Content about Director

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hospitality linen may be one of the most sought-after areas of business in the laundry industry. Low soil levels, a manageable number of inventory items, and an established client base not currently in line for government takeover all contribute to a profitable business climate.

But unlike the wave of outsourcing and shared-service mega-plants that has made the healthcare on-premise laundry (OPL) an endangered species, many hospitality companies continue to process their own work in-house and on-premise.

OPL PHILOSOPHY

Westgate Resorts, a timeshare subsidiary of Orlando-based Central Florida Investments, is a large hospitality operation with 30 resorts in 10 states. Its philosophy on laundry processing continues to utilize an OPL model.

Jim Bauer, laundry director at Westgate’s 2,900-unit Villas property just outside Disney World, says there are a lot of reasons that the company chooses to keep the laundry operations in-house. Some are financial, and some are quality-related.

“We have a lot more flexibility with an OPL,” Bauer says. His laundry processes approximately 11 million pounds annually for three local CFI properties. “Much of our business is timeshare. Just the logistics of building our distribution carts in an OPL environment improves our overall productivity.

“The linen distribution component of laundry is an area that can be overlooked in evaluating laundry processing costs,” he adds. “Although there may be qualified linen-service providers, our process works best in an OPL model.”

Bauer highlighted another cost related to distribution: required par levels. “The added cost of the additional par required to send linen out for processing is big money. We operate on three par for most items, which meets our needs. Adding another par would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Westgate’s internal quality control system catches stained linen before it is distributed to the units, according to Bauer. “A good-quality linen service with a similar reject rate would deliver the stained items mixed in with our linen delivery. That stained linen would end up in our rooms, or we would have to overstock our distribution system.”

Flexibility is another advantage of on-premise processing, according to Bauer. In the hospitality industry, available linen can mean the difference between a rented room and a vacant room. “Last week, we turned bed skirts for 500 units and had them all back on the beds the same day. We just couldn’t coordinate that (by) sending linen off-site for processing.”

CFI’s second Orlando-area laundry is located at the Westgate Lakes property just off Orlando’s popular International Drive. The plant managed by Eva Eberle processes approximately 8 million pounds of linen annually.

Westgate Lakes recently installed a new Milnor six-module PulseFlow® tunnel washer.

“Keeping the equipment operating in good order is one of our biggest challenges,” Eberle says. The laundry’s small footprint requires significant production in a small space. Tunnel processing provides an improved production-to-square-foot ratio, but also adds risk should equipment fail. “We are looking forward to the reliability and the water savings that the new tunnel will bring,” she says.

Coordination and backup service between the two Westgate laundries has prevented either property from requiring outside linen support for nearly four years, according to Eberle.

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Although hospitality OPLs are plentiful, linen suppliers contend that most hospitality companies do not fully evaluate the total cost of in-house linen processing.

Laundry Plus, Bradenton, Fla., specializes in hospitality linen processing. “My company is based on the fact that we can process hospitality linen for less than our customers, and still make a profit,” says Laundry Plus President Rick Rone.

“My biggest challenge is getting hotels to take an honest, legitimate look at all of their costs, including the cost of the OPL space requirement,” he says. “For properties on the beach, or other premium locations, that space can be worth a fortune.”

In the current economic climate, many hoteliers are looking for line-item budget reductions, according to Rone. “Our investment in the most efficient equipment available allows us to process at lower costs and in turn provide hotels an immediate reduction in their cost of operations.”

In addition to cost savings, Rone points out a linen service provider’s ability to properly process high-end categories of linen. Higher-thread counts and super-sized king sheets need to be processed on specific finishing equipment for quality results, he says. “There are not many OPL operations with 138-inch working-width finishing systems that can process at 120 feet per minute.”

Laundry Plus now offers RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to track customer linen. “Our technology can provide an instantaneous inventory of linen throughout a property,” Rone says. “The web-based client interface not only tells you how many you have, but where they are, and where they have been.”

Besides inventory access, RFID provides actual linen longevity figures, he adds. “Historically, linen longevity provided by trade associations was general in nature.”

RFID can track how many washes a specific piece of linen has been exposed to, Rone says. “This data can help a general manager evaluate a linen product that costs more, but lasts longer. Now, our clients can have real data to determine what is best for their property.”

