsbacher Wäsche-Service is a German laundry company that operates a wide variety of textiles. The company is located in Alpirsbach in the south of Germany which is not far from Stuttgart and the French border. Annually 3.500 000 kg/ of laundry wear is processed.
The company offers a one stop shop opportunity to customers. These are fully unburdened. It offers a distinction with other industry like laundries by being able to create networks on a level that transcends the region. This way customers with more than one location can relinquish their entire wear process to Alpirsbacher Wäsche-Service at once. Training is offered even to customer employees who get into touch with Alpirsbacher’s wear systems. The company has information locations for occupants and relatives in nursing homes available so there’s even attention for the customer’s customer.
Sustainable and innovative measures are numerous
In the company there is a lot of attention for sustainability and innovation. The energy consumption is reduced by using only appropriate and well maintained equipment, isolation and investigating optimums on heating and maintenance parameters. Maintenance is done by a team of qualified internal technically skilled employees. They intensively work together with equipment manufacturers.
Laundry Zone – Malaysia
Focus on quality and customer service
D&A MEGA SDN BHD that goes under the commercial name of ”Laundry Zone” is an industrial laundry company, operating for both other industrial companies as for individuals (retail purposes). It’s located at Jalan Melati Square in Nilai Malaysia. Nilai is a city in the Malaysian district of Negeri Sembilan and has little over 200.000 inhabitants. The company has a client base consisting of hotels, fine dining restaurants, caterers, and lodging houses. It also offers dry cleaning facilities mainly to individuals. The company processes 180,000.00 Kg of linen each year and claims to be one of the experts in laundry in Malaysia. Laundry Zone is always aware of customers’ demands. That’s why for example it has started to provide laundry pick-up and delivery services to ease customers and meet their expectations fully.
Environmental awareness is definitely there
Laundry Zone is also a Laundry company that cares for the environment. Earning the ISO 14001:2004-Environmental Management System certificate proves this. ISO 14001 is off course the internationally accepted standard with strict demands for environmental management issues. It’s used by Laundry Zone to implement sufficient environmental oriented procedures and for securing them.
Cotton Way – Russia
Cotton Way is the innovation way
Cotton Way is an industrial laundry / OPL, located in Moscow, Russia. The company is focused on the industrial, hospitality and health care sector (hospitals and institutions) and further concentrates on Russian railways, military hospitals, fitness and mud resistant mads. The organization employs more than 3,000 people (administrative staff and production personnel) divided over 9 production facilities and more than 30 logistics sites.
Business model and service concept
In order to meet the changing customer demands, the business of Cotton Way is integrated textile rental, which means that integrated textile service enables customers to save time and money and focuses on core business, e.g. the economy of costs, the procurement and washing of textiles, the release of the premises and resources and professional specialised services, e.g. medical sterilisation of surgical textiles in the laundry, etc. They differ greatly from others by focusing on the effectiveness of products and services, e.g. for key clients like the Ministry of Defence, regional authorities for their healthcare entities and patients. Aiming to cope with ever changing customers’ demands, legislation, and the environmental requirements, Cotton Way has implemented an automated RFID (radio-frequency identification) system for textile’s identification
Lavandería Romeral – Spain
Gran Canaria’s outstanding best practices showcase
LAVANDERÍA ROMERAL is an industrial textile services company, since 1980 dedicated to the cleaning of textiles of lodging establishments (hotels, apartments, bungalows), restaurants and gyms in the tourist areas of the island of Gran Canaria (Spain). Now the laundry also offers Industrial Dry Cleaning Service, each establishment at the scheduled time with a delivery of a maximum of 24 hours a day.
With more than 35 years of experience, since 2010 the Laundry has been led by a new young and dynamic work team with a new approach of the management of the company. With new facilities in the Poligono de Arinaga, Laundry Romeral bears as a 3.0 company social responsibility and has a highly-qualified and motivated staff.
Corporate Social Responsibility, at its best
At Laundry Romeral they practise social responsibility, which means that people are not only seen as consumers or workers, but as “complete persons” with “human spirit”, who want the world to be best. Therefore, the compensations, benefits and training of their employees are greater than those of the competition.For staff training and constant updating in the productive processes, Laundry Romeral attends all national and international fairs of their sector to know the latest trends in it.
