For food-and-beverage (F&B) laundry operators battered by three years of COVID-driven dining downturns, Morgan Service’s Cleveland plant is showing the way forward, a tale that’s detailed in September’s Textile Services magazine.

In line with an emerging trend among customer-owned goods (COG) hotel laundries to serve select customers with their own RFID-tagged linen, a Washington area operation recently reintroduced this RFID technology, along with a number of other equipment upgrades.

The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board approved a congestion-pricing plan in an 11-1 vote on March 27 that could dramatically hike the costs of commercial vehicles delivering textiles and other goods into a high-traffic area of Manhattan.

As noted in Textile Services Weekly on March 11, Shasta Linen Supply Inc., Sacramento, CA, recently acquired five electric step vans worth roughly $1 million. This change moved Shasta Linen into compliance with California’s pending commercial-vehicle regulations. It also put the company in the vanguard of independents that have embraced alt-fuel route vehicles.

After 34 years’ service in the business of supplying mats to the linen, uniform and facility services industry, David Watterson, M+A Matting’s vice president of field and international sales, recently announced his retirement from the LaGrange, GA-based company. M+A helped fuel the growth of the mat-rental market, starting with its founding in the early 1960s as Mountville Mills Inc. Because of Watterson’s pivotal role in that growth, we asked if he’d answer a few questions about where the business is headed in the 2020s and beyond. Excerpts of his responses appear below.

UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, MA, recently announced the recipients of the company’s Aldo Croatti Award for 2023.

Readers of Textile Services magazine should have received their November/December combo issue in recent days, including a cover article on opportunities for laundry operators to provide textiles to outpatient medical facilities. Excerpts from that article “Outpatient Medical – ‘We Continue to See New Opportunities,’” appear below.

Wildman Business Group (WBG), an independent industrial launderer based in Warsaw, IN, recently announced a merger with WM Uniform, Holland, MI.

Managing the fleet operations of linen, uniform and facility services companies comes with challenges that can generate stress and sleeplessness for fleet managers and other executives. Textile Services Weekly heard a lot about the difficulties confronting these managers during a panel discussion at the TRSA Fleet Summit in Baltimore.

One year ago, Gurtler Industries Inc. launched Gurtler Logistics, a fully owned and operated division of the company, dedicated to providing product-delivery services to its customers. Over the last few years, the industry has experienced increased challenges with delivery services due to the availability of appropriate trucks and drivers. To meet these challenges, Gurtler invested in its own fleet of semi-tractor/trailers and bulk tankers and hired its own staff of fully qualified drivers.