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State of hotel, healthcare OPL operations November 2023 • Volume 49, Number 11
The Newspaper of Record for Laundry & Linen Management
On-premises representatives share how the past few years have affected their laundries and what the future might hold BY MATT POE, EDITOR
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aundry and linen services continue to learn from and deal with events that have taken place over the past few years. That includes on-premises laundry (OPL) operations. American Laundry News reached out to several professionals to find out what’s happening on the OPL side of the industry and communicated with three onpremises laundry representatives. On the hotel OPL side, John Smith is
the chief engineer of the Embassy Suites laundry in Indianapolis. “It’s a 360-room property,” says Smith. “Every room’s a suite because it’s an Embassy, and we do all the laundry inhouse. We don’t send anything out.” On the healthcare side, Gustavo Guzman is laundry operation director for Community Memorial Healthcare in Ventura, California, a nonprofit, independent health system. Its onpremises laundry has been in operation for more than 55 years. “We process an average of 2.6 million pounds annually,” shares Guzman. “Our product mix consists of core bed linens, scrubs for doctors and nurses, and EVS towels and mops. “Our washroom consists of three Milnor 450-pound washers, two CLM 400-pound steam dryers, and two Chicago roll ironer, feeder and folders. We process six days per week and use an exchange cart program to service the CMH system.” Finally, Eric Meyers brings a consultant’s view to the state of OPL operations. He owns laundromats and is the general manager for the North America trade/OPL segment for Alliance Laundry Systems.
EFFECTS OF THE PAST FEW YEARS
Smith says that his OPL was affected by the supply-chain challenges over the past few years. “We were getting to the point that we were washing the same sheets that we had on the bed today trying to get them back on the bed for check-in later,” he shares. “We were getting no shelf life out of the linen at all. It was just really hard to get linen for a while. We never ran into a problem of running out product. We use Ecolab for our soap and never had a problem getting any of the product for that. “We had to go out and find new sources
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(Photo: © VitalikRadko/Depositphotos)
to get linen. A lot of that has eased, and we now have plenty of par. We run a threepar here at the hotel.” Smith says that when travel started up again after the pandemic, getting staff was the major challenge. “We did what we had to do to get staffing,” he says. “We brought back people that had been laid off and some of them didn’t want to work. They were making more to sit at home. With those programs ending, we were able to settle our deficit in employees by bringing them back.” Then Smith says the hotel’s equipment was failing, and they started replacing it. “That’s how I hooked up with Yamamoto North America, and he supplied me with the washer we got put in,” he says. “We liked it so well that we’ve replaced all of our washers with that.” Meyers notes the same issues when he looks at hotel OPLs across the country. “The pandemic certainly had a negative impact primarily due to the fact that the occupancy rates fell off a cliff when everything was shut down,” he says. “And then, when they started to allow travel to happen, then we ran into, all of the sudden, labor problems. “The hospitality community in particular has started developing huge labor problems, which, coupled with the lack of occupancy, caused the hotel operators and owners to change their ways.” Meyers says hotels used to turn their rooms, providing clean sheets and towels, every day. Today, there are notices posted in the rooms that guests must let the hotel know that they want their bed turned over or want more linens or want the room cleaned.
See OPL Status on Page 6
LATE NEWS Crothall completes South Carolina expansion project HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Crothall Laundry Services, a healthcare laundry and linen management partner to healthcare providers, reports it has launched its newest facility in Columbia, South Carolina. Spanning 50,000 square feet, the facility utilizes the latest laundry technology and adds 15 million pounds of annual processing capacity. This project represents one of multiple ongoing expansions and reflects Crothall’s commitment to bolstering its position as a leader in healthcare linen management, according to the company. “We are excited to grow our footprint in the Carolinas, adding processing capacity and further redundancy in the region,” says Mike Barner, Crothall Laundry Services CEO. “This project was one of three expansions completed in the Southeast region over the past twelve months and represents our ongoing commitment to support the needs of our healthcare clients.” The company says that key highlights of the facility include advanced processing, increased production capacity and redundancy, efficiency and sustainability, and a strategic location to streamline distribution and delivery. Crothall was founded in 1991 and operates or manages 30 laundry operations in 18 states across the country.
10/12/23 8:56 AM