National Clothesline

Gary Dawson has been named president of the FabriCare Foundation and will oversee the Foundation’s mission to lead the growth and future of the drycleaning industry and its professionals through public relations, research and education.

Dawson, a third generation drycleaner and 41-year industry veteran, is the co-owner and CEO, along with his wife Joan, of Belleair Bluffs Cleaners in Belleair, FL, He is also the chairman of the board of directors of the International Fabricare Institute, the co-executive officer of the Florida Drycleaners Coalition, chairman of Florida ’s Compliance Advisory Panel, a past member of EPA’s National Compliance Advisory Panel and past president of Southeastern Fabricare Association.

“I look forward to sharing with the public the FabriCare Foundation’s efforts to ensure the highest standards in dry cleaning,” Dawson said. “Clothing care is a cooperative effort. It is essential that designers, manufacturers, retailers and drycleaners all work together for the good of the industry and the consumers. ”

Since 1994, the FabriCare Foundation has worked with drycleaners to improve services, offerings and customer relation skills continuously across the entire industry. Each year the Foundation President defines a new set of goals that will help raise the bar for industry unity and professionalism.

This year’s FabriCare Foundation goals are to develop and implement a Retail Partnership Program to help further promote excellence in clothing care; fund research for the drycleaning industry that makes drycleaners better business people, better customer relation specialists and more skilled service providers; build on its successful marketing campaign to promote the value of drycleaning and help the industry grow; and raise the funds necessary to support these and future programs that will insure the future of the dry cleaning industry and its professionals.

In his spare time, Dawson enjoys traveling and spending time with his two children: Greg and Brenda, and his two grandchildren. For more information on the FabriCare Foundation, visit www.drycleaningconsumer.com.

Methods For Management has announced that Diana Vollmer and Ann Campy, two long-standing staff members, have acquired ownership in the management consulting business. With this ownership change, Deborah Rechnitz will concentrate on supporting the firm ’s Australian clients and Diana and John Brooks will continue to serve and support clients in the United States. Campy continues to manage all administrative and business development activities.

Cheryl Stone has joined the firm to assist and support the financial and benchmark activities for clients. She brings expertise in finance, human resources, and multi-retail management,

MFM coordinates management bureaus throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, providing an environment in which members share information, discuss issues and concerns and form bonds. A critical component of MFM management bureaus is that no member is a competitor to anyone in the bureau, allowing continuous support to each other by sharing best practices, offering feedback and helping fellow members excel and stay ahead of their competitors.

“There are many changes facing our industry today,” said Vollmer, MFM’s senior consultant. “The formation of large companies who plan to roll out or roll up and consolidate operations in the drycleaning industry presents many unique challenges and opportunities. Our bureaus are specifically designed to help members meet these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities. Meeting Financial Benchmarks and improving EBITAL (earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and leasing), as well as branding and enhancing the customer experience are all focal points of MFM Bureau Meetings. ”

For more information , visit MFM’s web site at www.mfmi.com or call 253-851-6327.

Evans Garment Restoration, LLC, received a U.S. patent (#7,141,124) for processes and compositions it uses in restoring clothing, window treatments, bedding, fabrics, textiles and related articles damaged by smoke, soot and water.

“We have actually invented three proprietary cleaning processes to restore 92 to 93 percent of garments and textiles and 95 percent of soft good on a typical claim, ” said Mike Rusciollelli, president of Evans Garment Restoration LLC.

Evans said the system is able to restore twice as many garments and soft goods as typical drycleaners who process restoration work on the side.

Garments can represent up to 40 percent of the contents on a typical claim, thus restoration has a potential for major savings over the cost of replacing with new items.

“Many insurers aren’t aware of how much they could save in terms of both indemnity and loss adjustment expense by working with a true garment restoration specialist, ” Rusciolelli said. “When you do the math, this increase in percentage of items restored really adds up. Using very conservative numbers, each of our plants operating at full capacity can save insurers a million dollars a month compared to other companies. ”:

Another advantage, he noted, is that by restoring a policyholder’s own clothing, their policy limits are conserved and there are no delays waiting for seasonal clothing to become available.

“This allow adjusters to get the claims files closed a lot faster,” Rusciolelli said.

