I have been reflecting on these and also on the TSA’s cotton summit (which was held too near to deadlines to be reported in this issue but is featured on the LCN website – www.laundryandcleaningnews.com.
Stock is one the laundry’s most valuable assets and its value and its cost to the business has been rising daily but that is not necessarily realised in pricing strategies. It is clear that laundries are actively seeking solutions and taking a much closer look at their own operations and seeking to find ways of reducing costs when margins are already squeezed.
Increased charges are on at least some action plans but the extreme difficulty of making substantial rises stick is also in the management’s minds, given both the state of play in the hotel industry and the highly competitive forces in the textile rental industry.
Many calls for action on pricing have been made over the years but the track record for co-ordinated response has been poor.
Minimum pricing seems an extremely good idea in theory but is unlikely to work in practice – as was pointed out in some of the interviews I carried out. If a competitor is trying to take business, the first factor they look at is the terms of the existing deal and pricing is an obvious target for attack.
Nevertheless, pursuing price increases is essential. Margins are already squeezed and a quality service, which many customers want, has a cost.
Discussions with customers about tackling the crisis must continue and TSA’s cotton summit brought the question of stock security to the fore, giving it a fresh emphasis.
Stock is a highly valuable asset and it seems that it is now becoming a high profile target for theft in the way that copper from roofs once was.
Protecting stock should certainly be given much closer attention – strengthening both internal and external scrutiny and co-operation with the hotel customer will be essential.
Security expert Bob Dulieu’s presentation at the Cotton Summit suggested some useful strategies.
This is also an aspect that needs to be considered in the long term. My own research indicated that many hotel buildings are not currently suited to secure storage – linen rooms are often small, so linen gets left in open view, even outside.
Security now needs to be a priority, whenever laundries are built or refurbished and the hotel customer needs to take a similar attitude.
The cotton crisis has served to underline just how valuable an asset linen is – protecting it, charging fairly for it (in the very widest sense of the word) and demanding compensation if it is misused should be all part of the textile rental service.