‘Thanks, Everybody!’ Kannegiesser Salutes Staff

At a year-end meeting at its Minneapolis headquarters, Kannegiesser North America President Phil Hart praised several employees who received TRSA Service Awards for 25 years’ tenure or more. He also commended the entire staff for its strong sales/service performance this year, including their response to a “black swan” event: the imposition of 20% tariffs on imports to the U.S. from the company’s factories in Germany.

“This year is unique in the fact that I think that the messaging, the products and the opportunities in the marketplace have all come together,” Hart said during the Dec. 9 session. “We’ve been able to really capitalize on some things, and it’s been a very successful period of time since then. I say all that to say: Thank you! Thank you in the field; thanks to everybody here; thanks to the people in Texas (Grand Prairie regional office). It has been really an interesting year.”

That period included Kannegiesser’s participation in what Hart described as a very successful Clean Show in Orlando, FL. “In August, we had a ‘small event’ called the Clean Show that took a huge amount of capacity from everybody to build the equipment, to send it out there and then to put it all together. Interesting, since the time of the Clean Show, our order backlog has increased significantly.”

As noted, a challenge for the company this year is dealing with tariff hikes on imports of Kannegiesser equipment. In April, that rate spiked from roughly 2.5% to 20%. The Kannegiesser team has taken several steps to maneuver around this obstacle, Hart said. Meanwhile, orders in the pipeline are as strong as any year he can recall, at least since 2017.

Another challenge facing Kannegiesser and all equipment manufacturers is the need to keep pace with advances in technology aimed at saving water, energy and labor, while enhancing production throughput. The company will remain active in developing technological innovations, including advances in artificial intelligence. “We’re using AI in a variety of ways, and this will only increase in time,” Hart said. In one example, he noted that a production process that formerly took 40-60 labor hours to complete can now, with the aid of AI, be done in 20 minutes. “There’s a lot of cool stuff going on,” he said of this and other innovations. “We’re on track with this.”

But even as robotic sorting and other forms of automation move to the forefront of laundry innovation, it’s people that make the company go, Hart said. At the conclusion of his 22-minute address, he asked several senior employees to join him at the podium. Hart then presented them with framed TRSA Service Award certificates for their many years of service. The honorees included:

• Dan Arbeiter – Sales Manager, 30 Years
• Greg Combs – Controller, 25 Years
• Brian Schlichting – Director of Sales, 30 Years
• Scott Whiteford – Project Engineering Supervisor, 30 Years

“Their years of service within the company and the industry are significant,” Hart said, speaking of the veteran employees noted above. “I think that proves we’re a great industry to be a part of. And we’re a great company to be affiliated with and to contribute to.”

Hart closed with the story of his own entry into the linen, uniform and facility services industry. A Texas native, the state’s oil industry was riding high when he was a young man. But it dropped significantly, just when he started looking for a job. “Years ago, when I was graduating from high school, I was in a part of the world where oil was everything,” Hart said. “And oil had gone from, I don’t know, from $95-$100 a barrel to $10 a barrel, and there was no work. I left high school, and I said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do in life, but it’s not going to be oil.’ Then I stumbled into the laundry business, and I thought, ‘Why doesn’t everybody come and do this? It’s a great industry.’ It really is. I very much appreciate everybody being here, joining us in the field. So thank you, and I look forward to a prosperous 2026. Thanks, everybody!”

(l/r) Dan Arbeiter, Greg Combs, Scott Whiteford; Jack Morgan and Chris Kennedy (TRSA); Brian Schlichting and Phil Hart, honor longtime Kannegiesser staff who received TRSA Service Awards for 25-30 years’ service.