National Clothesline

Margo Sloan, owner of Dry Cleaning To-Your-Door in Waldport, OR, received the Jolly Belin Chief Lamptipper Award during IFI’s member reception at Clean ’03 in Las Vegas.

The award recognizes the member who sponsored the most new IFI members in a two-year period. Sloan sponsored 67 new members since last accepting the same award in 2001. During the two-year period leading up to the 2001 award, she brought 30 new members to IFI, making a total of 97 over the last four years.

The Jolly Belin title of Keeper of the Flame went to Laura Hurly of Lapels Drycleaning in Hanover, MA, and Kyung Woo Kim of Crystal Brite Cleaners in Arlington, VA. They sponsored 13 and 14 new members respectively.

The Jolly Belin Club was formed as an IFI membership recruitment program in 1961. Wearers of the club’s red coats earn that status by sponsoring 15 or more members in a two-year period. For more information on the program, contact Tammy Williams at IFI, (800) 638-2627, ext. 119.

James Voelbel has joined ASN Laundry Group as director of industrial equipment sales and will be responsible for sales of laundry equipment manufactured by Jensen and the other brands in the LSG Laundry Systems Group.

The products include Jensen flatwork ironers and folders, L-Tron and Senking washers and tunnels, Metricon sorting and handling equipment, Amko finishing systems and Futurail bag handling systems.

Voelbel’s previous experience of more than 40 years in the textile care industry includes working with major suppliers of a variety of products for the laundry and drycleaning industries. These include filtration equipment, laundry and drycleaning chemicals and laundry and drycleaning equipment.

ASN Laundry Group is the exclusive distributor of Jensen products in the states of New York, New Jersey and in eastern Pennsylvania. The company recently expanded its area of distribution into New Jersey and Pennsylvania but has been the exclusive New York distributor of IPSO washer-extractors and dryers and has been serving the textile care market in New York for more than 30 years.

With the addition of Jensen products to its equipment lines, ASN Laundry Group can now serve laundries of every size, ranging from the smallest coin laundry to the largest institutional and industrial laundry. The company provides sales, installation, training, financing and maintenance services.

Voelbel can be reached at the ASN Laundry Group New York headquarters by phone, (718) 542-8686, or fax (718) 378-4502.

The Association of Wedding Gown Specialists has announced the affiliation of eight new members.

They include Kermit Engh of Fashion Cleaners in Omaha, NE; Jarrell Epp of New City Cleaners in Bakersfield, CA; Bob Guthery of Nichols Hills Cleaners in Nichols Hills, OK; Joe Heider of Heider Cleaners in Dayton, OH; Surendra Kumar, Oakwood The Greener Cleaner in Hermitage, TN; Brian Meden of Yeamans Hall Drycleaners in Hanahan, SC; Scott Shah of Four Seasons Cleaners in Ventura, CA; and Louis Turcotte of Teinturerie Francaise in Quebec City, Quebec.

“At Clean ’03 in Las Vegas, we expanded our network of specialty gown cleaners into many new areas of the United States and Canada,” said Marty Wade, president of the association. “Every day brides call our central office for referrals, and the more widely we are represented, the better the service we can offer. Brides benefit from the personal, interactive service offered by members located near them, but the guarantee is truly an international warranty because each one of our members honors the guarantee of any other member in the Association.”

Both the Association of Bridal Consultants and National Bridal Service endorse the association’s trademarked MuseumCare preservations.

Engh said his company joined the association because “membership brings us to the highest level of professionalism for wedding gown preservation and restoration. It will further differentiate us in the market place, and there is a strong need in our market for someone who specializes in gowns.

“We were also impressed with the number of prestigious cleaners around the country who are already affiliated with the Association,” he added.

The not-for-profit trade association serves as both a marketing cooperative and a buying cooperative that can provide supplies such as archival-quality wedding chests at special pricing.

For more information, call the association office at (800) 501-5005 or e-mail info@WeddingGownSpecialists.com.

Marking its second anniversary at Clean ’03, the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network announced that it now includes 80 operators and covers 60 percent of the metropolitan areas across the United States.

“Two years ago we were just beginning to introduce our insurance restoration network to drycleaners,” said Wayne Wudyka, CRDN’s CEO, at Clean ’03. Now, with many of the exclusive territories already taken by CRDN members, Wudyka finds himself having to turn away some cleaners who are interested in joining.

Founded in partnership with Service Brands International, CRDN helps drycleaners build their business through insurance restoration services by bridging the gap between drycleaners and the insurance industry. Since the cost of restoration averages only 16 percent of the replacement cost of goods, the insurance industry stands to save millions of dollars each year by seeking having garments and other household items restored by drycleaners.

While building its network of member cleaners, CRDN also has been building relationships with insurance carriers nationally and regionally. This helps CRDN operators receive direct claim assignments in their local markets.

A cleaner who joins the CRDN network spends a week in training at multiple locations in Michigan, learning aspects of the business from operations to marketing and studying cash flow and storage space requirements.

Earlier this year, CRDN launched a similar program in the United Kingdom. Five business came to the U.S. for a training program customized for the U.K.

As part of its growth, CRDN has added staff members who specialize in increasing efficiencies within operators’ plants while others focus on ongoing training and launching a business.

“All of these efforts play an important role in driving volume and increasing sales,” Wudyka said.

More information on CRDN is available by calling (888) 379-2532 or by sending an e-mail to info@restorationdrycleaning.com.

John R. Graham, president of Graham Communications in Quincy, MA and frequent contributor to this publication, has received the Robert G. Ryan Award for outstanding business writing from the Door and Hardware Institute. DHI President William H. Elliott, Jr., AHC, of HCI/Craftsmen in South Weymouth, MA, presented the award to Graham during its recent annual conference and exposition in Tampa, FL.

This is the second consecutive year that Graham has won the Ryan award. His award-winning article, “Making a Winning Presentation — How to Think Like a Listener,” appeared in the magazine’s July 2002 issue.

An effective presentation focuses the attention on the audience rather than the speaker, Graham writes in the article. When a speaker thinks like a listener, the experience becomes enjoyable for both the speaker and the audience.

Graham established Graham Communications in 1976 as a total service communications firm. His monthly articles on marketing and sales appear in trade publications and business newspapers around the country.

Tom Searl has joined Continental Girbau Inc. as the company’s western regional sales manager, replacing Joe Venderveen who retired recently.

Searl has more than 13 years experience in the commercial laundry industry. In addition to managing Continental distributors throughout the western United States and Canada, he will be involved in new product introductions, sales support, marketing and training. Most recently he served a major laundry equipment manufacturers as manager of national accounts.

Continental Girbau Inc. is a subsidiary of Girbau, S.A., based in Spain.