Cleveland Rocks! Morgan Services’ F&B Rebound

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.

Jason Duvall, general manager of the Cleveland plant, one of a coast-to-coast network operated by this family-owned chain, says the market has evolved. Morgan Services, which got its start in 1887 servicing flatwork from passenger trains, has rolled with the changes. Today’s fresh opportunities include clubs/catering and hospitality. Part of the growth in the hotel laundry trade in 2024 is fueled by new priorities in building design. “A lot of hotels are being built without laundries because they’re trying to maximize their square footage to generate revenue, and they want to focus on a great guest experience,” DuVall said. “Some people think it’s better to outsource that operation.”

While it’s standard procedure in Europe for laundry operators to provide hotel clients with rental bed/bath linens, most hotel owners in North America buy their own linens, then hire companies like Morgan Services to process them. Duvall credits extensive outreach with convincing hoteliers to make a common-sense move to rental linens. The advantages of rental vs. customer-owned goods (COG) include more “pars,” i.e., room changes. This reduces the stress on hotel staff who make up rooms. Rented hotel flatwork also lasts longer because there are more pars, meaning fewer washes. “Typically, we buy six or seven pars when installing a hotel account,” Duvall said. He added that this enables Morgan Services’ “members” (aka employees) to get weekends and holidays off – a staff morale booster. The Morgan Services’ rental hotel linen program stands out as a win-win for the launderer as well as the hotels the company services. “They’re not waiting,” Duvall said of the housekeeping staff who work for the plant’s hotel customers. “Typically, unless it’s peak season or there are on-site storage challenges, they’ve got two or three days’ worth of product at full occupancy. They’re not waiting for us to get there. They’re just going to their closets, which we continue to replenish.”

Catering is another area where Morgan Services/Cleveland is achieving growth by blazing its own trail in terms of inventory management. A common tactic among F&B launderers in the post-COVID era is to simplify stockroom management and cut costs by reducing the number of textile stock-keeping units (SKUs) that they maintain.

Morgan Services/Cleveland looks at this issue differently. They view more SKUs as an opportunity to offer greater choices to their catering customers. For example, if a customer calls in and says they need textiles for a wedding party, Morgan Services/Cleveland more than likely has the stock they need for their big celebration. “Our ‘call-in business,’ that’s something that we’ve really gotten good at,” Duvall said. “It could be a country club, where they have a regular par of white napkins, white banquets, white tabletops. But if they have a wedding, and they all of a sudden need peach napkins and lavender tops, we have them.”

Given the cost pressures facing restaurateurs, Duvall concedes that some customers are taking a more “transactional approach” to their linen-supply needs. But Morgan Services is achieving growth by emphasizing value-added services. “I do feel that some segments of the market, their cost pressures are trumping their sensibilities on relationships,” he said. “They’re more interested in ‘What are you going to give me and how cheap can you give it to me for?’ It doesn’t mean that we change how we deal with them because we’re still going to come out and try to build relationships.”

As for the plant, Morgan Services/Cleveland has operated at 2013 Columbus Road since 1901. The plant has undergone several expansions over the years. It currently occupies 70,000 square feet (6,503 square meters). The laundry processes roughly 10 million lbs. (4.5 million kg.) per year with a staff of 80 members. Morgan Services/Cleveland features advanced technology as well, including a PulseFlow® tunnel washer from Pellerin Milnor Corp, and seven 900 lb. (408 kg.) washer/extractors from Ellis Corp. In addition, the plant has radio frequency identification (RFID) tags inserted in flatwork.

The tags and scanners are provided by Positek RFID. Alliant Systems provides Morgan’s business-management software. This program manages customer accounts, production data and tracks the flow of inventory through the rental cycle. It also ensures that all items are billed accurately.

Click here to read our September article on Morgan Services/Cleveland, titled “Morgan Services/Cleveland – Sealing the Deal with Service, Quality & Trust.” Click here for more on Textile Services.