When news first began to emerge about the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Service Linen Supply President Bob Raphael was—as luck would have it—just returning from a visit to the country where most observers say the virus originated.

“I came home from China on Jan. 15,” says Raphael, whose family-owned food and beverage (F&B)/healthcare laundry is based in Renton, WA, roughly 11 miles south of downtown Seattle. As a hands-on business owner, Raphael wasn’t in the “People’s Republic” to hike the Great Wall. Instead, he was scouting machinery options for his 50,000-square-foot (4,645-square-meter) laundry located in a bustling area of ...