JULY 2018
Late News Cincinnati rental, uniform service co. closes after fire CINCINNATI — Superior Linen & Apparel, a rental and uniform service company that had served 90 years in this area, decided to close its doors after a fire destroyed the building May 22, the company reports. Superior posted the following statement on its Facebook page: “It is with heavy hearts we must announce that because of a fire that has completely destroyed our facility, Superior Linen & Apparel is closing with no plans to reopen. After 90 years of business as a family-owned and -operated company, our work and our customers have meant so much to us. Thank you for all of your support throughout the years!” The Cincinnati Fire Department reports that more than 90 firefighters were on the scene, but due to the “heavy fire load and advanced fire conditions,” the department says it had to fight a defensive battle. In the end, the business was a total loss. Fortunately, Cincinnati officials say no injuries were reportALN ed.
Laundry service keeps it simple, clean Small business grows from diaper service to commercial laundry venture BY MATT POE, EDITOR ST. LOUIS — In the late 1970s, Victor Kiam, who was the owner of Remington Products at the time, starred in a national television commercial for the company. The catchphrase? “I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company!” That’s how Mark and Kathy Huntebrinker came to own Simply Clean Laundry Service, located here. “We purchased an existing diaper service [Baby Care Diaper Service] back in 2006 after we used the service ourselves and fell in love with it,” explains Mark. For the first five years of their ownership, he says the business operated out of the couple’s house, outsourcing the laundering of diapers to another laundry service. “We had a dedicated room in our house where Kathy and I sorted the diapers, bagged them and then delivered them,” Mark remembers.
In the beginning, he says the diaper service was so small that Kathy took care of most things while he continued to work full-time. “In order to keep costs down, when we first started, we used our personal van with
magnets to do deliveries,” he shares. “Now we have three dedicated, wrapped vans for deliveries, and we run seven days a week.” See CLEAN on Page 6
LINEN INVENTORY:
Technology available, but training is key Both employees and customers should be trained, author says BY SAM SPENCE SADDLE BROOK, N.J. — It’s important that an operation be able to keep track of goods: where they are, whether they are clean or soiled, and at what point in their life cycle they are. It’s important that the laundry and the customer know the status of each piece, because linen loss is costly, and service can be negatively impacted if stock levels aren’t kept where needed. The earliest linen inventory systems involved manually counting goods. Then came barcodes, where items were tagged and Volume 44, Number 7
INSIDE Keep Rewash Solutions Simple This month’s OPL 101 looks at simple, but effective, ways to reduce rewash.
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Simply Clean Laundry Service is a family affair for Mark and Kathy Huntebrinker, with children (from left) Caitlyn (12), Norah (10) and Ryan (8). (Photo: Simply Clean Laundry Service)
could be tracked using a hand scanner. Today, radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has taken linen tracking and inventory to another level. Chips are attached to goods, which then can be scanned, not one at a time but in batches. A cart filled with RFID-tagged linens can be pushed into a scanner, and even in a mass of goods, each individual item can be scanned and the operation’s management system then updated as to the location and status of each piece throughout the operation, from soil to shelves. However, it is important to remember that any system, from fully automated RFID to manual soil counting, is only as good and effective as it is properly implemented. Recognizing this fact, those using the systems See LINEN on Page 10
www.americanlaundrynews.com
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Panel of Experts Our experts offer their thoughts on acceptable methods for staging goods overnight.
Laundry employee training is key for effective use of inventory tracking technology. (Image licensed by Ingram Publishing)
The Newspaper of Record for Laundry & Linen Management
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Finishing Equipment Laundry operators need to consider all variables for finishing equipment choices.
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