Meeting customers’ goals of reducing costs has kept his business on a steady 10-20% annual growth rate, Rone claims, and Laundry Plus is pursuing options for additional plant expansion.

Clearly, there are advantages to both on-premise and contracted laundry services. Additional factors to consider include available OPL space, equipment purchase requirements, and the competitiveness of a particular laundry service market.

The best decision requires a thorough evaluation of all the pertinent information for each particular application.

JENSEN USA HIRES COLUCCIO, PROMOTES CHADSEY, NETUSIL

PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Jensen USA has added a new employee to its sales team and promoted two other employees, the company reports.

Carmen Coluccio has been hired as a regional sales manager,  Michael Chadsey has been promoted to regional sales manager, and David Netusil has been promoted to project manager.

Most recently, Coluccio was director of laundry for Gaylord Entertainers. His other industry experience came while working for Five-Star Laundry, Imperial Laundry Systems and Morgan Linen Services.

Chadsey graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Previously, he was a system designer within Jensen USA’s Design and Engineering department, where he specialized in sorting bin and belt design for Futurail.

Netusil has been promoted to project manager. He has more than 24 years of industrial laundry equipment sales experience (including 20 years with two distributorships) and has been with Jensen for the past four years.

CONTINENTAL GIRBAU PROMOTES MARTIN, ANDERSON, HIRES HULL

OSHKOSH, Wis. — Continental Girbau has made some changes in its personnel, promoting Tari Martin to director of marketing communications and Laura Anderson to graphic designer while hiring Jodi Hull as advertising assistant.

Martin joined Continental in 2005 as Continental Creative Services (CCS) graphic designer. CCS provides advertising, public relations and marketing services to Continental distributors and their

customers across North

America.

In her new role, Martin is charged with overseeing all aspects of advertising, public relations and marketing for Continental, its divisions, subsidiaries and brands.

Anderson joined the Continental team in 2010. In her new role, she handles a mix of design and production

work, focusing on the development of print collateral and direct mail materials for CCS.

Hull comes to Continental with 16 years of graphic design, marketing and print production experience. Most recently, she served as a design specialist at Ep-Direct Printing.

AMERICAN DAWN STREAMLINES DIVISIONS UNDER SINGLE MANAGEMENT TEAM

LOS ANGELES — With renewed focus on customer solutions, American Dawn (ADI) is streamlining all current divisions (Institutional, Hospitality and Healthcare) under one management team, the company says.

Vyto Tozer has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing. The 25-year company veteran is charged with all areas of marketing, sales, product development and customer service.

“ADI plans to offer more application-specific products along with ready-to-market solutions for our customers,” Tozer says. “We are moving from an ‘us’ model to a ‘customer solutions’ model, which holds us all accountable for customer success in the marketplace.”

Steve Kallenbach has been appointed director of market solutions. The 35-year industry veteran will lead growth initiatives and retention dynamics.

“We see our customers’ markets changing and make it our responsibility to lead and respond to these ever-evolving needs, with relevant products and branded solutions,” Kallenbach says. “We are building talent to target new markets and help our customers grow. Simply put, it is our committed goal to be the market leader in providing customer-centric solutions that extend beyond just product.”

ARCO/MURRAY NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION CO. MAKES MATA PARTNER

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — Elliot Mata has become a partner and shareholder of ARCO/Murray National Construction Co., the firm reports. Mata is a director of operations, overseeing all operational responsibilities of the Process Division. He started with ARCO/Murray in 2005.

“Elliot is integral to our success,” says Brad Dannegger, vice president and regional manager. “He has led ARCO/Murray’s development into a predominant design builder in the process niches/industries we pursue.”

RICHMOND, Ky. — Looking for ways to create a more productive workforce? David Carter, senior sales engineer for Tri-State Technical Services, has a few pieces of advice.

Presenting during a webinar sponsored by the Association for Linen Management, Carter consolidated laundries into two types: stand-alone laundries in the business of generating revenue, growing a client base and establishing longevity in the marketplace; and laundries that function as departments or cost centers within a larger organization.

One webinar participant pointed out that a laundry also can be both: a departmental laundry that generates revenue for its larger parent entity.

“That’s a great point,” Carter says. “It’s often what happens in the laundry planning process. When you design and develop a laundry, there is often capacity that is being underutilized. And it allows the hotel or entity to leverage that asset, leveraging the staff to participate in generating revenues.”

