Fulton Companies celebrated a milestone this fall with the
manufacture of boiler number 100,000 with a company-wide party
on October 14. Both boiler number 100,000 along with boiler
number 2 (from 1949) were displayed at the party. A Civil War
replica cannon made by John and Ed Ashby (both Fulton
employees) was fired to celebrate the milestone.
The owner of boiler number 100,000 was
present as were a number of Fulton distributors.
Lewis Palm founded Fulton Boiler Works,
Inc. in 1949 to manufacture his invention of the
"tubeless" boiler. Over the past five decades Fulton
has grown by developing other products and establishing new
companies to serve various heat transfer equipment customers.
Fulton now has manufacturing operations in Ohio, Texas, Great
Britain, and China as well as several facilities in the
Pulaski, NY, area. Through its group of companies, Fulton
produces process thermal fluid heaters, commercial heating
boilers, and industrial process boilers along with tubeless
boilers and employs more than 500 people.
MFM members help Katrina victim
Hurricane Katrina changed everything for
Claude and Jean Foreman and Sydney Anderson, owners of One
Cleaners in Metairie, LA. One Cleaners, a long time member of a
Methods
for Management Bureau,
suffered only minor damage in the hurricane, but they lost 50
percent of their customers and nearly all of their employees.
Sydney Anderson summed up the situation
in a note she posted on the MFM members’ only forum:
“What you’ve all seen on TV is nothing compared to
the reality of the destruction, despair and devastation. Our
community is now destroyed, disjointed and literally completely
disoriented. [Here at One Cleaners], we are now living in a
different life, with different goals. We are trying to
survive and salvage what my parents spent 40 years
building.”
Almost before the storm ended, MFM Bureau
members from throughout the country were calling and e-mailing
with offers to help. Because all their employees had been
evacuated and most are not yet able to return, One
Cleaners’ immediate need was for temporary
“employees.” They had customers bringing in
carloads of mildewed clothes and household items, but no way to
process the orders.
Several Bureau members stepped in to
help. Mark Porter and employees of Porter’s Cleaners in
Bossier City, LA, trucked work to their plant five hours each
way, as did Eddie Mannis and employees of Prestige Cleaners in
Knoxville, TN (nine hours each way.)
Several members sent employees and/or
traveled to New Orleans themselves to work in the store as
CSRs, markers, etc. These included Bryan Nunnelly of
Spiffy’s Cleaners in Tulsa, OK, along with his manager
and his wife and Chuck and Robin Horst of Margaret’s
Cleaners in La Jolla, CA.
In addition, other Bureau members offered
their support and encouragement. All the members of the
Northeast Management Bureau offered to assist their fellow
members, but unfortunately the distances were just too great.
Paul Billoni of Colvin Cleaners in Buffalo, NY, and Wayne
Edelman of Meurice Cleaners in Manhasset, NY, both assisted the
Foreman’s with business advice. There were also offers of
equipment, sources for information, etc. from members
throughout the U.S.
After the crisis has passed, a panel of
MFM Bureau members and consultants will hold periodic phone
conferences with the Foremans and Sydney to help them make the
important business decisions for the future.
“This outpouring of caring and
support is characteristic of our members and in many ways an
extension of the Bureau experience,” said Deborah
Rechnitz, MFM’s Managing Director.
“Throughout the year, members
support each other by sharing best practices, offering feedback
and encouraging each other through the good and the bad
times,” she added. “In the past, members have often
stepped in to help with smaller scale disasters such as fires,
etc. Our members form strong bonds and are sincerely interested
in helping each other succeed.”
MacGregor is IFI’s 1st
International DCM
Malcolm (Mac) MacGregor, owner of
Brown’s Cleaners in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has been
named the first International District Committee Member
At-Large on the International Fabricare Institute board of directors.
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Australia and Canada have the highest
concentration of IFI members outside of the United States, and
while there are no specific requirements, IFI hopes that the
International DCM position will alternate between Canadian and
Australian members. IFI also anticipates that after serving two
years in the DCM role, the international member would become a
full IFI director for the two following years.
“This has been a long time coming,
and the IFI Board looks forward to the input and perspectives
Mac will bring to the table,” IFI CEO Bill Fisher said.
“I am proud to welcome Mr. Mac
MacGregor to the IFI Board,” IFI President Gary Dawson
said. “Mac brings with him many years of industry
experience and is well known and respected both in Canada and
stateside. We look forward to his unique perspective for our
international members.”
Martino honored for charity work
Phyllis Martino of Martino’s Master Drycleaners in Kenosha, WI, received the 2005
Outstanding Achievement Award from the Quota Club of
Kenosha-Racine in recognition of Martino’s
“outstanding and generous service to promote and
assist” the Cops ’N Kids reading program.
The program was founded in 1997 when
Julia Burney, a police office in Racine, WI, was called to a
warehouse burglary and found 10,000 books unsold and headed for
the garbage. The warehouse owner gave her the books which she
and other police officers distributed to children.
All six Martino’s locations have
served as collection sites since the program expanded to
Kenosha in 2003. More than 15,000 books were donated in the
first two years. Martino facilitates the collection process and
helps sort the new and gently used children’s books which
are then passed on to local police for distribution.
The goal of the program is to help
children improve their reading skills and build positive
relationships with law enforcement. Police officers give
children the books from their squad cars while patrolling city
neighborhoods and they also have set up reading sessions at
night and during the day in the summer.
Bengar promoted
Thermopatch has
promoted Robert (Bob) Bengar to the position of manager of
material requirements planning.
