An essential part of the package

The term kitchen linens covers a whole range of cloths – waiter’s cloths, glass cloths, oven cloths and tea towels. In theory, each of these products has a specific purpose but in practice, kitchen staff often treat all such cloths as general cleaning cloths .

If food residues need to be wiped from plates before they are washed or oil/fat spills have to be removed from kitchen surfaces, staff grab whatever cloth is to hand irrespective of its intended purpose. As a result these cloths become heavily-soiled, difficult to launder and many see them as a commodity item. This poses a problem for the market for while such items are an essential part of the package offered to hotels and restaurants, they are now seen as low cost, high volume items by many laundries and textile suppliers.

Richard Yates at Linen Connect says that the kitchen linen sector is all about price. Long gone are the days when laundries would enquire about name-woven glass cloths. If the price is not cheap enough then the order will not be placed.

This applies to all cloths classed under the kitchen linen heading, says Yates. The full product range is open to massive abuse levels by the end-user and thus the laundries increasingly comment that these linens are becoming like “throw-aways”. When laundry costs are at critical point why spend money on an item that is only going to last a few washes?

Mark Shotton at Tonrose says that because of the level of product mistreatment, laundries treat them as short-life products and try to recover their costs within two washes. They will also make an additional charge when they can identify a customer that is “abusing” the product.

Commodity line

Gary Lomas at Sherry Textiles takes a similar line. They (kitchen linen items) are commodities where laundries are concerned. This has led to a shift in quality due to pressure on prices and also to the losses suffered by laundries.

There are four items in Sherry’s range, an oven cloth, a waiter’s cloth – the white cloth that goes out over the waiter’s arm – a glass cloth and a kitchen cloth but Lomas believers they are all used for general cleaning where once each would have a specific function.

The main focus now is on a basic product in each category. However, Sherry does offer a better quality kitchen towel, the Malvern, in a terry cloth. In the main though, this tends to be ordered by the large laundries as most of the others feel the price is too high.

At DG Textiles, Andy Jamshidzadeh observes that in his thirty years experience of the laundry hire and wholesale linen markets, the supply of kitchen linens has always been problematic.

Any business involved in food preparation needs kitchen cloths, waiter’s cloths and glass cloths, but they are not treated with care. “They are abused ruthlessly and because of this they don’t last long so they are not seen as valuable items.”

However, he points out that these basic items may play a role in protecting other higher value goods from such rough treatment. “Without these items, chefs or kitchen staff would use napkins and other valuable items for cleaning purposes.” So they are still seen as essential items.

Johnson Stalbridge, the specialist in textile rental to the hospitality sector, takes a somewhat different view of the market. Director Guy Other says that the company takes its service for kitchen linens very seriously. It is a core market that complements the company’s existing service and product package offered to both caterers and restauranteurs.

Bucking the trend, Stalbridge offers high spec cotton products. Oven cloths are 145gsm while glass cloths, general kitchen cloths, waiter’s cloths and tea towels range between 70 and 90gsm.

They are laundered and finished to a high standard so as to provide a presentation that complements that of chef’s bundles and table linen. All kitchen linens are pressed, which Other feels is unusual for this type of product. Reject/rag levels are high. The key factor is that kitchen linens are part of a package and standards have to be consistent. He adds that there are few orders for kitchen linens on their own.

He acknowledges that loss and misuse are high and says that laundries must either count-in the linen and charge for losses or accept that a degree of loss needs to be incorporated into the price. The Stalbridge policy is to count-in both kitchen and table linen. If a customer seems to be heavily abusing or losing such linen, Stalbridge will seek compensation. He admits that this policy is unusual.

Mark Lockwood at Hilden says that the kitchen linen sector is a vital part of his company’s range and it provides the full range of linens as part of a package with other ranges such as bedding, towelling and table linen.

Hilden continually updates and improve its range.

It will sell directly to restaurants and hotels, golf clubs and other markets seeking a bespoke product as well as to its core market, textile rental laundries.

But Lockwood acknowledges that the textile rental sector is looking for a commodity item at a cost-effective price. Feedback from laundries suggests that these items can be abused or neglected so replacements are needed on a regular basis.

Package deal

Yates at Linen Connect also says that his company supplies kitchen cloths on a package basis. “The product range is in the main supplied direct to the laundries, however, we also supply direct to the hotels.”

He says that often the customer will add a bale of kitchen towels or glass cloths to an order for other linens to minimise the carriage charges that would be incurred if these were ordered separately.

As to price he says that it wasn’t too long ago that a glass cloth would be charged at anything between 50p and £1. Now prices ranging from 18p to 40p are common. Nevertheless kitchen linens still represent high volume sales.

“Linen Connect offers a wide range of kitchen linen and holds increasingly large volumes too.” He adds that kitchen linen sales are increasing in parallel to “dramatic” increases in other areas.

And despite the commodity nature, there is still a need for products to stand out from the competition.

Yates says where the company’s competitors offer only one colour option within certain ranges, Linen Connect can offer three to four colour options thus widening the choice for the customer.

Hilden too acknowledges the need for some higher quality products, especially where the product is sold directly to the hotel or restaurant customer.

“Hotel and restaurant customers in the main require a higher specification product. Because kitchen linen is acquired on an outright sale by these sectors, greater care is taken. Hotels sometimes require name-woven products. This can be the name of the hotel or simply the name of the product category woven into the body of the cloth.

So the company has two ranges. Kitchen Essentials was launched last year and targets the commercial laundry sector, which buys in high volumes and expects this to be reflected in the price.

Along side this, Hilden produces the Chef’s Choice collection which is supplied not only to the laundry sector but also to restaurants and hotels. This range can include name-woven products and generally speaking products have a higher fabric spec in terms both of weight and weave quality.

In this way Hilden seeks to provide a balance between price and quality – offering a value range on the basis of high volumes as well as encouraging customers who want better quality with Chef’s Choice.