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Unusual care labels -2
Richard Neale and Roger Cawood conclude their review of the unusual and foreign care labels which keep cropping up in UK cleaners’ workload. The rst part was published in the October 2022 issue of LCN. To illustrate how you can minimise the risks when taking in a suspiciously labelled garment, we have added a case study. This shows how to recognise a garment which has not been labelled in accordance with the international standard1 used worldwide, and which should be treated with the utmost suspicion.
A military manoevre
It is no secret that the drycleaning industry has been shrinking over the years due to many changes in our social structure and way of life. Howard Bradley reckons breaking out of your comfort zone can pay dividends. During the worldwide recession of 2007/8 cleaners, including me, watched in despair as customers who had previously brought in their garments every week for cleaning, felt the pinch and changed routine and brought in their clothing once a month instead.
The feelgood factor
ILE’S Richard Brown believes nothing is as important as appreciating every individual you deal with in business and recognising their value. Industrial Laundry Equipment (ILE) would like to wish its friends and colleagues in China and all of its customers in the UK, a happy and successful new year in general and celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Rabbit.
Threads count
Stand by your beds! Linen production in all its many forms faces challenges this year – but tough conditions promote innovation and so production processes are streamlined and suppliers bend over backwards to smooth the way. Kathy Bowry reports. Hospitality and healthcare linen providers have their work cut out dealing with challenges thrown up by the energy crisis, lack of skilled labour in the UK and other global factors affecting linen supply.
TRSA seminar series on seeding a new plant
USA
Thursday, 16 March 16 sees TRSA, the North America trade association for the linen rental industry, launch a new series of virtual seminars a addressing the procedures involved in building a new plant. Over three sessions, attendees can compare Arway Linen and Uniform Rental Service’s early stages of planning to replace their legacy facility with tactics others may have used or contemplated to re-engineer their own businesses.
European software group acquires Germany’s SoCom
EUROPE
The software group Everfield has acquired the Bavarian software company SoCom Informationssysteme GmbH. This is Everfield’s first investment in Germany on its way to becoming a pan-European group of B2B software companies. SoCom has developed a full-fledged ERP system for the textile care industry and is one of Europe’s leading providers in this segment. Everfield aims to help SoCom achieve long-term and sustainable growth.
TSA Congress: Charitable multi-bank pays dividends in hope and sustainability
UK
Investing in a charitable ‘multi-bank’ project will pay dividends for those in poverty in the UK and in sensible and sustainable end-of-life arrangements for laundry linens as they are re-used by people who really need them, said ex-premier Gordon Brown in his address to the Textile Services Association (TSA) annual National Congress in Edinburgh.
Sir John Curtice: Three years on, the Brexit zeitgeist has changed
UK
The Textile Services Association (TSA) annual National Congress in Edinburgh, 9 February, saw Sir John Curtice presented a paper on the vexed question of Brexit and its repercussions three years on. He is Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, and Senior Research Fellow, NatCen Social Research and the ESRC’s ‘The UK in a Changing Europe’ initiative. He has written extensively about voting behaviour in the UK, and British political and social attitudes. He is also a familiar figure from countless appearances on BBC elections specials as the resident statistician.
TSA Congress beats a path to Edinburgh
UK
The Textile Services Association (TSA) annual National Congress in Edinburgh got under way on Thursday 9 February and there was plenty for CEO David Stevens to report on, from lobbying the Government for more help in the energy crisis, through rocketing costs, the labour shortage, training programmes to positive initiatives on mental health and sustainability strategies. There was also a cracking list of speakers and presenters lined up for the event with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown topping the list.
Pioneering Bristol café-launderette to close
UK
Bristol-based sisters Ellen, Cassie and Lily (pictured) have announced that At The Well café-launderette will be closing for business at the end of March 2023. The three sisters opened this unique community facility in Stokes Croft in the summer of 2012, following a nine-month renovation of Bristol’s first coin-op laundrette, which had previously stood derelict for over a decade.