TWO TYPES

Carter took webinar participants through a list of business operating characteristics, including the different management outlooks between the two types of laundries, as well as a customer profile, in which a stand-alone business seeks out third-party customers. Although a departmental laundry does not seek out third-party customers—its “customers” are internal, as in other departments within a healthcare center or a hospitality business—it, like a stand-alone laundry, is concerned with the delivery of high-level quality and service.

Carter also focused on the capital investment criteria.

“You, as a laundry director or production manager, when you actually evaluate your workforce, and you want to improve productivity and efficiency,” he says, “by adding a new asset, there are different capital-investment criteria that each of these types of laundries would consider.”

For a revenue-producing laundry, one would need to take stakeholders into account. These could take the form of corporate shareholders, partners or proprietors, Carter says, basically anything or anyone who would contribute a stream of capital.

For a departmental laundry, the capital investment criteria are strictly tied to reducing that department’s operating costs.

He pointed out that two capital-investment criteria are identical in both types of laundries: increasing productivity and improving quality, in both service and linen.

OPERATING COSTS

Another consideration when creating a productive workforce is to consider operating costs, Carter says. The top three are labor, linen replacement costs and utility costs.

Labor is typically the highest number, and linen replacement for a departmental laundry is “the asset that leaves and never returns. There is a physical loss associated with linens (and) that’s why it’s still the second cost in operating a laundry. Of course, with a customer-owned-goods (COG) laundry, there are no linen costs.”

With both types of laundry, utility costs, or what it costs to fuel the operation, is another major consideration.

Along with operating costs, a laundry will need to understand pounds and pieces—the poundage a laundry processes during a workday, and the quantity of items or pieces processed—in order to measure productivity and to set standards.

PRODUCTIVITY

Measuring productivity, Carter says, is a matter of calculating the pounds per operator hour (PPOH) that a laundry produces.

“This is a global evaluation of how effective your workforce is in your laundry environment,” he says. The formula is dividing the total pounds processed each week by the total number of employee hours to determine the PPOH. A higher PPOH means your workforce is operating at a more productive level.

“The idea of creating a more productive laundry operation has a lot to do with limiting the number of physical touches and times employees touch the linen,” he says. “Understanding that simple concept will drive a lot of your evaluation to create a more productive workplace.”

A laundry manager must do his or her homework to document an existing process and the results of that process in order to measure productivity and the true cost of that activity.

Identifying bottlenecks in every step of the operation—pre-process, process and post-process—is another important step in evaluating productivity.

“Once you have identified the bottlenecks,” Carter says, “you have to observe the activity and confirm the actual results over different time periods.” This allows you to know where production gaps may exist or if you need a better schedule for your employees.

Evaluating also will entail quantifying production results, and assigning costs to individual components of the activity, including labor costs, utility costs and even usage costs. Measure the production capability of each piece of equipment, as well as the production capability of the operators.

Identifying production best-practice benchmarks is another step in measuring productivity. This may entail a laundry director or manager going to another facility and observing and evaluating practices employed there. “Because your neighbor may have uncovered or established a process that may enhance your laundry production and create a more productive workforce.”

BENCHMARKING

Observations are key to establishing best-practice benchmarking, but it’s not the only thing you will need to do. Paying attention and analyzing data are keys as well. Identify areas for improvement, research and identify key factors to measure in these areas, and then determine if comparison data is already available. If not, you’ll need to ask or visit other facilities for the information.

Analyze the data and focus on the data that shows a process being performed at the lowest cost and the highest production efficiency. Determine if your laundry conditions can adapt to this particular practice, and then set steps to target a specific area that needs improvement.

“Once you employ a new process or a new practice, you need to understand that you have to continually monitor that process, you have to follow up, and you have to adjust,” Carter says. “When employees change, when equipment changes, when your linen type changes, it has an impact on your productivity. Keep that in mind.”

APPROACHING MANAGEMENT

Determining how much a new practice or process will save, as well as what it will cost, will be keys to approaching management, Carter says.

