National Clothesline

Chuck Horst, general manager and owner of Margaret’s Cleaners in La Jolla, CA, put a small group of Leading Cleaners Internationale affiliates through an intensive three days of orientation into the world of couture customer service, care, cleaning, and finishing — with a heavy dose of philosophy.

Couture 101 is intended to give an operator the feel of a couture-cleaner environment and to identify some of the major differences from a conventional drycleaner. Although not intended to be a training program per se, much information exchanged.

LCI affiliates attend these sessions to learn more about couture care as a precursor to earning the Certified Couture Cleaner™ designation. The affiliate’s goal is to implement and utilize this knowledge to rise from a Four Star LCI affiliate to a Couture Five Star affiliate. Achieving the Five Star certification, which includes many other requirements, provides opportunities to expand specialty services, raise prices, and to take full advantage of LCI’s extensive library of proprietary products and software.

Couture 101 offers experienced, quality cleaners exposure to the world of Couture Cleaning, with the opportunity to see all phases of the couture operation. The visiting cleaners evaluate their own operations and identify those areas in which changes, additions, and upgrades would need to be made in order to serve the couture market.

LCI affiliates can also bring key management to experience the process. Ron Patrie of Fashion Care in Atlanta put it this way, “It’s difficult to return to an existing operation and convince experienced drycleaning managers that perfection is not only attainable, but actually tangible, at Margaret’s in La Jolla.”

The visits last 2 1é2 days. The presentation at Margaret’s included a glimpse of the company’s story — history and numbers, plant and call office tours, a series of sessions in each phase of the operation — to give the visiting cleaners a look at how Margaret’s consistently racks up double-digit growth every year.

Hours are spent in each department actually doing the work: taking in orders; making up cleaning loads; studying couture inspection; and productivity and functional planning. A brief glance at Chuck Horst’s time management process is also given.

Each session lasts from one to three hours and generally begins with an overview by Horst, followed by the group going to the department and watching the department work.

Individual operators demonstrate their expertise and answer questions from the group. On the last half day, Horst takes some of the attendees out to see the retail route, while others remain in the plant to further examine the departments that are of most interest to them.

Drycleaners who are interested in becoming an LCI affiliate can visit www.leadingcleaners.com and contact Steve Boorstein, (800) 217-2008.

Current LCI member cleaners include Bancroft’s, South Yarra, Australia; Coral Gables La Salle Cleaners, Coral Gables, FL; Creeds, Toronto, Canada; Davis Imperial Cleaners, Chicago, IL, Fashion Care Cleaners, Atlanta, GA; Hallak Cleaners, New York, NY; Margaret’s Cleaners, La Jolla, CA; Meurice Garment Care, Manhasset, NY; New City Cleaners, Bakersfield, CA; Oakwood Cleaners, Nashville, TN; One Cleaners, Metarie, LA; Peninou French Cleaners, South San Francisco, CA; Rave Fabricare, Scottsdale, AZ; and Sterling Cleaners, Westwood, CA.

Sankosha U.S.A., Inc. has appointed Bill Odorizzi as its national sales manager. Odorizzi brings to Sankosha over a decade of drycleaning industry experience and knowledge. The addition of Odorizzi reinforces the press manufacturer’s commitment to improvement and growth.

Odorizzi’s duties include organizing product and sales efforts with distributors, marketing and customer service.

“I’m extremely honored to be part of the Sankosha team, combining Sankosha’s commitment to produce the highest quality pressing equipment with the capable line up of distributors,” Odorizzi said.

Odorizzi’s previous position was with FH Bonn as vice president of sales. He also served as president of the Textile Care Allied Trades Association from 2004 to 2006.

Sankosha offers a wide range of shirt and garment finishing presses. Sankosha U.S.A., Inc., is based in Elk Grove Village, IL; contact information is phone (847) 427-9120; fax: (847) 427-9634; and e-mail: info@sankosha-inc.com. The company’s web site is www.sankosha-inc.com.

