Women in the Industry Initiative – Two Brilliant Success Stories

Success Stories

Our working group Women in the Industry is leading the way for our Diversity and Inclusion topic. One of TSA’s first action points and as part of Women in the Industry’s initiative we are sharing and highlighting success stories of our laundry employees.

Please see our next two fantastic stories below, congratulations!

Zoe Look
Production Manager 
Johnsons Hotel Linen by Afonwen 

Zoe has been the production manager of Reading site for the last 5 years taking production, safety and quality from strength to strength.

Zoe joined the laundry industry just over seven years ago as shift manager and quickly settled in the roll of a growing site, taking a well-deserved promotion to Production manager responsible for the managers running the two shifts seven days a week while still balancing family life with a young son.

Sarbjit Kaur
Production Manager
SynergyLMS

I started in the industry in 1997 for Shaws Laundry – A 5 star family business run by John and Tom Bovington in Kent. I started as a part time packer while I was doing a HND in Buisness Finance. I had previously lived and worked in Germany for 10 years.

My journey started as a packer, went onto being a Supervisor, then became a Production Manager, and then progressed to become an Operations Manager with Sunlight. With Sunlight I progressed very quickly to an Operations Manager at Northfleet, and was the first female to hold this position in their London Region. My whole team was all female and from different origins which was a risk as it had never been done before at Sunlight. With compassion, dedication, teamwork and effort we set the bar for the highest productivity and profit for over 6 consecutive years in Sunlight, mentored by Julian Carr MD who believed in our new strategy. I have been with in the industry for 24 years and loved every bit of it.

Sarbjit Kaur is the only production manager in Synergy LMS, she is hardworking, dedicated and well respected.

How to send us your stories

With help of the group we have created a template in order for you all to send us your stories. It may be recognising a ‘Rising Star’, a long service award, a significant retirement or a member of the team who has contributed outside work with a local charity, whatever the story we want to hear from you and tell the industry about some of the amazing people we have in it. 

Please note all genders can of course be entered but as this is part of the Women in the Industry initiative we do encourage you to enter your successful female colleagues in particular. 

TSA_Spotlight_Template
SPOTLIGHT ENTRY TEMPLATE

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

Laundry Cost Index: 2021/2022 FYQ1

Laundry Cost Index

Please see our latest published Laundry Cost Index for 2021/2022 FYQ1 below. Please note, as well as the Cost Index, a TSA Laundry Cost Index Bulletin for July 2021 has also been published to sit alongside the Cost Index. This statement has been produced to highlight the unprecedent cost pressures which are not reflected in the current Cost Index. A similar bulletin was produced last month as well and can be found here.  

Latest Laundry Cost Index & Bulletin

Please see the Previous Annual Increases below for comparison:

The Full Report
Annual Increase
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ4
1.43%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ3
2.00%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ2
1.64%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ1
2.02%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ4
2.73%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ3
1.75%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ2
2.95%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ1
4.00%
Previous Laundry Cost Indices

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

Women in the Industry Initiative – Our next two brilliant Success Stories

Success Stories

Our working group Women in the Industry is leading the way for our Diversity and Inclusion topic. One of TSA’s first action points and as part of Women in the Industry’s initiative we are sharing and highlighting success stories of our laundry employees. Following our first entries last month, please see our next two fantastic entries below, congratulations!

Michelle Doyle
Loading Manager
Johnsons Hotel Linen Division, Leeds

Michelle has been in the industry for thirty years in various Operator/ Supervisory roles – starting at Brooks Service Group and moving to Whiteriver/Afonwen before JSG. She works extremely hard to ensure she achieves whatever specific target she is set and contributes to the team.

This hard work has finally paid off, and she now has the recognition she thoroughly deserves as she takes on the role of Loading Manager at our new £10 million facility in Leeds. I am sure her dedication, and experience will come to the fore, and she will make a success of her role, and be an integral part of the Leeds Management team.

Michelle has worked for me over three decades, and as well as experience, and dedication 100% support she brings true loyalty, which is a rare commodity. I am so pleased her efforts have finally been rewarded with this role.

Success Stories - 3

Jorden Burton
Account Development Manager, 
Technical Solutions
Micronclean Ltd

Jorden joined the business in 2011 as a Customer Service Coordinator. At age 18 she was completely new to the industry following a travel apprenticeship she entered upon leaving school. Jorden worked in Customer Service for 6 years and progressed to be Customer Service Supervisor within that time.