He says this step can be intimidating, but it can be done with a positive outcome. He suggests a few steps:

• Engage your organization’s financial management staff to assist. Create a team, and the financial analyst or staff accountant will often become invested in the process and begin to figure out ways to help you present the proposal in the best possible light.
• Outline the components of the company’s return on investment (ROI). Draft your outline and recommendations, and then share this draft with your financial team member.
• Finish the presentation in a concise and specific manner, and use your personal style. You are likely to be in a position where you will have to talk with management to lend a messenger to the document, Carter says, and they appreciate the personal touch.

When calculating the ROI, use a simple payback formula: divide the capital investment by the annual expense savings or the annual net profit your company will derive from the investment. You may also need to include how the asset will generate direct revenue.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Once you have the go-ahead for a new process or practice, including new employees or equipment, you will need to examine how to implement the new procedure.

Set the new employee-production standards, and review the new best practice with your employees. Communication is key, Carter says, so allow the employees to provide feedback.

Install the new technology, and then test that your new standard can be met. Training employees will give them the confidence they need to meet that new standard.

After implementation, document the results, and communicate the results to your employees and to management.

Carter suggests adding real-time production tracking systems in order to document the results. Most laundries that collect information manually will take days or weeks to complete an evaluation.

“As a result,” he says, “you may have lost profits or incurred more expenses than necessary. If you had reporting technology in place, you would have feedback on how well you’re doing on a particular process, on your standard and how productive your workforce really is.”

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — In the hospitality business, flatwork finishing truly communicates a level of quality, in both rooms and food-and-beverage services. Competition continues to be a central theme in operating a profitable hotel property. In that competitive environment, discerning customers look for flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi and linen quality in a well-dressed hotel room.

My consulting practice offers interaction with hotel operators of many different types of properties. From roadside family operations to chic boutique and full-service resorts, linen quality oftentimes defines the level of quality and service in the hospitality industry. The big divider is whether or not the bed and F&B linen is ironed.

Not unlike the hospitality business, laundry and linen service options have changed and then changed back over the last several decades. Older boutique properties often have little back-of-the-house square footage, and no room for an ironer. The 100% cotton bed linen of the day when these properties were originally built was likely sent out to a full-service commercial laundry. 

The pre-permanent press commercial laundries utilized a hand-fed “mangle” for flatwork finishing. Before the advent of spreader-feeders and appropriate safety devices, there was a reason why ironers were referred to as mangles. It is true but unsettling to recall the origins of the flatwork ironer nickname. Possibly by referring to the machine as a mangle, operators were reminded of the need to be careful when feeding the machine.

With the advent of wash-and-dry fabrics, much of the hospitality industry abandoned outside linen services in the 1970s. Although larger properties often featured a laundry room adjacent to housekeeping in a remote corner of the property, it would not be unusual for a small hotel to require the night clerk to also pull laundry duty with machines located in a room behind the front desk. On-premise wash and dry significantly reduced costs compared to commercial laundry services.

Competition, however, has a way of changing things. How about a pillow-top bed that requires a super king-sized sheet?  How about 400-thread-count, 100% cotton linen? How about duvet covers on all the beds?

Flatwork finishing in the hospitality industry is back. As competition continues to be strong, senior managers have sought ways to differentiate their properties in areas of quality. Linen quality and finish is now a major benchmark. Although many successful business-class properties continue to prosper with wash-and-fold operations, full-service and coveted four-star designations require quality that can only come from ironed bed and F&B linen.

Processing volume for high-end hospitality flatwork is currently divided between OPL operations and mostly local commercial laundries. Although laundry services are not their core businesses, many hotel operators prefer to operate on-premise operations, in order to better control quality and reduce inventory requirements.

The Wyndham Orlando Resort operates an OPL at this popular conference resort destination. Dave Falzarano, director of rooms, says that providing ironed rooms linen increases the cleanliness of the rooms. Wyndham also dresses every bed with duvet covers; duvets in all the rooms are a brand standard. “Our duvets are washed and ironed after every guest, improving the quality and cleanliness of the room,” Falzarano says.

Besides improving quality, Falzarano believes the in-house ironing line actually reduces processing costs. “The machine automation does the work faster and better than if we dried the flatwork in a dryer and folded by hand,” he explains. “Although the original equipment purchase was significant, over time, flatwork finishing automation yields higher revenue.”

