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April 10, 2013
TRSA Members’ Entry-Level Pay Rise Exceeds Economy-Wide Standard

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Entry-level wages in TRSA member companies’ laundry operations grew faster in 2012 than pay for Americans as whole: Report

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Wages for entry-level positions in TRSA (Textile Rental Services Association) member companies’ laundry operations grew faster in 2012 than pay for Americans as a whole, ranging from 1.5% for lesser-skilled positions like folding, ironing and hangering to 4.3% for more complex tasks like load-building and pressing, according to the TRSA 2012 Plant Employee Compensation Report.

Hourly pay across the spectrum of U.S. jobs increased less than 1% (0.89%) from fourth quarter 2011 to the same time in 2012. Thus, entry-level laundry positions’ median wage growth was almost twice to five times the national average. The higher-skilled segment of this group of laundry and dry cleaning roles has outpaced the workforce as a whole in this metric since 2009, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS’) most recent data compilations.

Thirty-seven companies reported their wage and benefit practices to TRSA for the report; roughly one-third were healthcare laundry specialists, one-third were equally divided between food/beverage/hospitality and industrial uniform specialists, and the remaining one-third were mixed.

Laundry production workers who had worked in the industry for one to four years earned the highest median wage from linen specialists: $10.40 to $11.70 per hour varying with job complexity. Mixed plants had the lowest such pay ($7.75 to $9.14).

The TRSA 2012 Plant Employee Compensation Report also reflected the importance to the industry of recruiting outstanding route service personnel and ensuring customer satisfaction. Hourly base rates for such personnel with one to four years experience ranged from $13.25 to $17.49. This compares favorably with the economy-wide average of $13.22 for driver sales personnel. With incentives, the range for such TRSA drivers rises to $18 to $23.21.

Laundry production workers (roughly 40% of them) receive incentives as well; those in the 1- to 4-year experience range had overall median compensation ranging from $8.45 to $11.95.

TRSA produces the Plant Employee Compensation Report to enable association members to benchmark their pay and benefits practices, and covers the range of strategies deployed by textile service companies to take care of their people. The survey enables industry operators to compare their practices with operations similar to theirs in line of business, number of locations and sales volume.

For each position in each classification of company, an average salary or wage is listed with incentive potential and the number of companies in the survey offering such incentives. Various approaches to providing fringes are described, such as percentage of premium paid by employer, deductible and co-pay amounts, and 401(k) matching.

Copies of the TRSA 2012 Plant Employee Compensation Report are free to participating TRSA members; non-participating members and participating non-members receive a discount; others pay full price.

Package pricing is available with the TRSA 2012 Industry Performance Report, another benchmarking tool. Visit the TRSA store to learn more about the association’s reports.

March 26, 2013
TRSA Conferees Take Industry’s Agenda to Congress

WASHINGTON — Leadership & Legislative Conference concludes with more than 30 meetings with key figures in Capitol Hill offices

WASHINGTON — The Textile Rental Services Association’s Leadership & Legislative Conference concluded last week with more than 30 meetings with key figures in Capitol Hill offices. The sessions enabled company leaders to enlist support of members of Congress in advancing the industry’s most pressing government-relations causes.

Hill Day was the conference climax, following TRSA committee meetings and presentations at the Fairmont Washington, the first time in the event’s three-year history that all activities took place downtown. Attendance exceeded 130, a conference high. Operator (launderer) members outnumbered Associates (suppliers) by a nearly 3-to-2 ratio.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor and two-time presidential candidate, primed attendees for their congressional visits immediately before their departure. Alexander offered his view of the nation’s fiscal crisis, noting that only 40% of government spending is budgeted each year. That portion of expenditures is at 2008 levels and is set to grow with inflation. The remainder is mandated by prior legislation (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) and is growing at three to four times inflation.

Issues TRSA members raised during the Hill meetings included competition from prison laundries, taxation of textiles as medical devices, and regulation of air emissions of volatile organic compounds from towel processing.

Following these meetings, participants regrouped at a Hill lunch spot to hear Rep. Mike Pompeo, a second-term House member from Kansas, who addressed the shop towel issue from his own perspective as a small business owner/operator.

The night before, at a TRSAPAC reception, Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan was honored as TRSA’s first-ever Legislator of the Year. He introduced 2012 legislation to level the playing field in competing with prison industries.