Jorden managed the Customer Service Team through a departmental merge of Microncleans’ textile and consumable divisions. In May 2019, Jorden branched out into the field and became an Account Development Manager for the Technical Division of Micronclean where she consults an extensive portfolio of some of the world’s largest companies advising the highest level of GMP solutions. Jorden is a rising star at Micronclean and the next stage of her career will be to be a part of the Management succession programme and will play an integral part to take the business into 2030 and beyond.

Success Stories - 4

How to send your entries

With help of the group we have created a template in order for you all to send us your entries. It may be recognising a ‘Rising Star’, a long service award, a significant retirement or a member of the team who has contributed outside work with a local charity, whatever the story we want to hear from you and tell the industry about some of the amazing people we have in it. 

Please note all genders can of course be entered but as this is part of the Women in the Industry initiative we do encourage you to enter your successful female colleagues in particular. 

TSA_Spotlight_Template
SPOTLIGHT ENTRY TEMPLATE

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

TSA OFFERS UKHOSPITALITY ADVICE ON TEMPORARY LAUNDRY SUPPLY ISSUES

The situation is getting better; meanwhile Association works with CBI to lobby government

The Textile Services Association (TSA) has wholeheartedly celebrated the bounce back of the hospitality industry, saying that commercial laundries have seen a dramatic increase in demand.  However, it has warned that while the recovery is welcomed, it is bringing supply issues.  Consequently it has partnered with UKHospitality to issue advice for hospitality operators covering some temporary actions they can consider to alleviate the pressure on their laundry provider.

“The problem is that we’ve been asked to jump from dead slow to full speed overnight,” says David Stevens, CEO of the TSA.  “To be fair, we’ve been warning that there could be issues for several months.  The total lack of government support for the laundry industry means some of our members are really struggling with staffing, the shortage of drivers, supply chain issues, capacity issues due to operating covid-secure factories, and so on.”  

Here is the TSA’s advice on temporary actions hospitality operators can take to support their laundry providers:

  • Talk to your laundry provider to consider how to manage the situation and temporarily reduce your linen requirements. For example: 

            Encourage multi-night stays 

            Review bed change policy 

            Reduce linen required for room make up  

  • Sell up to the occupancy levels your laundry supplier can deliver linen at 
  • Send back any unused stock 
  • Keep the laundry informed of upstream occupancy levels 
  • Give plenty of notice for events and F&B requirements, such as weddings 
  • Understand some laundries may have cash flow issues; prompt payment may really help
  • If possible, give the laundry time to adapt to the increase in demand

The TSA says that the laundry supply issues are not being felt throughout the UK – some regions have been able to get up to speed more quickly than others.   

“Where supply issues do exist, we expect the situation to improve rapidly over the coming weeks,” says Stevens.  “With good communication and cooperation, we expect laundries to recover quickly.  We are incredibly grateful for the hospitality industry’s understanding during this difficult time.”

In common with many other sectors, especially the hospitality industry, laundries are struggling with staffing issues – a combination of problems created by both the pandemic and Brexit.  The TSA is working with the CBI to lobby government to get laundry operatives to be added to the Shortage Occupations List.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

E tsa@tsa-uk.org

T +44 (0) 20 3151 5600

Hygienically Clean: TSA and UKHospitality Campaign to Help Hospitality Re-Open Safely

Research shows laundering kills Covid-19 – but effective soiled/clean segregation is essential

As the hospitality industry comes to terms with the latest advice on hygiene and Covid-19, the TSA (Textile Service Association) has updated its Hygienically Clean Linen campaign.  The TSA represents commercial laundries serving hospitality and the campaign is being run in association with UKHospitality.  The two associations have established joint guidelines designed to help hotels, restaurants and other sites that use a laundry service, or have an onsite laundry, to understand the latest advice and regulations.

The campaign also includes marketing materials that will help operators allay any concerns that their guests and customers may have concerning the hygiene of textiles such as bed linen and towels.

A key addition to the campaign resources is related to research undertaken by De Montfort University (DMU), and supported by TSA, which looked into Covid-19’s survival rates on textiles and how the laundry process affected them.  It found that Covid-19 can survive on cotton for up to 12 hours and on polyester for up to 72 hours.  The good news is that Covid-19 is killed in all washing processes above 40°C with agitation and detergent.  However, a key consideration has to be cross contamination – it’s essential that dirty and clean linens are segregated effectively, to avoid any possible infection transfer.

“TSA safety guidelines manage cross-contamination, and all commercial laundries will segregate soiled and clean linen,” says David Stevens, CEO of the TSA.  “If you are operating an onsite laundry it is essential to set up segregation and cross-contamination procedures.

“Soiled to clean contamination is the highest risk area – it’s where critical control points are vital.”

