Textile rental focus

Better prospects may be in sight in bedlinen

1 February 2012



The cotton crisis and ever rising energy prices affected all sectors of the textile and textile care markets during 2011. They also highlighted a move away from 100% cotton bedlinen and towards cotton-rich blends and other alternatives. Still many textile suppliers reported good business and with prices calmer now, 2012 may well see an improvement, Janet Taylor reports


Ever rising cotton prices proved a dominant trend in the bedlinen market during 2011 but as levels began to settle towards the end of the year, the prospects for 2012 may be improving.

While noting the rising cotton price trend, Richard Yates, national account manager at Linen Connect, reports that the company was very busy during the past year.

Sales were consistently high and steady throughout the year without any peaks and troughs. Yates adds that the company did not change the mills it works with during 2011, ensuring that quality remained consistent.

In particular the company saw increased sales of its two cotton-rich products, Siena, a 70/30 cotton/polyester plain-colour bedlinen collection and Murano, an 80/20 cotton-rich, satin stripe duvet cover range.

Siena in particular was a best seller says Yates and he believes that most hotels are now opting for cotton-rich products rather than just relying on 100% cotton. Price certainly has influenced this preference but the inclusion of polyester in the mix brings distinct advantages, explains Yates. It has a greater tensile strength and therefore helps to improve the bedlinen’s durability during repeated laundry processes.

Another advantage is that polyester absorbs less moisture so that it does not take so long to dry, thus cutting down on laundering costs.

So after a good year and with cotton prices calming a little, Yates is cautiously optimistic for 2012.

The hospitality market has generally been challenging, according to Rod Nutter, commercial director for

HLL Linens and its “Linens by Hilden” brand. Still, his company did good business, benefiting from recruiting experienced sales executives to its team early in the year.

HLL has maintained its clear focus, becoming more competitive and winning significant hotel group contracts.

Sales to the linen rental sector continued to grow, even allowing for inflation caused by cotton prices. HLL’s unit sales improved significantly in 2011, says Rod Nutter.

However, he notes that hotels have been reluctant to change suppliers because of the high prices and similarly many laundries have been waiting for cotton prices to become more favourable before investing in stock.

Chris Kingsford, sales director at Tonrose describes 2011 as steady after the dramatic events in the cotton market during 2010 and in the early part of 2011.

He says that the expected peak in the hotel trade during the Royal Wedding period did not occur as prospective visitors to London decided to stay away to avoid the higher prices being charged by hotels.

This company too notes that laundries were reluctant to spend on linen while prices were high. Instead they focussed on working harder with their existing stock and also on managing this more efficiently.

Raj Ruia, managing director at Richard Haworth, agrees that price has been a deciding factor for customers during 2011. He says that generally they have been holding on to stocks for as long as possible and those that have placed orders have shopped around before doing so.

Security problems

One side effect of the rising cotton price is that bedlinen and other cotton products have become a valuable item and a target for theft. The Textile Services Association has taken steps to tackle this and joined forces with the Housekeeping Association and the Institute of Hospitality in launching a poster campaign to alert hotels to their responsibilities for keeping their linen stocks secure.

It is also running a similar campaign to deter misuse of linen by hotel staff. Posters ask if they would use a bed sheet or pillowcases to clean floors or bathrooms at home?

The campaigns urge the reporting of suspicious behaviour and of linen misuse/abuse or bad practice. Posters explain that TSA has set up a confidential LinenLine phone number for this purpose.

Ruia at Richard Haworth says that indeed security is becoming a problem for the industry and that increasingly laundries are conducting on-site stock checks at hotels. His company has taken the initiative to assist in such checks by offering a service to sew RFID chips into linen to give its customers more visibility on their stock and make it easier to track and trace.

Tonrose’s Kingsford agrees that linen is no longer seen as commodity but as a very valuable property and he remarks that laundries are taking steps to reduce the risk of theft.

Sophisticated tracking systems are being introduced and Tonrose will be introducing this kind of service in 2012.

The textile care industry is still struggling to get hotels to recognise their responsibilities for preventing losses through theft or abuse and the laundries’ right to charge when it occurs. However, TSA is working hard to get the message across. On the whole textile companies seem to be more optimistic about 2012.

Richard Yates at Linen Connect says that cotton price levels have calmed compared with the early part of 2011.

Although there are still some rises and falls, he believes that it will be generally much easier to predict and plan for what will happen in this respect. He says that the company is planning some exciting additions to its bedlinen range but cannot reveal the details as yet.