The industry-leadership portion of the agenda took place at the Fairmont March 18-19. Activities consisted mostly of committee meetings, where participants voiced their individual preferences for how TRSA should allocate resources. But the program included keynote speakers as well. Alex Castellanos, CNN political analyst, offered a cloudy forecast for clearing political gridlock in Washington. Alex Passantino, former head of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), gave participants pointers on overtime pay issues.

Randall Wentsel, Ph.D., senior managing scientist, Exponent Inc., explained the research his firm has conducted for TRSA that proves how reusable shop towels, foodservice napkins and healthcare isolation gowns are more sustainable than their disposable counterparts.

March 18, 2013
Longtime Textile Services Executive Recruiter Ends Operation Due to Illness

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Ted Kruger is receiving round-the-clock medical care in battle against cancer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Ted Kruger, a longtime executive recruiter for the textile services industry, has announced to friends and colleagues that he’s leaving the industry due to illness, according to the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA).

Kruger, who lives in California, is receiving round-the-clock medical care, gets regular visits from his two sons and two daughters, and is not in pain, TRSA reported in its association publication.

He told TRSA he was diagnosed in 2011 with cancer. After receiving extensive treatments, he felt well enough to accept job-placement assignments in the San Francisco area. The cancer returned a few weeks ago, and Kruger was given only a short time to live.

The Ted E. Kruger Recruiting website is now closed.

According to TRSA, friends and associates may contact Kruger at 760-731-7243. His address is 4650 Dulin Rd. #1, Fallbrook, CA 92028.

January 2, 2013
TRSA Clean Show Reception

Representatives of uniform and linen supply companies attending the June 20-22 Clean Show in New Orleans are welcome to enjoy TRSA’s day-before-show reception, a tradition long recognized as the industry’s most popular social event. Clean is the Main Street for the laundry and drycleaning industries. It is the best opportunity in the U.S. to witness hands-on displays of equipment and supplies from competing vendors. TRSA is excited to gather the leading companies from the textile services segment in one place at our reception to demonstrate the buying power of the industry and how it drives Clean.

 

Register: http://www.trsa.org/calendarevent/trsa-clean-show-reception

 

January 2, 2013
TRSA Executive Roundtable - Restaurant/Hotel & Lodging

This meeting is open to executive management only: owner/operators and CEOs and the top-level executives who report to them (such as presidents, VPs and staff directors). TRSA’s Executive Roundtable-Restaurant/Hotel & Lodging will present top executives of textile services operations with an unprecedented opportunity to influence TRSA’s efforts to:
- Support individual company efforts to increase penetration of these markets
- Represent our industry in government affairs that impact our ability to serve them
- Promote textile services operators as increasingly valuable in fulfilling their business needs

 Highlighting the 1 ½-day agenda will be tours of the:
- Alsco plant near Hollywood, a high-volume producer in a historic building
- ADI American Dawn headquarters, hub of a textile product distribution network recognized for filling large orders on tight deadlines

Roundtable participants will receive FREE market and operations research reports for attending, as the agenda will include sessions on TRSA’s new Linen Life, Loss & Replacement white paper and the 2012 TRSA Industry Performance Report.

Register today; attendance is limited: http://www.trsa.org/node/10375
 

January 2, 2013
TRSA Leadership & Legislative Conference

TRSA members face a constant challenge: fighting for fair, balanced regulations and pro-business labor and tax policies. All members and associates are welcome to engage in the Legislative & Leadership Conference consisting of meetings with congressional and regulatory leaders to exercise TRSA’s strength of our political force and participate in networking events. TRSA committees gather at the conference as well to lay the groundwork for TRSA activities to guide the industry into the future.

Register: http://www.trsa.org/MarchDC

January 2, 2013
TRSA Production Summit

Under more pressure than ever to produce clean, attractive goods cost-effectively, textile services operators are steadily re-evaluating their techniques for selecting equipment and merchandise, laying out plants and specifying utility requirements. With such proper infrastructure in place, the top priority is to build a work atmosphere in which employees care about doing the best job they can and treat each of their colleagues as an important customer. TRSA’s Production Summit will identify significant challenges in achieving these goals and determine how industry-wide solutions may attack them. Discussion will drive TRSA programming such as best practices documentation, conference presentations, education/training, research/benchmarking and other resources.