In addition to controlling quality, the on-premise laundry can reduce the cost of inventory. Given the time required to transport and process goods off-site, the average property will need to increase its par level by 1.5 to meet a similar level of service. High-end rooms linen can run several hundred dollars per room set. The added cost of increased par linen inventory in a 500-room property can easily exceed $200,000 per year.

The advantage of a professional outside linen service is just that—it is professional. Many facilities have spent the big bucks to operate the latest in automation and energy-efficient equipment. It is extremely difficult for an on-premise laundry to compete with the economies of scale and level of competence provided by well-managed linen service suppliers.

The lowest cost for linen service can vary between OPL and linen service. Linen services have the added expense of transportation. Depending on your delivery requirements, these charges can be significant. Plus, everybody needs to make a profit.

Many professional linen service providers, however, are dramatically more efficient than most on-premise hospitality operators.

It is difficult for many hospitality operations to accurately determine their linen processing costs. True costs not only include direct utilities, chemicals, maintenance and direct labor, but also the costs for heat and air, supervision, insurance, and the value of an alternate use of the space.

Whether linen is processed on-premise or off-site, quality is a major indicator of the overall quality of any hotel property.

ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — Bill Carey has been in the laundry business his entire adult life. Six years ago, he took over the helm at Space Coast Hospital Services, a not-for-profit hospital cooperative laundry.

“Our mission is to help our hospitals reduce their cost of linen services,” Carey says. “If we don’t help them, somebody else will. We are operating in an extremely competitive environment right now, and we have to deliver.”

Education, Training Lead to Savings

Besides linen management, another area where Space Coast Hospital Services has reduced client linen costs is in isolation gowns. Carey credits Bobby Coble, territory manager, acute care, Encompass Group, with helping meet client needs.

“Traditional gowns tie in the back,” Coble says. “Ties in the back are more difficult for patients to untie. Disposables were reportedly preferred by many patients because they could just rip them off and throw the gown away.”

Encompass came up with a gown that ties on the side, enabling patients to more easily take it off and making the garment more acceptable for isolation applications, according to Coble.

Space Coast Hospital Services provides linen management support in each hospital in areas of linen utilization and educational programs. It also partners with Encompass, which provides customers with a linen-management tracking tool to pinpoint cost and usage by user area.

Pam Perdicaro, Carey’s service manager, reaches out to hospital clients to help them better understand laundry and linen operations, and how correct procedures can reduce their costs.

Quarterly hospital linen service director meetings and semi-annual on-site linen awareness programs emphasize training. “Nursing needs to understand that any additional linen left in a room has to be removed and sent back to the laundry for processing when the patient leaves,” Perdicaro says. “Storing additional items in a patient room just adds to their costs.”

There is improvement after the meetings and training, according to Perdicaro, but the laundry has found that regular reviews are needed to keep things fresh in everyone’s mind.

For example, the laundry learned that some certified nursing assistants were discarding soiled incontinent pads that could have been laundered. “They were throwing away the items that they thought were ‘too dirty,’” Perdicaro says.

“Another major area of linen cost that we manage is linen loss from transport,” Carey says. “We now provide specific EMT packs of linen for transporting patients leaving a hospital. The packs contain linen items needed, but they may have a small stain or tear that would keep them out of our standard linen inventory.”

It is an efficient way to utilize linen that would otherwise go to rag out, while in turn reducing clients’ linen losses, Carey says.

“Information and training saved one of our clients $350,000 over the last five years by reducing their pounds per adjusted patient day,” he says.

Staff is Key to Co-op Laundry’s Success

Carey credits his staff with initiatives to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Plant Operations Manager Ray Esche evaluated truck run and idle times to reduce diesel consumption.

“We used to have to keep our trucks idling during the unload process in order to power the lift gates,” Carey says. “We worked with our lift gate supplier to install remote lift-gate power outlets at the dock. Now, the lift gates work off electricity, allowing the diesel engines to shut down.”

Space Coast Hospital Services also installed governors on its delivery trucks to limit highway speeds to 68 mph. Fuel consumption reports show that transportation miles per gallon were increased by 14.5% for the truck fleet.

Kelley Desjardins, production manager, tracks daily plant processing production every day.

“We bonus our production employees for performance,” Desjardins says. “Once the plant performance threshold is met, the production employee needs to reach at least 98% of the production standard for any bonuses to kick in. Bonuses increase as pounds per operator hour increases for the entire plant.”

