Spomar speaks at environmental conference
John Spomar, Jr., president of Norco
Cleaners, Inc., in Dolton, IL, was a member of a panel on small
businesses and environmental issues during the Small Business
Environmental Assistance Program sponsored by the Illinois
Department of Commerce and Community Affairs in Chicago on July
2. Spomar explained how businesses can become
environmentally compliant and personally concerned at the same
time.
The panel’s topic, Fostering Small
Business Success Through Workplace Improvement, followed a
presentation by Dr. Lisa Brosseau of the University of
Minnesota on how small business attempts and achieves
environmental compliance, as well as what motivates and
de-motivates small business owners to make positive changes in
their workplace.
Spomar was asked to participate because of
his experience with environmental programs. He is a charter
member of the National Environmental Performance Track USEPA,
past chairman of the Illinois Drycleaner Star Recognition Program, president of the South Suburban Fabricare
Association and chairman of the Drycleaner Environmental
Network. His presentation blended the topics of cats, dogs,
UST’s, drycleaning, faith, safety and ecology for
environmental compliance. Other panelists were Reimar von
Kaiben of Allied Refrigeration & Electric, Inc. in Colorado
and Glenn Heilman of Heilman Pavement Specialties, Inc., in
Pennsylvania.
“It all began when our corporate cat
got sick; we rushed her to the vet and then later to the
University of Illinois Veterinary School to try and save
her,” he related.
“Later we had an autopsy performed
to determine whether or not our business had anything to do
with her death. She had a rare intestinal disease that was
known in sheep and cattle. Since she was a stray that we had
for five years, and the vet’s said she may have come to
us with the disease, but nothing from the business attributed
to her illness and death.
“Her death alerted us to the
environmental concerns in the plant operations and we continued
one step at a time to bring Norco Cleaners, Inc. to the highest
level of compliance and beyond.
“We work at it daily, the safety of
our family, employees, and neighbors is involved in every
decision we make,” he said.
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Manetti joins Kreussler
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Manetti has owned and operated a
drycleaning plant for eight years in Schaumburg, IL, taking on
all the responsibilities of management and working with the
wide range of drycleaning chemicals and machinery.
He then used this experience to work as a
drycleaning chemical company sales representative and moved to
Ohio. He also worked in sales for a distributor in Akron, Ohio,
for seven years.
He completed courses in business
management at Trition College and seminars at the Illinois
State Fabricare Association. He resides in Canfield, OH, with
his wife and teenage son.
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Former IFI instructor offering services
Sam Schwartz, former educator at the
International Fabricare Institute, is offering his services to
the industry and its trade associations.
He is prepared to provide educational
seminars on business management, drycleaning processes, stain
removal, shirt processing, garment finishing and customer
service. For trade associations, he is available for meetings,
conventions, membership recruitment, group and individual
training and plant evaluations.
Schwartz has more than 13 years of
experience with IFI and 30 years experience in the drycleaning
industry. He can be reached by phone at (410) 263-0210 or by
e-mail at prosamtheman@aol.com.
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Lappe affiliates with Wedding Gown
Specialists
John Lappe of Museum Quality Preservation
Boxes is now affiliated with the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.
Lappe, the son of Museum Quality founder
Viola Lappe, is expanding the company’s interests
in fabric conservation. He recently opened a new Museum Quality
facility for processing gowns and other fine fabrics in
Peekskill, NY.
Lappe serves as offsite consultant and
cleaner for two New York museums and participated in the
installation of a designer’s retrospective exhibition at
a third New York museum. He has cleaned thousands of fashions
for the archival projects of two major designers and is active
in the postgraduate studies program at the Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York.
Other new members of the association
include Steve Tucciarello of Colony cleaners in Rochester, NY;
Bailey Dempsey of Lewisville Cleaners in Lewisville, NC; Edward
Los of Village East Cleaners in Las Vegas, NV; and Rick
Nathorst and Laurie Doersam of Elite Professional Dry Cleaners
in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Association of Wedding Gown
Specialists is a not-for-profit trade association that serves
as a marketing cooperative for members and provides a referral
services for brides. The group also operates as a buying
cooperative that can provide supplies such as archival-quality
wedding chests.
The association’s MuseumCare™
preservations, which include a guarantee honored by all members
of the association, are endorsed by the Association of Bridal
Consultants and National Bridal Service. The
association’s care labels are used in gowns made by more
than 60 manufacturers.
Peter Delgatto, president of the
association, said Lappe’s expertise will benefit all
members.
“We pride ourselves in freely
sharing information with each other, and all of us look forward
to our annual meeting in a different city each year.”
The next meeting will be held at Eddie
Mannis’ Prestige Fabricare in Knoxville, TN. In between
meetings, the group shares information through its newsletter
and an e-mail list service.
Information about the association is
available by calling (800) 501-5005 or e-mailing info@WeddingGownSpecialists.com.
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Restorationists expand relationship with
insurers
The Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network has expanded its relationship with the
insurance industry through an alliance with Alacrity Services,
LLC, and ptc-NET.
ptc-NET provides structural loss
estimating and direct repair service for homeowners and light
commercial insurance claims using the Managed Contractor
Network proprietary estimating software and Web-based
application software technology. The company’s
contractors handle property damage claims for some of the
nation’s largest insurance companies.
CRDN will provide drycleaning services for
clothing and other fabric items that have been damaged and are
covered under a standard homeowner’s insurance policy. It
will also be responsible for the credentials and certification
of each participating drycleaner, claim review and the warranty
process.
The program also integrates CRDN’s
RestorNet, an on-line proprietary web-based system for
restoration drycleaning that handles job tracking, contact
management and higher-level management reports.
“Exclusive territories are
designated through CRDN’s existing secured area
arrangements with our members and will be supplemented by a new
affiliate member program for ptc-NET customers,” said
Wayne Wudyka, president and CEO of CRDN.
CRDN began rolling out the program with
select insurance and claim offices, initially covering markets
in New York, Illinois, Connecticut, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and North Carolina. More areas will be added this
year.
“We are actively recruiting
progressive operators, not only across the United States but in
these first six states to broaden our coverage and enhance our
involvement with ptc-NET,” Wudyka said.
The multi-year agreement will let CRDN
generate leads as drycleaners join the network, either as full
members or affiliates, he said.
Blake Will, senior vice president of sales
and marketing for ptc-NET, said CRDN was selected to
exclusively handle garment restoration claims because it
provides a source of qualified vendors that will let insurers
and adjusters reduce claim pay-out and improve service.
“We believe CRDN is a natural fit
for insurers and a complement to our existing repair network
that provides general construction and mitigation
services,” Will said. CRDN members will have immediate
access to handle insurance claims from leading carriers, he
added.
Last year, ptc-NET processed more than
150,000 property damage claims. Since 1999, ptc-NET and its
Managed Contractor Network has managed more than $310 million
in direct structural repairs. With CRDN’s involvement,
ptc-NET now can handle work assignments for the contents
portion of claims, which the company said far exceeds the
volume of structural repairs
Clothing, linens and other fabric items
— those that a restoration drycleaner can restore —
account for almost one-fourth of the household goods listed in
insurance claims, which is more than double the number of
claims for any other category of contents.
CRDN was founded a year ago to work with
drycleaners who want to build their businesses through
insurance restoration services and to bridge the gap between
drycleaners and the insurance industry. With an average cost of
only 16 percent of replacement of goods, restoration
drycleaning services can save insurers hundreds of millions of
dollars each year.
Information on CRDN is available by
calling (888) 379-2532.
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