National Clothesline

It was close to 60 years ago when route driver Henry Plantenga decided to take a different route. “He worked for Jim Robbins, who owned Robbins Cleaners, and he worked for him two or three years,” explained LeAnn Plantenga-Glasser, Henry’s daughter and the second generation of the family to own and operate the business.

Even with the biggest drycleaning industry event now in its rear view, a pair of associations plan to build on that momentum with important meetings scheduled in the coming months.

On the heels of Clean 2022 in Atlanta, the Southwest Drycleaners Association (SDA) and the North Carolina Association of Launderers and Cleaners (NCALC) will both host events.

There are only two opportunities remaining this year to enroll in a Drycleaning and Laundry Institute signature drycleaning course, and one is about to pass by. Those who don’t sign up in time to take part in the association’s summer introductory and/or advanced classes at its School of Drycleaning Technology in Maryland will have to wait until the Fall sessions for another chance.

The results that you get from equipment always depends upon the quality of the training that the employees receive for that equipment. This is a very relevant point today because you may have just made a major purchase at the Clean Show and are eager to get it into your plant so that it may begin earning its keep.

The disaster for this month is the failure of the water pump. This pump supplies coolant to the still and refrigeration condensers of the drycleaning machine. A liquid “coolant” is forced through the coils of the condensers by this pump to cool these condensers. The coolant is water in systems using a water tower; it is either water or a mixture of water and anti-freeze called “brine” in systems using a chiller.

Some owners focus on growing their profits, while others are obsessed with sales goals. Have you ever considered making it your primary goal to set up your business so that it can thrive and grow without you? These are some of the principles we have discussed in the past twelve articles regarding Value Building. The goals have been to increase the value of the business if you decide you are not ready to exit or have a more valuable business to exit from.

One of the most useful spotting agents around is hydrogen peroxide. Most cleaners do not use it to its full potential. One of the problems that they encounter is that they do not activate it properly, or they use concentrations not suitable for the stain removal process that they are doing. Hydrogen peroxide is simply water with an extra oxygen (H2O2).

A major U.S. city, as part of its employee training on sexual harrassment prevention, intends to include a module for “bystanders.” In other words, this city wants employees who observe other employees being harassed to make complaints, even if the actual recipients of harassment do not. This is especially troubling because the very definition of sexual harassment uses the word “unwelcome.” A person who is fine with behavior that other employees might not tolerate is not a legal victim of harassment.

There’s a huge opportunity out there for drycleaners and textile care companies to capture big business from both existing and new residential and commercial customers. All it takes is a flatwork ironer. I’ve seen big gains in revenue and profits thanks to this one piece of equipment. My recommendation? If you’ve got enough bit of free space, put one in!

This month, time is not on our side, unlike the Rolling Stones, as the biggest industry event of the last three years was set to take place one week after this issue was sent off to the presses. While we pride ourselves in doing our best to present the news in a timely fashion, we lack the technology to subvert the space-time continuum to bend to our own schedule.