HandCraft Services’ Hygienically Clean Healthcare and TRSA Clean Green certified laundry in High Point, NC, is the top winner (Gold level) in the 2026 TRSA Best Plants competition. The facility will be among four recognized at the Industry Awards Dinner Feb. 18 at TRSA’s 16th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC.
The other Best Plants winners: two PureStar Corp. facilities (Silver and Honorable Mention) and Wildman Business Group’s headquarters plant (Honorable Mention).
The conference takes place Feb. 17-19 at the Royal Sonesta Capitol Hill. It starts the first afternoon (Tuesday) with a symposium for suppliers featuring consultant presentations on generational change and value-driven relationships. TRSA committees open the Feb. 18 agenda, enabling every member to join discussions on how to improve the association’s work.
Later that afternoon, attendees prepare for Laundry Hill Day on Feb. 19. In small-group visits to congressional offices on Thursday, members personally engage legislators and their staffs. Insightful stories about the industry are shared, addressing the industry’s key legislative priorities, emphasizing its economic impacts, cleanliness, sustainability and workplace safety contributions.
Click here to register for the conference.
The Gold-level Best Plant, an outpost of Richmond, VA-based HandCraft, opened in 2019. The 75,000-square-foot facility (pictured) employs 120 full-time employees per day, producing about 143,000 pounds for 30 routes. Management views pounds per operator hour (PPOH) as its top indicator of plant performance, listing its priorities as focused on quality and total cost. PPOH is defined as pounds delivered divided by total production hours. This plantwide metric stands at 245.
Original equipment, still in use, includes two tunnel washers, each with 17 242-lb. chambers. Goods move via conveyor to 18 242-lb. dryers for processing. Pony washers and dryers handle small or specialty items. Finishing equipment includes five small-piece folders, two 10-roll sheet ironers, two blanket folders, a sheet folder and washcloth stacker.
The HandCraft customer experience team includes 15 client relations specialists managing their own territories. They report to three district service managers. There’s also a customer experience director.
Four customer data analysts examine customer inventory reporting via RFID data to investigate linen loss. A clinical education team consists of two RNs supporting customers and the client relations specialists in decreasing linen loss and educating healthcare teams on efficient linen management. A 40-employee team distributes linen.
A chief experience officer oversees these functions. Emphasis is on partnerships between transportation, production and customer experience teams.
The Silver level winner is Hotelier Linen Services (PureStar Group), Miami, FL. Opened in 2008, recent upgrades to the 80,000-square-foot facility include:
- 2025: 675-lb. washer, four conventional washers (two 130-lb., two 100-lb.), feeders and folders on four existing ironing lines, two new ironer lines.
- 2024: tunnel washer and water recycling systems.
The tunnel system investment totaled $2.4 million. Newly installed equipment is credited for significantly reducing production costs and enhancing overall quality and efficiency. Management points to its facilitation of streamlined processes for delivering a higher standard of service. The plant can process 72% of its daily volume in under 12 hours, meeting demand to turn linen within eight to 12 hours.
Dedicated to processing customers’ own goods, the plant’s measures to satisfy them include:
- Identifying and segregating customer’s linen by color coding and flagging
- Electronically tracking deliveries for timeliness
- On-site hotel audits to measure linen defects
- Participation in joint inventories and linen purchase recommendations
- Implementation of customer handbook explaining processes and procedures to customers for successful partnership
Honorable mention winners:
Wildman, Warsaw, IN, 1963, 87,000. Added two washers, three-pass tube in-shell heat exchanger, three-inch stainless water line. Washers significantly improved capacity and streamlined operations and product flow. Stockroom expansion project added 500 square feet for emblem and nameplate recycling and additional railing and storage.
New heat seal station to be installed. Revamped customer experience review process has prioritized values and fostered relationships. Route service reps are considered customers, so they’re surveyed, too.
Five Star Laundry (PureStar Group), Chicago, IL, 1999, 37,000. Additions/upgrades: sheet folder, two dryers, two 250-lb. and two 275-lb. washer/extractors, 75hp air compressor, three feeders, three small-piece folders, stack and store, ironer/folder. Upgrade to entire IT infrastructure includes new servers, cabling, desktops and laptops. Performs on-site quality checks throughout hotel customers’ closets, coaches them on why par levels are so important to life span of linens.
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