Roger Salmon md of the OCS Smarts Group declares: “We knew we might never be the biggest, but nothing could stop us being the best.” Mr Salmon describes a company philosophy of commitment to service and quality that dates back before Crosby, Peters and Demming made total quality management an industry watchword.
Indeed the Smarts Quality Care programme was created in the mid-1980s and today continues to be the cornerstone of its business and its dealings with its customers.
Today, the Smarts Group has a UK turnover rising to £18 million. It employs 500 people in seven processing plants and 18 distribution and customer development centres.
It has also developed overseas. As part of the OCS Group, Smarts has both its own autonomous role, and a role as a building support services company. The overseas businesses have been established on this dual role basis. The Dublin operation is well established. A South African operation started last year and the Thailand laundry opened for business in April 1998. All three are supported by the UK.
In the past 17 to 20 years, the business has seen considerable change. The roller towel service used to be the major focus of the company’s business, but as the industry climate has changed the emphasis has switched and roller towels now account for roughly one third of the business. This is mainly because additional services, such as workwear rental, have expanded in line with developments in industry.
Health and safety has become a major workplace issue. A whole company image culture has developed. These are trends on which Smarts can capitalise.
But behind future developments will be the same underlying philosophy of service to the customer. That philosophy starts with Smarts’ own approach to quality and to generating the right attitude in its staff.
The company has deliberately rejected the traditional triangular management structure with strategy developing from the managing director downwards. Instead it has built its management structure with the customer as the focal point for strategy development.
So that structure includes a quality projects manager, Julie Powell. Quarterly board meetings are held to deal solely with continuous quality issues. Andrea Lowe, one of the company’s three directors, recently attended a three-week course on continuous improvement.
Equally important is the company’s attitude to its staff and the programme of staff training. This centres on craft training leading to NVQ units. Additional training includes OCS Group training courses, and external training courses such as those run by DMS and the National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH).
All vehicle drivers are sent on an advanced driving course and although passing the test at the end is not an absolute requirement, most do.
As well as formal training, the Group tries to give its staff a more personal relationship with the end customer.
Mr Salmon explains that Smarts does try and arrange for customer visits. Staff will be taken round the customer’s operation as a guest and will be given a short talk. These events will also spark reciprocal visits for customers’ staff.
This kind of approach pays off both for the staff and for Smarts. In an independent survey, the outstanding finding was the positive attitude staff had towards the customer. “The company that did the survey was amazed by the finding and we were very pleased and very proud of that,” says Mr Salmon. He adds that if potential customers visit it is very rarely that Smarts fails to get the work.
Like all businesses Smarts has had to face setbacks and challenges – not least how to structure pricing and balance competitiveness with profitability. This is a particular challenge in recession.
In the 1979/1980 recession, Smarts decided to make a stand for higher prices and lost a significant amount of work as a result. At the time Mr Salmon was a regional director.
When the 1990s recession struck, as managing director he made the decision to follow the market. Profitability dropped for a time, but market share increased and as a result of the strategy the company has found itself well-placed to take advantage of a revitalised economy with profitability returned to normal levels.
As md of Smarts and as vice-president of the TSA, Mr Salmon is well placed to take a long-term view of the laundry industry and to predict future trends.
He admits to being biased but he believes that the most significant trend of the past 20 years has been the impact that increasing numbers of professional managers have made on an industry once dominated by owner managers.
The owner managers who have survived are those that have been able to develop professional management skills but at the same time retain an entrepreneurial spirit.
For the future he is concerned about prices and pay and observes: “We as an industry neither get the right prices from our customers nor do we pay high enough wages.” His own hope is that the minimum wage will prove a catalyst for boosting price levels.
It is essential he says that younger managers coming up through the business have the right attitude and do not perpetuate mediocrity.
By implication the way to ensure this lies both in maintaining wage structures and by training.
Mr Salmon says that the NVQ is the cornerstone of training and the industry must find a way forward to promote this for both hourly-paid and supervisory staff. He adds: “We need to be clear what is holding up the process and then work to clear the log jam.” The industry may also be guilty of selling itself short on image. “What is wrong with the word laundry? We should be proud of the fact that we cleanse textiles not apologise for it.” The whole area of hygiene will, Mr Salmon believes, become increasingly important. Industry is getting more knowledgeable about the whole area of soiling and its potential hazards.
The pressures on companies to provide a hygienic environment will increase. To take one example, the workwear market still has to develop its full potential. Many businesses still do not realise the benefits of giving clean workclothes to their staff on a regular basis.
Mr Salmon predicts that as unemployment falls and unions once again start to become more active, more businesses will be encouraged to take workwear on board. As they do Smarts can offer a service to advise on effective solutions.
And there is potential, too, for converting companies who do use workwear to a multi-change basis rather than the more usual weekly change regime.
The use of dust control mats is still under-exploited within industry and this is another area that Smarts would hope to develop long term.
These are long term trends, but Mr Salmon does believe they will come and the possibility exists that companies such as Smarts will become in effect hygiene consultants mapping out hygiene programmes for customers.
As to how the group will develop and how it views “global consolidation”, Mr Salmon says he is not sure that there is global consolidation as such. The question of businesses expanding onto the Continent is not a new one. “We have looked at it and we believe there is a particular niche market in some areas for Smarts and when we are ready we will look to develop this opportunity.