To introduce the subject TSA chief executive Murray Simpson put The Guild's Tony Lee through a Mastermind-style quiz on his specialist subject which was of course, the SED, with some topical general knowledge questions added for authenticity.
Then Fay Rushby, who will be one of the environmental health officers (EHOs) in charge of enforcing the regulations, gave an informative talk on what they involved, what drycleaners must do to comply and above all stressed the importance of getting the application for a permit in by the 31 October 2006 deadline.
As a step to help with these applications, delegates were given a chance to sit the Guild's Examination on safe solvent handling and around 15 took advantage of this opportunity.
In addition to the SED session, the conference provided some excellent speakers including keynote speaker Oliver Bedat president of Cinq A Sec, on meeting customer needs, Guild President Christine Richardson on the new care labelling standards, a personal, practical and highly detailed account of the redesigning of Blue Dragon Dry Cleaners shops, by Colin Hill, advice on driving sales by by D'Arcy Wilson-Rymer of Persil Services, and an international view of the drycleaning industry by Chris Tebbs.
A full report will appear in LCN in June.
