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Home sweet home

February 16 is officially Trevor Koopman’s final day as a South East Laundry employee but in reality he walked out of the building for the last time on Friday after a farewell party worthy of someone who has clocked up 46 years of employment.

The now 69 year old joined the South East laundry team on September 19, 1975, after nailing his interview.

“I virtually put him on straight away,” retired South East Laundry owner Darryl Hirth said.

Trevor’s foray into the South East laundry world was actually following in his mother’s footsteps but he only made the move after the Yahl meat processing plant where he was working closed its doors.

“Darryl was looking for a driver and asked my mum to ask me and that’s how it all came about,” Trevor said.

Initially Trevor was doing the Mount Gambier run, heading to butchers, motels and picking up overalls from other workplaces and then delivering the washed goods back to their owners.

“I did that for about 10 years,” Trevor said, before opportunity came knocking again, with, then owner, Mr Kroker, offering Trevor the chance to secure his boiler certificate so he could run the boiler. It was a 13 week course and marked the next chapter in his working life. “He (Mr Kroker) didn’t offer that to too many people, you really had to earn it,” Trevor said. He then transitioned to the washroom, although the washroom in 2022 doesn’t remotely resemble the washroom of Trevor’s early career and while that role was tough physical work, despite the automation of today, it is still a physically demanding job with the volume having significant increased.

“At the beginning of the week you do four to five tonnes of laundry and then at the end of the week it might drop slightly to three tonnes,” Trevor said.

Of course that is no longer an issue for the former 2IC, who was offered that role a few years after Darryl took over the laundry from Egans, of Colac.

“I managed the business for 14 years for the Egans and then they offered the business to Fran and I and we virtually built ourselves a future - both our daughters worked here,” Darryl said.

As business owner, the responsibilities and commitments started to pile up for Darryl and Trevor was the perfect fit for the 2IC role – he did and still does, know every inch of the business and how things run.

And Trevor’s longevity at the business did make for an interesting transition when Darryl added former bank employee Ward Freeman to the team as manager.

“It was strange at first when Wade (Freeman) came from the bank and he was telling me what to do when I had been here 40 years,” Trevor said. “But we worked it out and right up util me leaving we were able to go with the flow. Wade was good at the figures, the emails and everything to do with the computer, while I was good with people.”

And it is the people as much as anything that Trevor will miss most.

“This is home to me,” he said. “I never took a sick day, never took time off. The laundry is like a family, I just loved the job.”

In the end, it was health issues that saw Trevor walk away from the laundry before he was really ready to say goodbye.

“I have been off for nearly 12 months with cancer and other health issues – never had a sick day in my life and then it all sort of happened at once,” Trevor said. “I I would have kept going – I didn’t want to leave but your health has to come first – it was a really hard decision.”

Hard, too, was handing over his keys last week – that made it more final than it had seemed in the lead up to his February 16 departure date.

Trevor’s retirement leaves Lindsay Button, with 36 years service, as the longest serving employee, with a number of the female staff having started with the business in their teens and then returning after having a family.

JUST LIKE FAMILY: (Above) South East Laundry general manager Ward Freeman; retiree Trevor Koopman & owner Darryl Hirth.

“...he didn’t offer that to too many people, you really had to earn it...” Trevor Koopman

“...the laundry is like a family, I just loved the job...” Trevor Koopman

SOUTH EAST LAUNDRY

2016 MOUNT GAMBIER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

THE STORY OF THE HIRTHS & THE HYATT

People need clean sheets, towels and pillow slips. Seems obvious, but it has been the basis for a business success story spanning almost seven decades – South East Laundry. The business was established by Mr Kroker and first operated from Gwendoline Street, on the site which is now occupied by the Mount Gambier Court House. In 1960 he relocated the laundry to its current site in Anthony Street and that’s when, now owner, Darryl Hirth, first joined the team.

The business has been built on its strong relationships with the hospitality and accommodation industry, aged care sector and laundering industrial clothing, with clients in Mount Gambier, Bordertown, Portland, Casterton, Robe, Penola and Naracoorte.

After a stint with the, then E&WS, Darryl was lured back to the laundry, eventually taking on ownership of the Anthony Street business in 1995. It has been a family affair for the Hirths with wife Fran and daughters Lisa and Kerry all having worked there, with Kerry still part of the South East Laundry team. So dedicated to being at the cutting edge of the industry, Darryl even used to visit laundries while on family holidays. “I would see a laundry and pull over so I could go and have a look,” Darryl said.

He has also always been active in peak industry bodies and attending national conferences. “There were international guest speakers and you could keep upto-date with what was happening in the industry,” he said. “It was also a chance to meet directly with your suppliers and equipment manufacturers and building those relationships was important.” And it’s even been a family experience for other employees. “We do have some employees that came back after having kids and then their kids would come and work for us. In some instances we have had three generations work here.”

The laundry game is certainly one of those businesses where technology has had an enormous impact, with machines washing, drying, folding and ironing all with the touch of a button. They have machines that wash 50kg every three minutes. As the business grew, so did the need to be more efficient. No longer are deliveries a family trip in a small van, there are trucks.

“We used to make it a family trip to Portland and the kids would fall asleep on the laundry bags on the way back,” Fran said. No longer are baskets the main storage and delivery choice, custom made trolleys now make transporting the big orders easy. Water usage used to rank around 24 litres a kilogram and now it’s down to eight as the laundry industry becomes part of the clean and green mantra of the 21st century.

South East Laundry has even done the linen for the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. “In the 90s Victoria had that huge gas explosion and the Grand Hyatt brought their work here. They even brought their own team and were here for nearly two weeks, working 12 hour days,” Kerry, who started at the laundry as a 20 year old when the fabric shop where she was working closed, said. Darryl has stepped away from the business, officially in retirement, but still visits often and is a sounding board for general manager Ward Freeman. So does he help with the washing at home? “I honestly didn’t even know how to operate a washing machine.”