Key to the successful reopening of the hospitality sector is making customers feel safe and secure.  That’s why the Hygienically Clean campaign includes the Rest Assured Scheme, which includes marketing material that TSA laundries can give to hospitality operators to display, verifying that their linens and towels have been hygienically processed..  There are different versions of the literature for different sectors, such as hotels, restaurants and leisure facilities.

“We want to help the hospitality industry re-open and understand some guests may have been worried about the hygiene of the bedroom linens and towelling,” says Stevens.  “The Hygienically Clean campaign underlines and explains the research and the procedures we have implemented.  In simple terms, the key message to consumers is, “It’s safe to go and enjoy the hospitality services we have all missed for so long.  You can sleep well!”

The Hygienically Clean guidance and documents are available to download from the Covid Resources section.  For marketing materials, hospitality operators should talk to their laundry service supplier. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

E tsa@tsa-uk.org

T +44 (0) 20 3151 5600

Women in the Industry – Launch New Initiative

Success Stories

 

Our working group Women in the Industry is leading the way for our Diversity and Inclusion topic, we had a brilliant working group meeting at the end of April where we discussed how the TSA can improve to ensure we are more inclusive and also how we can help increase female attendance at our events and training courses. It was brilliant to receive constructive feedback and great to see the passion for change. 

One of TSA’s first action points and as part of Women in the Industry’s initiative we would like to share and highlight success stories of our laundry employees. The working group has been brilliant and have already shared some entries with us. Therefore, please see our first two fantastic entries below:

Stella Yates
Group Product Manager, Cleanroom Textiles
Micronclean Ltd

Stella joined the business in 2013 as a Support Business Development Manager, being new to field sales following a career in the travel industry. She was part of a newly formed Cleanroom Solutions Team in January 2014, where following on from the purchase of Guardline, Micronclean segregated the sales team into two categories; Cleanroom and Technical. She soon became one of the top Sales BDM’s in the business and was promoted to UK Cleanroom Sales Manager after a secondment period in January 2018. Stella managed the team through a high period of growth in the textile and consumable sales of the UK and was then appointed her new role in January 2021. This exciting new role to the business will see Stella in a more strategic role, using her knowledge of the cleanroom textile industry to promote new products and help deliver the company’s strategy. This is a tremendous acceleration of a career from entry level field sales to senior management in less than eight years. Micronclean have also sponsored Stella to complete her MBA with Lincoln University which she will do in 2023.

Stella

Mandy Smith
Contract Manager/Project Manager
SynergyLMS

Mandy joined the business in 1987 working in the laundry in the calendar section – from there she volunteered to cover part time in the office as holiday cover to gain experience so that when the opportunity arose for a full time position, she would have the skills for the job. Her commitment and desire to learn impressed laundry management and Mandy soon was given the opportunity for a full-time role as Office Admin. Mandy’s desire to learn and move upward in the organisation was apparent to many.  Mandy was promoted into a Senior Contract Manager looking after all aspects of operation and customer service for a number of large accounts. Mandy was the first female Contract Manager for Synergy. Mandy continues to learn and develop her skills even after 30 years in the company – Mandy although a skilled Project Manager in her own right is now formalizing this by completing a Prince2 Project Management Course, sponsored by the company. Please note Mandy had 3 children, husband and home to run as well during the 30 years working at Synergy. Mandy is both respected by her customers and her colleagues – a professional lady that has a passion to succeed.

Mandy

How to send your entries

With help of the group we have created a template in order for you all to send us your entries. It may be recognising a ‘Rising Star’, a long service award, a significant retirement or a member of the team who has contributed outside work with a local charity, whatever the story we want to hear from you and tell the industry about some of the amazing people we have in it. 

Please note all genders can of course be entered but as this is part of the Women in the Industry initiative we do encourage you to enter your successful female colleagues in particular. 

TSA_Spotlight_Template
SPOTLIGHT ENTRY TEMPLATE

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

Why Textiles Win in the Long Run

Sustainability performance of table linen as compared to disposables

 

This new report was developed by the Swedish Textile Service Association in partnership with the TSA and other NA’s including the European Textile Services Association (ETSA), the Belgian Association for Textile Care (FBT), and TRSA USA. The report examines published literature on hygienic and sustainability performance of reusable textile-based table linens and the single-use disposable table covering used in the service industry (largely hotels and restaurants). 

 

 

Summary from Report

The report examines the performance of two alternative types of table linen used in hotels and restaurants: textiles (product-as-service through professional textile services) and disposable paper products.

The investigation focuses on hygienic standards in cleaned and ironed linen, as well as the environmental performance and economic contribution to the society/creation of jobs, as these represent a social, ecologic and economic dimension which are the three pillars of sustainability. The report has an emphasis on four countries: UK, Belgium, Sweden and the US.