This appointment follows his continued
advancement through various positions in stockroom management,
purchasing, and production control over his 25-year tenure with
Thermopatch.
His new duties will include all phases of
raw material and machine scheduling. He will also assume
responsibility for purchasing, receiving of inventory items and
expediting of all necessary manufacturing supplies.
Thermopatch provides textile/garment
identification, marking, mending products along with a wide
variety of supporting supplies, to the laundry industry and
garment and textile manufacturers worldwide.
VIP expands in New Jersey
V.I.P. Cleaners has opened a Bergen
County, NJ, franchise. Randy Zeno secured the franchise and
launched an initial roll-out this fall in Teaneck, Bergenfield,
Paramus, River Edge and Maywood. He plans to expand to serve
other towns throughout the county and increase his full-time
fleet from two to 10 vans.
Bergen County has a population of nearly
900,000 residents in 69 municipalities. A large percentage of
the work force is professional and utilizes business attire in
their fields.
“I am very excited to be part of
the V.I.P. Cleaners franchise,” said Zeno, who previously
was a vice president of marketing for organizations such as
Kraft, General Foods, BirdsEye, Sara Lee and Nabisco.
V.I.P. Cleaners has 22 franchises in four
states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
Each of the V.I.P. Cleaners franchises is an exclusive
territory.
“The development of V.I.P. Cleaners
is growing at an unprecedented rate,” said Kenny Sheff,
president of V.I.P. Cleaners. “From a customer
standpoint, the value proposition each franchise offers is
full-service, door-to-door pick-up and delivery,
industry-leading turnaround time for the same price —
and, many times lower — than you would pay if you brought
your drycleaning to your local drycleaner."
V.I.P. Cleaners was conceived in 1999 by
Sheff, who is actively involved in all phases of the business
and is a graduate of the National Cleaners Association New York
School of Dry Cleaning.
APRD names Wright as CEO
The Alliance of Professional Restoration
Drycleaners (APRD), a
non-profit organization comprised of restoration drycleaners
throughout the United States, has named David Wright its chief
executive officer.
Wright will manage the day-to-day
operations of APRD as well as assist the board in refining and
implementing its strategic direction.
“David’s strong background in
network development and clear understanding of field operations
are exactly the traits the board was looking for in a
CEO,” said Eddie Mannis, chairman of the APRD board of
directors and owner of Prestige Cleaners in Knoxville, TN.
“His leadership and energy will help our organization
continue to grow, especially in previously untapped
markets.”
Wright will continue to implement
APRD’s national, regional and local sales and marketing
effort designed to increase market share for its members. The
combined revenue of APRD member companies exceeds $150 million
annually.
One of Wright’s primary duties will
be to increase the coverage area of the more than 50-member
group without compromising the stringent membership
requirements or sacrificing the organization’s reputation
for quality.
This will be accomplished by bringing
new, qualified members to APRD, which employs a rigorous
selection process that ensures companies provide responsive
service and the highest level of quality.
“This is an exciting time for APRD
and its members,” said Wright. “In just a few
years, they have become recognized as the top restoration
drycleaning organization in the country. APRD members are
leaders in their markets and are dedicated to growing the
restoration portion of their businesses. All the pieces are in
place to expand APRD’s coverage throughout the United
States.”
APRD members are required to have the
capacity, processes and systems in place to manage a myriad of
insurance claims. All members must:
• Use proven 1-8-72
guidelines. They contact the insured within one hour of the
loss, are on-site within eight hours, and provide an initial
scope and estimate within 72 hours.
• Ensure satisfaction for all
work with a non-restorable guarantee. This means that an
insurance carrier or contractor is only invoiced for items that
are restored and returned to the homeowner or business. They do
not have to pay for cleaning of items that were unable to be
restored.
• Utilize computerized billing
and inventory systems.
• Employ industry accepted
claims management programs to ensure consistent, predictable
and measurable results.
• Operate proper equipment and
facilities to do professional restoration work.
“Many operators want the
flexibility to build their business as they see fit and are
concerned that a national organization might try to dictate the
direction of their company,” said Mannis.
“As a non-profit organization, APRD
allows its members to determine the best uses for their
revenues, while providing a national network and resources for
the expansion of their restoration business,” Mannis
added.
Wright brings more than 32 years of
insurance restoration contracting experience to APRD. Before
joining APRD, he served as regional field manager for Alacrity
Services LLC, which provides a national network of managed
contractors for homeowners and light commercial insurance
claims.
Prior to his work with Alacrity, Wright
was an area manager for Project Time and Cost, where he oversaw
seven district managers throughout a six state area and
successfully deployed a managed contractor network.
Before joining Project Time and Cost, he
worked for three years with INRECON’s National
Catastrophe Team. Prior to that, he was the national director,
Premier Interiors of Paul W. Davis Systems, where he worked for
eight years.
During his tenure at Paul W. Davis
Systems, he directed the development of a business expansion
program that resulted in $7 million of new sales annually.
Wright also developed, with the assistance of a major U.S.
insurer, a simple carpet testing process that resulted in 30
percent severity reduction per carpet replacement claim.
Wright graduated with a BGS degree from
Indiana University Southeast and also has insurance restoration
and management experience as an owner/operator of a Paul Davis
Systems franchise.
APRD is comprised of restoration
drycleaners in major markets throughout the United States.
APRD members work closely with insurance
carriers, adjusters, contractors and others involved in the
claims process to return items to the insured as quickly and
economically as possible. Restoring these items, instead of
replacing them, can save thousands of dollars on a single claim
and millions over a number of claims.
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