The plant, originally built in 1982, was expanded and upgraded with tunnel washer technology in the early ’90s. Two Milnor tunnel washers and four Chicago Dryer Co. finishing lines meet core production requirements.

Although designed for 15 million pounds per year on a single shift five days a week, economic conditions have reduced processing requirements.

“In order to reduce operating costs and still keep our people working, we went to four production days, eliminating Wednesday linen processing,” Carey says. “Office, maintenance, and delivery still operate five days per week.”

Thirty-one of 67 employees have worked at Space Coast for more than 10 years. “Our people are the key to our success, and employee retention is very important to us,” Carey says.

He remains positive about the future. “We are well positioned for additional business. We will continue to be a high-quality linen service and will always stay committed to our mission of providing the best service and quality product at the lowest possible cost.”

Click here for Part 1.

ROANOKE, Va. — I once wrote about having an opportunity to use reusable barrier isolation gowns in all the hospitals that comprise the Carilion Clinic. The ability to start such a program was rewarding after having failed to gain approval over the previous seven years.

Initial User Training

We had two major fears as we were getting ready to start. We wanted to make sure the reusable barrier gowns were returned to the laundry for reprocessing and we wanted to make sure that the nurses were properly trained on how to tie the reusable gowns. We wanted them to be able to use a similar technique to which they had become accustomed with the disposable gowns.

Working with a nursing unit director and the hospital training department, we developed an in-service program. The education piece includes information about the environmental impact of switching from disposable barrier gowns. It also explains the quality-control system in use, details the expected cost savings associated with shifting to reusables, and addresses how to maintain proper gowning technique.

Product Rollout

We began with a 60-day trial on four units. We surveyed the staff after 30 days and again after 60 days to determine product acceptance. The staff was pleasantly surprised by the reusable barrier isolation gown, commenting that:

• the reusable gowns had greater drapeability and were easier to put on than the disposables
• the reusable gowns were more comfortable to wear
• they felt better protected wearing the reusable gowns
• the packaging worked better in the over-the-door caddies
• the reusable gowns required less storage space on the units
• the nurses appreciated the reduced environmental impact

This study resulted in full product approval by the infection control committee and the nursing product standardization committee. We rolled out the program gradually, adding four units every six weeks until the entire system was using the reusable barrier isolation gowns.

When we began, we were producing 1,500 reusable barrier isolation gowns per month for one or two departments. We are now averaging 87,000 gowns per month.

The additional business has been great for our laundry, and we have reduced our system’s cost for isolation gowns by $300,000 per year.

Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 2.

Consulting Services: Ron Evans, RJ Evans and Associates

I am president of RJ Evans and Associates, a consulting firm for the industrial laundry industry. My firm primarily focuses on strengthening customer management programs within textile rental service departments, but has expanded into working with and strengthening full-time sales programs.

My career started more than 35 years ago with a national uniform company in its management-training program. The next 12 years were spent on the operator side of the business in sales, service and general management positions.

An opportunity arose to join an international supplier to the global textile industry as its director of training. This enabled me to visit hundreds of industrial laundries around the world for 15 years and train personnel in product knowledge, sales skills, and service growth. I learned hundreds of techniques and practices that expanded my own knowledge and learning base.

As a result of this exposure to so many companies and their diverse methods in achieving success, I was often asked to participate in textile industry meetings, conventions and workshops as a committee member and speaker.

I became an instructor at the prestigious Executive Management Institute (EMI) for nine years, the executive director of the Independent Textile Rental Association (ITRA), and a training instructor with the Central States Network (CSC) and Universal/UniLink Purchasing Association (UPA). I can say, without doubt, that I have worked with and trained more people in our industry than any other consultant over the past 20 years.

The biggest challenge my team and I have to address is how to successfully assist clients and the textile industry to establish customer management programs that consistently maintain and grow their customer bases. Changing needs require changing customer-service programs that reignite customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2011 was a year of accomplishments. We expanded our training workshop schedule, developed a webinar program to reach a greater number of our clients’ employees, expanded our client list, and improved our database of training information. We also added several new programs to our list of training seminars.

I am looking forward to contributing to this excellent Panel.

