Highlighting profitable niches for textile rental

The exhibition provided a platform to bring together key members of Vision Support Services, including general managers from overseas offices. It aimed to show customers how the group’s companies differ from their competition.

It also aimed to demonstrate the broad range of products designed for the four- and five-star hotel market that was available within the group. While the main area was devoted to five different bed-sets, table linen, spa room lines and even furniture also featured. Around 140 – 150 customers attended over the five-day event.

Hilden commercial director Rod Nutter said that reaction exceeded expectations with bookings placed at the show.

Linens by Hilden is the brand that is designed specifically for the textile rental market and in a year that has proved challenging for this sector and its hotel customers, two particular displays attracted interest – the anti-allergen bed and a setting highlighting the organic environmental range of linens.

The anti-allergen market may be a niche but it is a growing one, Rod Nutter told LCN. There is now a website devoted to hotels catering for guests that suffer from allergic conditions such as asthma and exczema.

A textile rental company’s ability to offer anti-allergen linen could give it an edge. Allergy-friendly “Pure rooms” are already popular in the USA and attract a premium rate.

Hilden offers two specific solutions. Provent is described as an allergy relief bedding. These zip-up cases are designed to tightly enclose mattresses, pillows and duvets and the Provent fabric is designed so that dustmites cannot pass through.

The cases therefore can provide an instant anti-allergen solution as the dustmites are prevented from coming into contact with the bed’s occupant, thus eliminating the risk of an allergic reaction in a guest who is susceptible.

The covers are not designed for commercial laundering but can be replaced at an economical cost if necessary.

Microshield bed linen provides a completely different solution. The products are made using an

anti-allergen ingredient that is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. This prevents the growth of bacteria and fungus, so depriving dustmites of their food source.

The mites cannot survive and so Microshield linen reduces the allergens and the potential for allergic reactions.

The Microshield range is made from 100% cotton and pillows and duvets have been filled with Microshield cluster-ball fibre.

Microshield products can be laundered in the same way as standard products.

While these two solutions could be used together and would therefore provide a very strong and effective defence, each is designed to be effective in its own right and to be used separately.

The exhibition also gave textile rental customers and other visitors the first opportunity to see the?environmental range.

The concept will let textile rental companies offer linen that will help hotels reduce their carbon footprint, which many more upmarket hotels are keen to do.

The range can be washed at lower temperatures, using less water and, by implication, less detergent. It also requires less drying, thus saving energy in the most energy intensive section of the laundry.

Several different approaches have been employed in developing these environmentally friendly linens.

Reprocessed cotton re-uses cotton products that have passed their use-by date.

Filled bed linen, such as duvets, pillows and mattress toppers, can now all be manufactured with materials made from old plastic bottles and containers.

Hilden also recommends the use of polycotton blends in heavier bath linen lines to reduce drying time and save energy.

The use of finer yarns produces lighter fabrics that need less energy in laundering as well as having an improved finish. Hilden says that better finishing techniques have also reduced the focus on linen being whiter than white. The bleaching process used for such fabrics is gentler and therefore less damaging to fabric, which helps to prolong its life.

While 100% polyestes table and bed linen might not be some hotels’ first choice, spinning innovations have allowed textile manufacturers to produce polyesters that have many of the benefits of cotton. These benefits include the ability to accept starch so that napkins can be shaped. These spun polyesters will produce coloured table linen that does not fade and will look good throughout its useful life.

Hilden can now supply towels which have a standard weight terry at the central area, which is used for drying the body, but a lighter weight round the edges. As a result the towel is lighter overall and costs less to launder but still has the feel of a full standard-weight terry product.

In addition to these two innovations, the exhibition included three beds displaying linen in different qualities illustrating the ability to cater for five-star luxury, and also for four-star and mid-range establishments.

Although the exhibitions focussed on the Hilden and Lissadell Liddell products as these are the main brands for the hospitality sector, it also featured selected products from other Vision Support Services companies such as Whittaker Services and C&C Bed and Bath.

Rod Nutter said that the Hilden brand, which is focussed on the commercial laundry market, has gained a leading position in the last two years.

Close relationship with the overseas offices has contributed greatly to its success by matching quality with affordable pricing.

These offices continually seek out competitive sourcing while also ensuring that efficient quality control systems are in place at local level.