Nali news

Launderette businesses on the move

A ‘modest but discernable turnaround’ in launderette purchases is based on a growing appreciation among prospective buyers that there is growth and profit in an expansion of agency drycleaning services and the development of ironing services as an addition to service washing.

Opportunities for selling an established launderette business, if vendors are realistic on the perceived value, are now considered to be better than at any time since the beginning of the recession period some 10 years ago.

Unchanged subscription

NALI’s new membership year commences 1 September – and the good news for current and prospective new members is that the annual subscription will be unchanged at £59 (first shop including legal insurance cover); the registration fee for members’ second and subsequent shops – optional, but recommended in the light of recent and foreseen new legislation affecting in particular employment – continues at £12 per shop.

Support for NALI

There was no lack of encouragement for those members of NALI’s Council of Management team who manned the association’s promotion at CLEAN ‘98.

Led by chairman Paul Stafford and backed by eye-catching new promotional graphics, the team fielded an overall satisfactory number of enquiries for membership benefits and support services. The association’s free-draw entry for a bottle of Champagne was won by Mrs S. Lanham-Cook of the Rainbow Launderette, Trowbridge, Wilts.

Risk assessment

In the current issue of NALI’s quarterly membership journal Launderette and Cleaning World, Joe Wayne, chairman of the association’s health and safety sub-committee, warns owners who have yet failed to carry out a formal ‘risk assessment’ – a legal obligation – of ‘reprimands’, which environmental health officers are empowered to issue.

“There is no great mystery to risk assessment”, Mr Wayne writes, “it involves nothing more nor less than looking around the workplace for potential dangers and ‘assessing’ them”.

The five steps for completion of an assessment are summarised by the Health and Safety Executive which recommends that businesses: look for hazards; decide who might be harmed; evaluate the risks; record the findings; and from time to time review and update the assessment.

Gas fitters/engineers

For the benefits of its members, the National Association of the Laundrette Industry’s secretariat is compiling a national listing of CORGI-registered gas fitters/engineers. Any qualified operatives who would like their name and address to be included on the register are invited to send relative details to: The Secretary, the National Association of the Laundrette Industry, at 146 Welling Way, Welling, Kent, DA16 2RS.

40th anniversary

Long-time supplier members of NALI, Stor-Pak, of Stambourne, nr. Halstead, Essex, is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary as manufacturers and suppliers of polythene bags for industry.

Preparations in hand

Clotech ‘99, which claims to be the UK’s premier machinery and technology exhibition for the sewn products industry serving the clothing, automotive, upholstery, laundry and shoe trades, will be held at the NEC, Birmingham from the 23-25 March 1999.

On display will be all the latest technology devised for the manufacture, pressing, finishing, maintenance, handling and distribution of sewn products.

Preparations are reported to be “well in hand” and 80% of the floor space is already booked.

‘Rating cowboys’ deceive businesses

Consultant surveyors Lambert Smith Hampton are warning unsuspecting businesses to beware of being deceived by ‘rating cowboys’ out to make a fast buck.

Mark Saunders, a ratings expert, said that unqualified individuals posing as rating surveyors were causing immense problems for businesses, due to the revaluation process currently being carried out in the UK.

He said the unscrupulous consultants all seem to operate in the same way, by approaching firms with a ‘well-honed’ sales patter suggesting they are experts who can obtain a huge reduction on a company’s business rates.

But Mr Saunders says that firms seduced by such claims do not realise that they are being misled by dubious individuals who are out to take the money and run.

He says: “An offer to take on the system on your behalf and save your business very substantial amounts in rates payments can be tempting, but should be treated with great caution. You could pay out a lot of money for little or no savings.”

He adds that two unqualified rating consultants have recently been convicted of fraud at Manchester Crown Court after being prosecuted over the wording of publicity material, their telephone sales patter and marketing conduct. One of the techniques employed by the cowboys is to ask for an ‘up-front’ fee.

“Many business people are not aware that qualified surveyors experienced in rating practice will normally work on a success-related basis,” said Mr Saunders. “So no fee is payable until an appeal has been won.”