Register: http://www.trsa.org/calendarevent/production-summit

January 2, 2013
TRSA Sales & Service Summit

TRSA’s new Clean Green and Hygienically Clean certifications have enhanced operators’ market messages to employees, customers and prospects. TRSA seminars, manuals and collateral materials have also helped members manage customer perceptions, enumerating and enhancing textile services’ value. The upcoming Sales and Service Summit will guide creation of new industry-wide resources to support operators’ efforts to achieve long-term revenue potential. Discussion will drive TRSA programming such as best practices documentation, conference presentations, education/training, research/benchmarking and other resources.

Register: http://www.trsa.org/calendarevent/sales-service-summit

October 22, 2012
TRSA Honors Ostrow, Frushtick with Lifetime Achievement Awards

CHICAGO — Presidents of CleanCare, Leonard Automatics feted for contributions to textile service industry

CHICAGO — The Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) named the winners of its top annual awards here last week at its 100th Anniversary Chairman's Dinner, part of its Annual Conference & Exhibits.

Gerald Ostrow, president of CleanCare, Pittsburgh, received the TRSA Operator Lifetime Achievement Award. Pat Dempsey, Dempsey Uniform & Linen, introduced Ostrow and described him as a friend and mentor. He also praised Ostrow—a B 24 bomber pilot during World War II—for his many contributions to the textile service industry and beyond.

“He served on task forces,” Dempsey says. “He served on committees. He served his country. He serves through his church. He came back and he served as chair and he served as a director. He’s going to continue his life of service and achievement. And it puts everything in perspective when you know the man.”

Jeff Frushtick, president/CEO of Leonard Automatics, Denver, N.C., received the association's top accolade for associate members, the Maglin/Biggie Associate Lifetime Achievement Award. He told the audience he is grateful to the people of the industry who make him feel at home wherever he goes, and he thanked them for “the opportunity to come into your laundries, your lives and work together to improve the product that’s going on the street.”

Other award winners were:

  • TRSA LaundryESP® Innovation Award — ARAMARK-Wayne Memorial Hospital, for its focus on environmental sustainability
  • SafeTRSA™ Innovation Award — Cintas Corp., for its ongoing commitment to improving safety in commercial laundries
  • Volunteer Leadership Awards — Outgoing committee chairs Jim Buckman, Cintas; Alan Maness, Milliken & Co.; David Potack and Rob Potack, Unitex Textile Rental Services; Carey Scurria, Alsco; and David Struminger, Mohenis Services

The next day, Jim Doro, president/CEO of Doritex Corp., was elected the 61st chair of TRSA, succeeding Ostrow, who remains on the board's executive committee as past chair.

Others elected or re-elected to TRSA posts were treasurer David DiFillippo, UniFirst Corp., and board members Jim Kearns, Alsco; Bob Brill, Republic Master Chefs; Jim Buik, The Roscoe Co.; Scott Delin, Superior Uniform Group; and Michael Schuelke, ARAMARK Uniform Services.

September 24, 2012
TRSA Exhibits Laundry Performance Standards at AHE Conference

PHOENIX — Builds awareness of increased environmental stewardship, infection control conscientiousness

PHOENIX — The Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) presented its new Clean Green and Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification programs for laundries last week to attendees of Exchange 2012 to build their awareness of the increased environmental stewardship and infection control conscientiousness TRSA members are practicing.

TRSA chose the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) conference and exhibit to demonstrate that textile services operators who earn these certifications are the “superior choice for AHE members whose supply chain management calls for outsourcing laundry and linen.”

Those certified are exceeding government standards, TRSA says, by:

  • Meeting conservation goals and deploying best management practices for resource reduction, reuse and recycling above and beyond the reporting requirements established by EPA for the Laundry Environmental Stewardship Program (LaundryESP)
  • Testing cleaned goods for bacterial content—in addition to documenting deployment of best laundering practices—to build healthcare providers’ confidence that their outsourced laundry’s linen is as clean as possible, in line with practices standardized elsewhere in the world but not yet recommended by U.S. authorities

“TRSA respects and supports other standards besides Clean Green and Hygienically Clean to which our members can ascribe. Any effort to document launderers’ attention to preserving natural resources and controlling the spread of infection reflects positively on the textile services industry,” explains TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci. “Our new programs execute our responsibility to our members to give them tools to show their customers and prospects they are willing to raise the bar in these respects.”