Yinghong Chen has been named assistant controller for the corporate office of the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network (CRDN), an international organization of textile restoration specialists serving the insurance industry.

In her new position, Chen will be responsible for generating an array of financial reports, including company royalties, expense reports and evaluating financial statements.

She brings six years of accounting experience to CRDN, including working as an accounting analyst for Edcor Data Services in Pontiac, MI, where she handled a variety of account analysis and reconciliation.

Chen also served as a staff accountant at Westwind Aviation in Phoenix, AZ, and an A/R analyst at the Hanjin Shipping Company in Tempe, AZ.

In those positions, she obtained skills in financial analyzing and accounting maintenance as well as a proficiency in a variety of accounting software programs.

Prior to her move to Michigan, Chen attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting. She now resides in Rochester Hills, MI.

CRDN is an international organization of drycleaners who specialize in insurance restoration laundry and drycleaning services for all types of loss. Members offer a solution for insurance professionals seeking to reduce costs and improve margins while closing claims quickly.

CRDN currently operates in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

The organization’s web site is www.CRDN.com.

Kyle Smith has joined the sales force of CTS Packaging, manufacturers of packaging products for the laundry and drycleaning industry.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, he comes to CTS with a background in packaging equipment sales.

CTS Packaging also announced the retirement of John Toland, its MidAtlantic area sales representative. He had represented CTS packaging for the past 15 years.

Darrell New has been appointed vice president of guerrilla marketing for 1-800-DryClean.

“Darrell is uniquely qualified to head our guerrilla marketing program because he is an unconventional thinker and he understands that the true measure of a company’s success is not in sales, but in profits.” said Jim Evers, president of 1-800-DryClean. “As a brand and franchise opportunity, we’ve positioned 1-800-DryClean to capitalize on guerrilla-style marketing initiatives.” By definition, guerrilla marketing is any non-traditional, low-cost, flexible and effective marketing effort.

Fresh out of college in 1988, New had an idea for a drycleaning delivery system and founded Valet Express. When Service Brands acquired the company in 1999 he was brought in as vice president of operations.

Based on New’s original business model, 1-800-DryClean is a franchise opportunity that provides the time-saving service of free pick-up and delivery to families who want to eliminate trips to the cleaner. There is no need for them to be home and no need to call. Service is available twice a week, at home or office. Evers said that installing New as the guerrilla marketing guru “will give franchisees the tools they need to attract new customers, to retain their business and to earn their referrals.”

“I plan to take the secrets, tactics, and strategies of guerrilla marketing and apply, implement, and assimilate them into our 1-800-DryClean marketing system,” said New. “My goal is to energize and to inspire our franchise owners to become guerrilla marketers and to use their time, energy and imagination to generate maximum profits with minimum investment.”

New earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Central Florida. He and his family live in Ann Arbor, MI, where Service Brands International is based. The company is building a portfolio of franchise brands that reach a growing and under-served market: the home-services industry.

In addition to 1-800-DryClean, Service Brands franchise opportunities include Molly Maid, a residential cleaning franchise, Mr. Handyman, a franchise solution to fix-it problems, and DUCTZ International, an HVAC system restoration franchise.

The Tennessee Fabricare Association recently honored drycleaner Geoffrey S. Batcheler with its Wade Elam scholarship.

The scholarship seeks to assist potential students in the successful completion of their drycleaning education.

In order to be eligible for the scholarship, students must be at least 18 years or older, have completed their high school education or G.E.D. and submit three references. All candidates must also have worked at least two years in the drycleaning industry.

Batcheler’s parents, Jim and Nancy, bought Curbside Cleaners in 1985 and he grew up in the business.

He also holds a Bachelor of Science in manufacturing and engineering.

In addition to announcing the winner of the Wade Elam scholarship, TFA announced that it has a new address.

The association’s new address is: 4205 Hillsboro Rd. Ste 317, Nashville TN 37215. For more information, contact TFA by phone at (615) 269 5312 or visit www.tnfabricare.com.