The present study shows that:

  • The hygiene performance of textile table linen is equal to disposable table linen. Consumers do not see textiles as a relevant path for contamination from COVID-19.
  • Using updated methods in the use of energy and water in washing of laundry decreases the climate impact from the use of textiles to only half of the impact generated by disposables.
  • Different from the linear business model of disposables, the circular business model is applied when textile table linen passes through a large number of washing cycles, jobs are created on a local scale. Each job created in textile service industry creates another 0.25 indirect and induced jobs.

To read and download the full report, please click on the following button: 

Full Report

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

Laundry Cost Index: 2020/2021 FYQ4

Laundry Cost Index

Please see our latest published Laundry Cost Index for 2020/2021 FYQ4 below. FYQ4 constitutes data for January, February and March 2021 months as per the latest release of quarterly energy prices by BEIS (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy).

Additionally, please note the same as for the last cost index (2020/2021 FYQ3), previously used indexes for Textiles and Other Transport have been discontinued and replaced with new indexes due to recent methodology changes by the Office for National Statistics.

Latest Laundry Cost Index

Please see the Previous Annual Increases below for comparison:

The Full Report
Annual Increase
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ3
2.00%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ2
1.64%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ1
2.02%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ4
2.73%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ3
1.75%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ2
2.95%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ1
4.00%
Previous Laundry Cost Indices

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

TSA Knowledge Network Open Day

Please note this news item is restricted for TSA members only. If you are a member already, please click here to log in.

If you are not a member and you would like to find out more about our membership benefits and how to become a member, please click here.

TSA Knowledge Network Open Day

We were delighted to announce the date of TSA’s Knowledge Network Open Day in our January and February TSA CEO updates. 17th March 2021 will be packed full of great topics and panel discussions all through the day. The 2020 KN Open Day was the last in-person event we were able to host before the lockdown. We hope to carry on the same enthusiasm and engagement this year as well. The virtual event provides us with flexible options where we can invite targeted audience for the topic of their interest at specific time slots. We will also have a TSA web landing page where you will see all the details and registration links. We hope to cover topics such as Managing CTWs Safely, Healthcare Processing Standards, Energy Efficiency, Diversity, Apprenticeship etc.

Please share this with your colleagues and teams for whom the topics below may be of interest.

Please note, WebEx has changed their registration form slightly, therefore when you have clicked the registration button below for your chosen session, please ignore the meeting password and click straight on the blue register button as show in the image below. If you have any issues registering, please call Emma on 0754 322 0302.

Day Programme and How to Register:

Time and Topics
Register

9:15am (20 mins)
Opening Session (relevant to all):

• Welcome
• Technical & Projects Updates
• Future projects
• Current projects
Register Here
Time and Topics
Who is it For?
Register

9:45am (60 mins)
Health & Safety:

• Latest Statistics
• CTW Management
• TSA Resources
• Managing Covid-19 related H&S claims
• Q&A Session (TSA Steering Group)

Senior Managers
Transport Managers
Engineer / Managers
Health & Safety Teams
Production Managers
General Managers
Register Here

11:00am (60 mins)
Driving the Healthcare Standards

• Implementing BS EN 14065
• Preparing for certification
• New Opportunities

Quality Managers
Production Managers
General Managers
Business Development Managers
Register Here

12:30pm (40 mins)
Circular Economy – End-of-Life Textiles (Recycling)

• Why do this project?
• TSA Survey results
• Logistics (Circletex?)
• Marketing the key messages

Senior Managers
Quality Managers
Transport Managers
Marketing Managers
Register Here

2:00pm (45 mins)
Energy Efficiency

• Climate Change Targets (Jacobs)
• Grant funding / Carbon Trust
• Energy audits
• Latest technologies

Engineer / Managers
Energy Procurement Teams
Production Managers
General Managers
Register Here

3:00pm (30 mins)
Inclusion and Diversity

• Women in the industry
• Diversity
• Mental Health

HR Directors
Change Managers
Senior Managers
Register Here

3:45pm (45 mins)
Apprenticeship

• Role of TSA’s Trailblazer group
• Online training delivery
• End point assessment

Senior Managers
Training Managers
HR Managers
Register Here

 

As mentioned, please forward this on to your colleagues and teams for whom the topics above may be of interest. Each session is going to be managed separate to one another. You are free to attend all the sessions. However, the day programme is designed for the attendees to be selective.

We look forward to seeing you there.

If you wish to discuss the above or if you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 3151 5600 or at tsa@tsa-uk.org.