Commercial Laundry: Tom Gildred, Emerald Textiles

It is an honor to join the Panel of Experts. I am an entrepreneur and the CEO of Emerald Textiles, headquartered in San Diego County, Calif. Prior to Emerald, I founded FMT Consultants, a business management firm and Microsoft Partner where I am chairman of the board. Prior to founding FMT, I worked for Ernst & Young in its audit and consulting practices for five years. I am also chairman of the board of Gildred Companies and president of the board of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Operational just over a year, Emerald Textiles has quickly become a leading provider of healthcare linen to Southern California and now serves many of the major healthcare systems in the area, including Sharp HealthCare, Scripps Health, UC San Diego Medical System, Eisenhower Medical Center and Kaiser San Diego.

Emerald operates a technologically advanced and environmentally responsible commercial healthcare laundry facility, and saves San Diego County more than 700,000 therms of natural gas and approximately 40 million gallons of water annually.

Its goals include delivering innovative, higher-quality products; increased infection control and energy efficiency; and delivering substantial savings to our customers through new, lighter products and superior linen management.

One of our primary challenges this past year was acquiring sufficient linen supplies to keep pace with our growth. Some of Emerald’s accomplishments in 2011 include extreme energy savings and establishing our position as provider to the major healthcare systems in our area.

I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with this panel.

Uniforms/Workwear Manufacturing: Steve Kallenbach, American Dawn

I’m a three-decade veteran in the textile rental, garment resale and wholesale textile segments of our industry. Starting as a route driver in the 1970s, I earned promotion into service/sales/production management, general management and finally group general management with two of the industry’s largest uniform and textile rental companies (Todd Uniform, later purchased by ARAMARK Uniform Services).

After 13 years on the laundry side, I moved to vendor with the largest apparel maker in the industry, VF Imagewear. That career spanned 11 years and included selling and managing many nationally licensed image apparel programs – still serving the industry.

I then founded and operated a direct sale company (Image Apparel – Brand Identity Solutions) and a garment manufacturing company (Basic Apparel), and subsequently sold them to my partners.

In 2004, I joined American Dawn Inc. as regional sales manager for California. American Dawn services this segment of the industry with toweling, linens, aprons and specialty garments.

I have been a featured speaker at many industry conventions and national sales meetings, and have consulted to some of the largest companies in the industry as a trainer/teacher in sales and marketing. I now regularly instruct at EMI (TRSA’s Executive Management Institute) and PMI (Production Management Institute), plus make regular appearances at Pepperdine University as a guest lecturer in strategic marketing.

I’m proud to be considered an expert in this segment, including sales, marketing, service, administration, production and procurement; and I’m excited to have been chosen to serve this well-read and important publication in our industry. I love this business!

Tuesday: Introductions to representatives from the textiles, linen supply, and hotel/motel/resort laundry sectors.

Click here for Part 1.

DULUTH, Ga. —IPA, makers of scrubEx and alEx™, has named Sarah James its director of product management. Serving in a new position created to capitalize on growth opportunities, James is responsible for complete product positioning and strategy for the company.

James earned her MBA from King College in Bristol, Tenn., and has six years of healthcare laundry experience. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Association for Linen Management (ALM) and is currently the chair of the marketing committee.

IPA manufactures automated scrub suit and linen dispensing systems for the healthcare market.

RIPON, Wis. — Alliance Laundry Systems has promoted Jennifer Whitney to financial services manager.

Whitney will continue to work with all of Alliance’s finance groups, including Speed Queen Financial Services, UniMac Funding, Huebsch Financial and IPSO Finance. In her new role, she will be responsible for all equipment loan underwriting and origination, finance program and promotion development, marketing services support, and distributor and customer relationship development.

For more than 13 years, Whitney has been a key member of Alliance’s finance team. She recently worked in a dual role where she successfully developed Alliance’s acquisition financing portfolio and worked as a liaison to marketing services and ALSU.

“We’re extremely honored to offer Jennifer this opportunity, especially since she’s played such a key role in our division,” says Todd Rice, director of Financial Services for Alliance Laundry Systems. “We look forward to her continued success and congratulate her on a job well-done.”

Whitney received her B.B.A. in finance and business administration from Valparaiso (Ind.) University. Prior to joining Alliance, she worked for JP Morgan Chase, formerly known as Bank One.

DENVER, N.C. — Leonard Automatics has added two new employees to its staff, the company reports.

