A Clean Show seminar July 30 featured a panel of entrepreneurs in linen, uniform and facility services who started in consumer (retail) laundry. They shared strategies and tactics to support audience members pursuing or considering the same. Panelists discussed numerous aspects of laundry and service operations, from the genesis of their forays into the business-to-business realm to the present-day challenges of linen and uniform service in the wake of COVID-19.

Philippe and Sylvie D’heygere, the leadership team at Lapauw, found in CIM Capital a strong and experienced financial partner to further grow the Lapauw Group, with a focus on ecological, energy- and labor-efficient installations, according to a news release.

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shortages brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an opportunity for a Virginia health system to not only address supply chain issues, but also to improve its environmental footprint, according to a news release.

Foot traffic analytics platform Placer.ai recently quantified the COVID-induced impacts on various industries that represent a significant portion of the facility services market, identifying how recent changes in consumer behavior are hurting some segments of these industries while helping others.

As part of TRSA’s Next-Generation Executives Committee meeting on June 15 in Chicago, 20-plus leaders of their companies toured the Roscoe Co. plant on the city’s westside. The business is now celebrating its 100th anniversary as a family-owned-and-operated independent industrial laundry.

An anticipated increase in U.S. adult inpatient days points to increased demand for textiles for acute and tertiary care. That’s a plus for linen, uniform and facility services operators who serve those facilities, while posing an additional challenge: taking advantage of the spillover growth into other patient-care settings often more difficult for the industry to serve.

TRSA recently held a series of six Regional Town Hall meetings that drew laundry operators and supplier partners from across North America, including a session dedicated to Canadian operators. These virtual gatherings focused on a range of issues such as recruitment/retention challenges, as well as policy developments in areas ranging from a new indoor heat standard to the growing prominence of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs used by businesses worldwide.

TRSA recently updated its Infection Response Center online with information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Department of Public Health on how linens contaminated with the monkeypox virus should be handled.

Textile Services Weekly recently interviewed Andreas Holzer, managing director of Bardusch GmbH, Kusnacht, Germany, about trends in sustainability and how European operators are dealing with the aftermath of COVID-19. Holzer, whose company is a TRSA member, also serves as the elected chairman of the European Textile Services Association (ETSA). Excerpts of our discussion follow.

In an article slated for the July/August Clean Show double issue of Textile Services, consultant Bruce Hodes reflects on how companies can overcome adversity by embracing – rather than resisting – the reality of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.