The Evans system can deliver a week’s worth of emergency clothing to policyholders the next days and, in some cases, as quickly as five hours. This eliminates clothing allowances while exceeding the policyholder ’s expectations during a stressful time.

Evans’ patented and proprietary processes are used in plants dedicated exclusively to garment restoration, offering improvements in restoration success rates and customer service.

The National Cleaners Association has hired Massachusetts-based G.T. Graphics & Marketing as its public relations agency of record. The full-service integrated public relations and marketing agency will perform a variety of publicity initiatives designed to educate the NCA ’s audiences about the value of professional drycleaning and the importance of patronizing an NCA member cleaner.

Kirsten Whitten, co-owner of G.T. Graphics & Marketing with her husband, Edward Garneau,

will be coordinating the NCA’s publicity efforts directly. Whitten has more than a decade of public relations and marketing agency experience. She spent the last six years as the integrated marketing specialist and public relations director at a Boston-based agency managing independent drycleaning company accounts as well as national fabric care organizations. A speaker and trade show presenter, Whitten has received several Bell Ringer Awards from the Publicity Club of New England, recognizing her work for full publicity campaigns as well as independent projects.

“I look forward to enhancing the NCA’s relationships with its audiences and expanding the organization’s reputation as a Rolodex resource among the drycleaning, fashion, hospitality and consumer media, ” Whitten said. “I have helped many drycleaners enhance their marketing programs over the years and I look forward to doing the same for the NCA and its members. ”

G.T. Graphics & Marketing will communicate regularly with retailers and fashion industry editors while simultaneously promoting the association ’s “Points of Perfection.”

“Last year NCA was instrumental in bringing a positive drycleaning message to the media with several TV appearances (Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, etc.) and print media stories (In Style, Good Housekeeping, etc.)., ” said Nora Nealis, executive director of NCA. “We believe with a full-service agency like G.T. Graphics & Marketing on board, we will be able to expand the coverage and get the cleaner’s side of the story into the media’s hands on a regular basis.

North American Restoration Dry Cleaners (NARD) Inc. elected Kim Fenyohazi of Bloomingdale, NJ, as its president for 2007. he and his brother, Dave, own The Cleaning and Drapery Zone in Bloomingdale.

Other officers elected by the group, which is made up of independent fabric restoration drycleaners in the United States and Canada, were Mike Berardi, secretary and Mark Folzenlogen, treasurer.

Berardi owns Kent Cleaners/Clean Tech in Peterborough, ON; Folzenlogen is the owner of A-One Dry Cleaning in Cincinnati, OH.

Dave Fenyohazi will serve as the membership chair, assisted by Brian Adams, owner of Restoration Cleaners in Houston, TX, and Val DePerrio, owner of The Dry Cleaner by Val of Malden, MA.

NARD members offer theh property and casualty insurance industry a selection of fabric restoration companies in the U.S. and Canada. As fabric specialists, they perform on-site evaluations, then remove clothing and household items, using specialty laundry and drycleaning processes to remove smoke odor and mildew, minimizing the scope of loss for the insurance company.

Leonard Automatics has named Bruce Hutcheson manager of customer service, a new position created to created facilitate communication with customers. Hutcheson will manage installations and start-up training and provide seminars, product support, software development, operational and maintenance manuals.

Hutcheson has worked in the industrial laundry industry for over 28 years. Prior to joining Leonard Automatics, he worked his way from being a route driver to general manager with 24 years at All Rental Garment Company in Rockford, IL

Reg Begley has been appointed western regional sales director for Böwe Textile Cleaning USA. Begley has over 33 years experience in the industry including nine years as a plant owner.

He has served as a board member of California Cleaners Association and is currently and advisor to the California Air Resources Board.

Begley will be responsible for all Böwe sales west of the Mississippi River.

The compamy also announced that Bryan Easler has been hired a new service technician. Easler has more than 10 years experience in electronic troubleshooting. He was an electronics warfare technician in the United States Air Force where he specialized in radio frequency components and also has experience in pneumatic robots and troubleshooting pneumatic and hydrolics.

He will join the company’s other two service technicians in the office in Charlotte, NC.