Ron Wilkins (left) joins the company as mechanical engineer. He brings years of engineering and design experience to Leonard, in addition to an understanding of industry-standard software packages and mechanical processes.

Robert Spradley (right) is the company’s newest service technician. He is a career service tech who has worked in high-tech environments all over the world, Leonard says. As a specialist in system installation and integration, he brings years of experience and a wide range of knowledge to the company.

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. — David N. Page has been selected as the new vice president of healthcare for the Institution Division of Venus Group, the company reports.

He has been in the healthcare industry for more than 25 years, including 11-plus years with Medline and 10 years with Angelica.

He brings to Venus Group a wealth of knowledge covering topics from utilization of management programs to optimize operational efficiencies and reduce total linen program costs, to product knowledge within the industry, to having key contacts in some of the larger healthcare facilities and buying groups.

Page is a member of several healthcare associations, and the company plans to draw upon his expertise to develop its healthcare business.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. — Maytag Commercial Laundry awarded John Morris Equipment & Supply Co. of Springfield, Mo., this year’s Red Carpet Service Excellence Award. Pride Laundry Systems of North Hills, Calif., took the On-Premises Laundry (OPL) Excellence Award. The honors were presented during Maytag’s 53rd Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, Calif.

The Red Carpet Service Excellence Award is presented to a company that best exemplifies the excellent service and dependability characterized by the Maytag Commercial Laundry brand, Maytag says.

“John Morris Equipment & Supply Co. has been affiliated with Maytag Commercial Laundry for more than 50 years,” says Craig Kirchner, global director of Maytag Commercial Laundry. “Year after year, their dedication to quality service, our brand and their customers is truly remarkable.”

“Dependability and reliability are a major part of our job, and we pride ourselves on providing our customers with the best service available,” says Terry Gideon, general manager of John Morris Equipment & Supply Co. “This award demonstrates our dedication to the long-standing Maytag Commercial Laundry brand, and our current and future customers.”

John Morris Equipment & Supply Co.’s territory covers Missouri and portions of northern Arkansas, eastern Kansas and western Illinois. The company is a past recipient of Maytag’s OPL Excellence Award.

But this year’s On-Premises Laundry (OPL) Excellence Award, an honor that recognizes a company’s effective and efficient service to its OPL customers, went to Pride Laundry Systems.

“Excellence, dependability and exemplary service are synonymous with the Maytag Commercial Laundry brand,” says Kirchner. “Pride Laundry Systems embodies what our company stands for, and we’re pleased to recognize them with this distinguished honor.”

“We take great satisfaction in our reputation as an efficient and dependable distributor to the OPL market,” says Mark Goodman, president of Pride Laundry Systems. “Our loyal association to the dependable Maytag Commercial Laundry brand reinforces our dedication and promise to provide the best equipment and service to our customers.”

Pride Laundry Systems, Inc. serves Southern California and Nevada as a commercial laundry equipment specialist and an authorized Maytag Commercial Laundry distributor. The company specializes in developing coin-laundry stores, multi-housing laundry sales and services, OPL equipment and design, and laundry equipment parts and service.

The activity on the show floor increased today. More people, more questions, a great show. I talked with a number of companies and they were extremely pleased with the show. I had to wait numerous times to be able to get my questions answered.

Many of the people attribute the activity at the show to a more optimistic laundry industry. Companies are looking for ways to prepare for the expected economic recovery. The feeling is that those who prepare now will be able to thrive when things improve.

Eric Frederick is director of linen services for Carilion Laundry Service, Roanoke, Va., and a two-time Association for Linen Management manager of the year.

It is a very unique experience to walk the Clean Show during the last hours of installation. To watch the smiles from those whose booth plans have turned out better than expected and from those scrambling to make last-minute improvements to their plans. I feel the excitement in the air as the laundry industry prepares for another Clean Show.

Eric Frederick is director of linen services for Carilion Laundry Service, Roanoke, Va., and a two-time Association for Linen Management manager of the year.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. — Pierce Commercial Laundry, Mandeville, La., recently received the prestigious Fred Maytag Award during Maytag® Commercial Laundry’s 53rd Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, Calif.

The Fred Maytag Award, with a history of more than five decades, is the longest-running award in the commercial laundry industry, Maytag says.