LipsPlus – The Netherlands
Fully automated laundry with RFID on personal garments
LipsPlus is one of the leading textile services companies in the Netherlands in the field of laundry for healthcare institutions such as care homes and hospitals. With 11 plants, spread over the country, it processes 100.000 kilograms personal garments per week and 1.000.000 kilograms of linen per week. In 2016, LipsPlus has started to process personal items from the elderly with a 100% RFID operation. The whole laundry is RFID driven and probably the first worldwide to do this with personal garments from individuals in all steps of the process. RFID is as such the central concept in a Lean organization
Reliable invoicing
The RFID tag and scanners enable a guaranteed controlled process, comprising every step in the process, in an almost closed loop from the customer to the laundry and back. Differentiation in process steps, demanded by the materials or customers, is completely encrypted in the tag properties and therefor automatically steering the flow and processes on demand. Sorting on entrance and on shipping of all customer garment items is done automatically. The machines are specially designed and operate with innovative air-push sorting. Invoicing is also customer specific and fully reliable and transparent, connected to scanning steps in the process.
Vendrig – The Netherlands
How to do an amazing work with the workwear
Vendrig was founded in 1960 in IJsselsteijn in the Netherlands as a small laundry for washing cloth. Nowadays it’s still a family owned industrial laundry company that processed 2.273.937 kg of industrial wear last year. Its full service concept consists of three components: purchase, maintenance and management of workwear. The company offers workwear with the ideal look and quality, which also looks hip, specifically for men and women. Durable and comfortable clothing, with the functionality the wearer needs and the required protection in specific working conditions. The clothing is always clean and available on time.
A sustainable company
Vendrig operates several large sized washing extractors as well as chemical washing machines for dry cleaning. It was the first company in the world to do a K4 washing with a machine having 100 kg of garments. To make sure all equipment is sustainable, the energy management system monitors on a weekly base, so that adjustments can be made in time for deviations. The machines can also be tracked in preventative maintenance as to detect frequent faults at an early stage. The result of this is that the company can better determine which parts need to be kept in stock.
Rentex Floron B.V. – The Netherlands
An exceptional water management system
Rentex Floron is a Dutch laundry company that operates at an industrial scale and that was founded more than a century ago in Bolsward, in the Northern part of the Netherlands. Current facilities have a surface of 17000m3. Weakly, 480.000 kg of laundry is being processed, mainly aimed at healthcare hospitals and nursing homes. Main products being treated are flat linen and workwear. Satisfaction of company’s customers means that satisfaction of the customer’s customer has to be reached. That’s why an extensive satisfaction survey is being executed every 2 years.
The importance of sustainability
To become more and more sustainable, Rentex Floron continuously replaces older equipment with energy efficient alternatives. There’s a real time monitoring system to detect excessive energy consumption and there is a very professional preventive maintenance schedule available to ensure all equipment functions at the best possible level.
There’s availability of an own water recovery plant, which enables Rentex to operate with the lowest energy consumption per kg in the healthcare sector in the Netherlands. 91.000 m3 of water is recycled for reuse each year. The aim for the future is to use no portable water at all in 2021 and to reduce disposal of water to zero in 2020.
Balghailam Bubble Works Laundry LLC- UAE
Hygiene and quality
Balghailam Bubble Works Laundry LLC has been located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates since 2014. The company mainly focuses on the industrial, hospitality and health care sector (hospitals). The main products are garment and linen. It is the largest commercial laundry in Abu Dhabi, the largest healthcare laundry service provider in the country and the most technical advanced laundry facility in the Middle East. By offering integrated and economical textile and laundry solutions and by being open to innovations, they are able to meet and fulfil the wishes of their customers to the highest international standards in a changing world.
Sustainabililty is key
The laundry boasts some impressive machinery, such as three tunnel-washers, including a dedicated garment processing unit, additional washer-extractors for treatment washing, specialist and garment specific ironing lines, hand-finishing stations, steam tunnels and dry-cleaning machines.
With this, they reach a production of 21.000 tons per year. To optimise energy efficiency, they use gas and steam, thus limiting energy consumption till the end. As operational best practice, Bubble applies the auto dosing system .This improves efficiency by an optimal machine operation like washing temperature, steam pressure, proper chemicals and drying times.
CanDo Laundry Services Wales – UK
An unbeatable fresh laundry
The foundation for CanDo Laundry’s success lies in the attention to detail and the excellent customer service, in addition to an excellent service quality, of course. At CanDo, the client is truly king (or queen). With the help of technology and creative solutions, the company aims to serve the needs and wishes of its clients as well and as efficiently as possible. As a matter of fact, the company guarantees a service that is up to standards and on time, even in exceptional circumstances, such as snow storms the wintertime.
More than just state-of-the-art facilities
In just six years’ time, CanDo Laundry Services has grown into a professional organisation that can process up to 150’000 individual items per week, generates up to £1.5 million in revenues per year, and currently employs 20 people.
During the CINET Global Best Practices Awards Presentation, on Friday, October, 19th (ITS companies from 10:30 and RTC companies from 17:00) at Centro Congressi, Fiera Milano, Milan, Italy, the GBPAP18 finalists will invited to deliver a 3 minute pitch presentation about their company in front of The International Jury and the audience