Paul Rasband, M&A/supply chain director for Alsco Uniforms, oversees these and other issues for the company’s international headquarters in Salt Lake City. Textile Services Weekly recently interviewed Rasband – along with other industry experts – on supply-chain trends in the COVID-19 era as background for an upcoming article on this topic. The following are excerpts from our recent discussion with Rasband on the shifting supply-chain scene he sees in today’s markets for linen, uniform and facility services operators.

For April’s Textile Services magazine we’ll offer readers insights on the supply-chain crisis precipitated by COVID-19 and how operators and suppliers have adjusted their planning in light of the pandemic that began three years ago. Below are highlights from the forthcoming article, titled “Supply-Chain Strategies: Lessons from the Pandemic.”

Ben Fox, Alsco Uniforms, Salt Lake City, recently advanced from director of sales and marketing to vice president of that department, following a January meeting of Alsco Uniform’s Board of Directors.

Several TRSA members are back serving customers in the areas impacted by Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in the Fort Myers, FL, area packing devastating 150-mile-per-hour winds.

TRSA recently held its Annual Conference in Nashville, TN, where its new board members for the upcoming year were announced.  

TRSA’s Roger F. Cocivera Professional Management Institute (PMI) completed its yearly program on Aug. 11 with a commencement ceremony that drew nearly 200 attendees to the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center just off the University of Maryland campus. Nine laundry and supplier professionals received their two-year PMI certificates.

Roughly 200 guests, students, faculty and staff attended an Aug. 11 commencement program at the University of Maryland that saw 11 leaders of laundry and supplier partner companies graduate from the association’s four-year educational program that’s designed to take their careers to new heights.

Given COVID-19-induced impacts wreaking havoc on the economy and accordingly posing challenges to the linen, uniform and facility services industry, it might not seem a good time to free upwardly mobile managers from their workplaces for an immersive professional development experience. Suggesting otherwise: participation in TRSA’s 2022 TRSA Management Institute programs. Attendance from Aug. 8-12 at the University of Maryland for both the Executive and Professional conclaves improved over 2021, totaling more than 150 participants. And attendees were generally confident any work gaps created by their absence were filled by their colleagues back home.