Wholesaler DG Textiles director Andy Jamshidzadeh is also more optimistic about prospects for 2012 after a hard time in 2011 as a result of the volatility in cotton prices and the “sky high” levels reached.

He remains a firm believer in the 100% Egyptian cotton that his company supplies and which is still required by the top hotels.

However, DG Textiles is now cautiously introducing a range of cotton-rich 80/20 bed linen and Jamshidzadeh says that this has been well received. It looks very good and it is more durable [because of the polyester content].

But he stresses that he would not consider a 50/50 blend for bed sheets and believes that this would not suit his hotel customers or their guests.

Duvet covers are a different matter as the duvet is placed on top of the bed and guests do not have to lie on it. DG Textiles has developed a 50/50 blend satin stripe duvet cover and he is very happy with the result. Customers prefer this blend for this application and he has seen for himself that the covers respond very well to laundry processes.

The satin stripe finish gives a good appearance.

Talking about expected market trends in 2012 Raj Ruia at Richard Haworth says that controlling costs will still be a priority for many of the company’s customers in view both of cotton pricing and of the spiralling energy costs.

So the company’s development has focussed on linen that has a longer life cycle and that requires less processing. The result is the Optima finish which uses special ”never-used before” technology to produce a fabric that is easy care and resists the creasing often encountered with percale but at the same time offers hotel guests ”the ultimate in soft sheets”.

Ruia says that the finish has been designed to ensure that linens keep their “ as new” appearance and feel for longer. Optima linen has also been designed to help the launderer.

Less sizing is used in manufacture and this has helped to reduce the COD (chemical oxygen demand) in the effluent after processing, reducing processing costs.

A built-in stain-release system helps to reduce the amount of soiling staying on the fabric.

The finish will also repel moisture while dry but the fabric will still wet-out fully during laundering so making cleansing easy.

Ruia points out that every hotel is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint and the wish to reduce frequency of laundering and to use renewable products will continue throughout this year.

In general the opinion is that cotton prices will be steadier in 2012 although some volatility might remain.

Chris Kingsford at Tonrose points out that prices have fallen from their record high but says that the mills are still facing challenges around power and distribution and this will be factored into pricing.

Rod Nutter at HLL Linens points out that inflation in the cotton producing countries – China, India and Pakistan – is higher than in 2010 and this may affect the degree to which prices fall and stop them returning to pre-crisis levels. As with 2011, companies will need to have a clear strategy to manage buying discussions in 2012.

Raj Ruia at Richard Haworth feels that it is still difficult to predict what will happen with pricing in 2012. On a global level there will be growth in demand from Chinese and Indian markets but his company still expects prices to stay fairly regimented.

In terms of product development, the trend to cotton-rich 70/30 or 80/20 bedlinen is likely to continue.

This is certainly the view for HLL where Rod Nutter says that 100% cotton will mainly be associated with higher thread count qualities.

But he says that there has also been much interest in a micro-fibre product that the company recently introduced.

It sees this as a significant step from the current cotton/polyester mixes clearly brought about by the pressure on cotton prices.

At the end of 2011 HLL also added anti-allergen linen and eco-friendly ranges. He says both developments attracted significant interest from organisations such as The Housekeeper Association although perhaps the anti-allergy range is taking the lead.

He explains that allergy sufferers are discovering that they can begin to choose hotels with low allergy rooms and so the company sees this as a key growth area for the future.

The 2012 Olympics is an event that has caused much discussion ever since the UK was chosen as host.

Initially, it was seen as a great opportunity for textile rental laundries and their textile suppliers but as the games drew closer opinions have changed somewhat.

The event, which is closely followed by the Paralympics, will pose logistics problems for managing deliveries.

Further as Richard Yates at Linen Connect points out, hotels in and around London will certainly be busy but that doesn’t necessarily mean more bedlinen sales. Room bookings will tend to be longer and bedlinen is unlikely to be changed for stays up to three days, although there may be higher demand for towels and bath linen as these products will still have to be changed frequently. So Yates still feels that the effect of the event on sales will be difficult to predict.

Rod Nutter at HLL Linens points out that the opening of more four and five-star hotels has helped to boost business but that established hotels are delaying stock ordering on soft furnishings until after the games are over.

Andy Jamshidzadeh at DG Textiles is more optimistic. All companies connected with the leisure industry have been targeting the Olympics and he points out that the estimated increase in visitors is around five to six million. So he says he’s eager to see what benefits that will bring, but even so, it’s a relatively short period.




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