Pandemic Update: Hospitality/F&B from NorCal to NJ

A flurry of reports this fall have noted a spike in COVID-19 infections as colder weather arrives, thus confirming that the pandemic is far from over. But despite the ongoing challenges facing many linen, uniform and facility services companies, two operators on opposite coasts recently told Textile Services Weekly that they’re optimistic they can ride out the coronavirus until better times arrive sometime next year, or possibly in 2022.

One reason is that, for now at least, the gradual loosening of government shutdowns imposed earlier this year are providing relief for laundry operators. That means that even if business is limited, companies like Single Source Plus, a hotel laundry based in Bellmawr, NJ, can keep going, albeit with reduced volumes. “So, it’s not open completely, but they’re opening more and more things up, like indoor dining areas,” said owner Brian Beere. Small group meetings and weddings have resumed as well. Unfortunately, he adds, “That doesn’t really translate into more business. It’s still somewhat slow.” Current sales for Single Source Plus are roughly 35%-40% of what they were a year ago. The company’s tried to diversify its product mix, but with limited success so far. A spike in demand for isolation gowns earlier in the year helped for a while, but demand has since leveled off. A contract bid that sought to provide a prospect with cloth garment bags fell through due to high transportation costs. One recent success involved preparing flatwork for rag processing. “We’ve done a bit of washing for a rag company that bought towels and sheets from a hotel that closed, so we washed some of that for them that they’re going to scrap and resell as rags,” Beere said. “For the most part, all our business is still hotels.”

Another operator, Lace House Linen Supply Inc., Petaluma, CA, had developed a diverse customer base prior to the pandemic. This has helped the company survive COVID-19. Nonetheless, sales are far off last year’s pace. “We’re probably right around 55% of our pre-pandemic sales volume,” said owner Phoebe Ellis. “We are truly a mixed plant. We do hospitality. We do food and beverage, even a little industrial and some uniforms. Which obviously has allowed us to remain open and continue to employ people. We feel pretty thankful that we have that amount of business.”

One factor working in Lace House’s favor is a recent stretch of mild weather in Northern California (NorCal), which has encouraged restaurants to expand their outdoor-dining capacity. Ellis predicts that the popularity of “al fresco” dining will outlive the pandemic. “I do think that will continue,” she said. “There’s several restaurants along the riverfront that never had any outdoor dining. Now it’s just booming on the weekends.”

Petaluma-area hotels also have recently drawn more guests, mainly leisure travelers on one- or two-day trips to nearby wineries, rather than business visitors, Ellis said. State and local governments in California have imposed strict shutdowns regionally and statewide. But the authorities recently have loosened the rules a bit for restaurants and hotels. This includes an end to a pandemic-inspired requirement for two-night stay minimums at some high-end hotels, Ellis said. Hotels also have mostly stopped waiting 24 or 48 hours to change a room, as was done earlier in the pandemic. Ironically, while the recent wildfires in NorCal put the kibosh on outdoor dining for a time, evacuees and fire crews filled many of the rooms at area hotels. “We were fortunate or unfortunate with these fires,” Ellis said. “Some of these hotels were housing a lot of evacuees. That kept them busy. We’ve had a couple of hotels that were at full occupancy, even mid-week.”

Beere’s seen fewer ups and downs in New Jersey than his NorCal counterpart. As a hospitality specialist, he’s concentrated on providing quality service to customers with a downsized operation, while keeping an eye out for better times to come. “We’ve scaled back,” Beere said. “We were at 75 people. Now we’re at 20 or 25. We went from seven days a week and then we were at two days a week, three days a week. Now we’re four days a week.”

While revenue is tight, Beere says he intends to hold out until the hotel industry revives. “If we’re at 35% (of last year’s sales volume) now, and we can get to 50% or 60% by April or May (2021), I’ll probably be happy,” he said. “I don’t think a full recovery will happen until the fourth quarter of next year, or even the first or second quarter of 2022.”