National Clothesline

The annual conference of the Ontario Fabricare Association will be held at the Holiday Inn Waterfront in Peterborough, Ontario October 18-19.

In conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Seneca College, OFA will offer a Dry Cleaner Certification/Recertification course at the same time as the conference.

The weekend opens with a President’s Reception on Friday evening. A full day of meetings is planned for Saturday, beginning with the annual general meeting. Other sessions on Saturday morning will feature Gino Marchiona of Manor Cleaners on the topic “Common Cents for More Profit” and Warwick Jones of Coppley Apparel discussing today’s garment industry.

The afternoon programs will have Jim Giddings of Miele, Ltd., and Marty Kimmerer of Carriage Trade Cleaners talking about wetcleaning. Chris Allsbrooks of the International Fabricare Institute will present the final program of the day.

Table-top displays by allied trades vendors will be ongoing throughout the day. The conference will end with a dinner and evening at Kawartha Downs.

For registration and other information about the conference, contact OFA, (416) 255-2384, or visit the association’s web site:www.fabricare.org.

The Neighborhood Cleaners Association will have plenty on its palette in the upcoming months.

On Sept. 23, the association held a public ceremony to announce this year’s Coats For Kids Drive, a program that has collected tens of thousands of coats for children, as well as adults, over the past 18 years.

This year’s campaign will run from October 15 through December 15. Arthur Epstein of Randi’s Cleaners in Mineola, NY, will serve as the committee chairperson for the drive.

In addition to help keeping others warm during the cold season, NCA is also expanding its services to members.

NCA recently renamed its garment analysis service, now dubbing it NCGA, or the National Center for Garment Analysis. With the new title comes new responsibilities for the association.

Members can still use the garment analysis service as a tool to determine why a garment failed to process safely. However, NCGA Director Alan Spielvogel will now issue regular postcard alerts on problem garments by mail and e-mail in an effort to ensure that corrective work will be routinely undertaken by garment manufacturers and retail stores, thus facilitating returns and credits on behalf of consumers.

In another recent development, NCA Director of Operations Ann Hargrove contacted Nano-Tex to learn more about the company’s newly-created technology that could affect the drycleaning industry in the near future.

Nano-Tex has developed several proprietary processes that alter fabrics on a molecular level.

One such process, known as Nano-Care, can be applied to cotton khakis in order to give them more wrinkle resistance and to repel liquid stains such as water, coffee, chocolate sauce and red wine. The microscopic synthetic fibers actually cause the water-based substances to bead up and roll off like mercury.

Several garment manufacturers, including Eddie Bauer, Lee Jeans and Docker, are already selling Nano-Care-treated casual pants to consumers.

A director of marketing for Nano-Tex corresponded to Hargrove in an e-mail, stating: “For maximum performance and durability, drycleaning is not recommended.” They also advised her that some drycleaning specifications have been set and that care label instructions should be followed closely.

NCA has arranged to obtain Nano-treated garment samples that are available on the market. A report on the testing results will be published in a future NCA Bulletin.

NCA also has several educational offerings scheduled for October. “Problem Garments at the Counter” will be presented by the association's Capital District Chapter on Oct. 9 at the Century House in Latham, NY.

On Thursday, Oct. 10, NCA’s Gold Coast Chapter in Florida will have a Marketing Meeting hosted by Chris Baggott at the Holiday Inn on I-95 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

A “Diversification” seminar hosted by NCA’s New York/Long Island Chapter will come to The Courtyard by Marriott in East Elmhurst, NY on Oct. 16.

A four-week evening program on the “Principles and Practices of Pressing” will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at NCA’s headquarters starting Oct. 16.

For more information, call NCA at (212) 967-3002.