HousekeepingNewsNews In Brief

Dirty laundry issues continue to press

Is the laundry crisis likely to get worse before it gets better?

Further to the Dirty linen crisis reaches boiling point story carried in AccomNews on August 26, a senior linen supply company manager said she believes the current crisis impacting accommodation providers’ laundry services is unlikely to be ironed out for some time to come.

Australian Linen Supply & Bev Martin Textiles National Sales & Marketing Manager, Helen Hurst said the situation with laundry services being in such high demand is being felt right across the board nationally, and particularly in the NSW North and South Coast regions where she said accommodation providers are being severely “disadvantaged.”

“And the situation is likely to get much worse before it gets better,” she said.

Our latest AccomNews print issue is available now! Read it HERE.

Ms Hurst said that while operators might be considering buying and installing their own machines, subject to space being available, to service their own laundry requirements, this could prove an expensive exercise for some.

Add to which, she said, accommodation providers would either have to find the time to do the laundry themselves on top of already existing busy schedules or employ extra staff to do the job, which again added a further layer of expenditure to overall operational costs.

“I think one of the options to this issue would be for towns with many accommodations to get together and build their own laundries,” Ms Hurst said.

“This way they are creating work in the region and have their own laundry service to service their rooms.

“If the town/city has a laundrette, they could see if this business could service them, or hotels/motels can also purchase their own washing machine and dryers to at least wash their own bath linen and pillowcases.

“They would only then need a laundry service to supply the bed sheets,” she said, adding demand for pillow cases and bathroom linen had definitely increased in recent times as more accommodation providers were buying their own machines to at least try and overcome the issue.”

It is understood the problems stem from COVID-19 lockdowns when many linen suppliers and laundry companies were forced to close down and let staff go. Now, alongside every other business in the sector, they are now struggling to recruit enough staff to meet the current workload demanded by accommodation providers who are now nearing full capacity.

AccomNews reached out to laundry service providers to provide some clarification on the problems impacting the industry and asked how they are attempting to resolve the situation.

Photo by Ryoji Hayasaka on Unsplash

Sarah Rowley, General manager Sales & Marketing for Broadmeadows (VIC) headquarters SPL  told us that her company (as with many businesses) has found itself under enormous pressure finding staff as demand from customers returns. 

“Many of our long-term production team members were non-permanent Australian residents and found it necessary to return overseas as COVID lockdowns took over. While we remain in touch with many of these people, they are still to return to Australia,” she said.

“While there has been a lot of discussion about the skills shortage in Australia, our challenge is unskilled workers. We know this is the same for many of our customers.

“Our demand nationally is still only 65 percent of pre-pandemic. While we are largely on top of managing this now, the growth from near zero was incredibly difficult and financially very hard to navigate.

“Pleasingly, we are now managing the demand increase in many areas, although in some regional locations we continue to find recruitment difficult.”

Regarding price increases she told us: “The laundry industry is highly exposed to the Australian cost of goods and services. As wages, fuel, energy, rent, chemicals (and so on) all increased for everyone in Australia, so did these costs for the laundry industry.

“Operating in a high-volume low margin supply industry, small changes in the cost base often mean the difference between profit and loss, and the changes we are all continuing to experience are not small. Moving price is a response to these input cost changes and necessary if we are to remain in business and continue investing.

“Every laundry supplier is facing challenges through rising costs, staffing and transport difficulties and while frustrations are often high, it must be recognised that not all industries have been able to recover as quickly as others and the lack of understanding and poor treatment of our staff by some people has been the most disappointing outcome.

“We also continue to see too much of our linen held for too long and in some cases even being washed by customers or others, which only damages our linen and the sustainability of our business.”

Other challenges for SPL have also included delivery services being impacted by a lack of trucks and drivers, Ms Rowley says this is improving but these challenges forced the company to look at alternative, innovative solutions.

Ms Rowley explained the company has been using Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology to create mobile linen hubs which she said, serve customers in a far better way. 

 

SPL Specialised Laundry Services

For now, their fixed and mobile hubs are only in Victoria, but more are planned for rollout in South Australia, Western Australia and Far North Queensland.

She said: “We have five ‘Mobile Linen Hubs’ in operation along the Great Ocean Road and the Mornington Peninsula.  Our inaugural hub in Apollo Bay has been in operation over a year and this was followed by hubs in Lorne, Torquay, Rosebud and now Sorrento. 

“While our mobile hubs are making an impact regionally, we are also working on hubs at our production facilities and other ‘fixed’ locations in the metropolitan area, so smaller customers have the ability to self-serve their linen needs.”

A Broadmeadows hub will also be open for business within the coming weeks.

On Hub pricing, she explained: “It is a daily hire model, so you only pay for the linen for as long as you hold it. If you return linen quickly, you could see a significant change in your linen spend.

“The benefit to our customers is they have linen on demand 24/7, and the benefit to us is that we ensure all of our items are returned far more swiftly than in the past.”

SPL Specialised Laundry Services

And feedback from customers on the Hubs

“Our current customer base has been supportive and provided us great feedback which has enabled us to continue to improve hub operations and pricing models to ensure we are helping to meet the needs in the areas we service,” she said.  

“Many have referred other customers to us, so when we commenced operations last year, we sparked quite a lot of interest through word of mouth.” 

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