March 1998

ONTV.JPG NCAI puts spotlight on Ecomat
Peter Lee of Green Cleaners in New York talks to WNBC-TV reporter Sheila Stainback about drycleaning he said he did for Ecomat in 1995 and 1996. NCAI executive director Bill Seitz looks on. NCAI obtained notarized statements from Lee and a former Ecomat employee saying that garments were taken from an Ecomat store and delivered to Lee's shop, which uses perc, for cleaning. In its advertising Ecomat says uses "eco-cleaning" not drycleaning. An official response from Ecomat is still pending, however, the company maintains that it has never drycleaned any customers' clothing. The WNBC news crew visited Lee's plant on Feb. 16 after NCAI issued a press release on its findings. More...

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Profile: BUSTER BELL says, "If all our solvents are as bad as the EPA makes them to be, there should be some qualifications for usage. We must have real certification." He envisions a certification process more extensive than any that exist today.

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EPA conference puts an eye on the future

Long-term goals and key issues for the garment care industry will be under the microscope during a three-day conference in Washington, DC, dubbed by its sponsor, the Environmental Protection Agency, as "An Eye to the Future."

The March 31-April 2 conference, which is open to all interested parties, will draw together experts from the drycleaning and textile and apparel industries, academia, government and technology development concerns. The agenda includes panel discussions and presentations on a range of issues affecting the drycleaning industry and its role in pollution reduction.

The conference is part of EPA's Design for the Environment Garment and Textile Care Program. EPA began its DfE drycleaning project in 1992 to seek environmentally benign alternatives to perc drycleaning. To date the program's most notable achievements have been studies that evaluate wetcleaning as an alternative to perc.

Last year the scope was broadened to include the entire chain from fiber production to garment cleaning into discussions of implementing pollution reduction measures. The broader scope recognizes that "drycleaning is the last step in an elaborate chain of industrial processes needed to produce and care for garments," EPA said in its announcement of the conference.

"Whether a garment or textile product can be cleaned by a particular method depends largely on decisions made by the textile and apparel industries much further up the chain," EPA added.

To bring fiber and textile makers, garment designers, retailers and consumers into the process, EPA set up a series of seven workgroup meetings in January to lay the groundwork for the upcoming conference. Due to scheduling difficulties, only four of those meetings actually took place. Groups involving apparel design and manufacture, textile and apparel wholesale/retail sales and marketing, and textile, apparel, and dry cleaning consumers did not meet.

The four workgroups that did meet will be meeting again during the conference. They include Dry Cleaning Workgroup, co-chaired by Bill Fisher of the International Fabricare Institute and Bill Seitz of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International; the Textile Design and Manufacture Workgroup co-chaired by Perry Grady of North Carolina State University and Kay Villa of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute; the Science and Technology Workgroup co-chaired by Manfred Wentz of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorist (also of R. R. Street & Co. Inc.) and Charles Riggs of Texas Woman's University; and the Education and Outreach Workgroup co-chaired Sylvia Hoover-Ewing of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Sue Armstrong of Armstrong Cleaners.

Some of those involved in the workgroups as well as others will make presentations during the conference.

The schedule in mid-February included:

Also planned are panel discussions on a variety of issues on care labeling and drycleaning. Attendees will be able to ask questions, exchange information and share ideas at these sessions.

The conference will also hear from keynote speaker Dr. Braden J. Allenby, vice president of environmental health and safety at AT&T. An expert on industrial ecology, he will speak on how the drycleaning industry fits into the global arena.

Allenby's presentation reflects the "system" or industrial ecology approach that EPA's garment and textile care program now seeks.

General topics
A specific agenda for the conference was not available at press time. General conference topics were listed as follows:

EPA began its DfE drycleaning project in 1992 in view of the fact that drycleaners are one of the largest group of chemical users that come into direct contact with the public and the agency wanted to find ways to reduce perc exposures and evaluate alternative controls and technologies.

An initial effort was the international roundtable on drycleaning held in 1992 which was the beginning of the public and private partnership that has expanded into the current program.

The DfE program involves work in three areas: technical studies, implementation, and outreach.

Part of the technical studies work is development of a Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment (CTSA). The CTSA has been in the works for several years and was sent out for peer review last year.

According to EPA, the document will focus on solvent-based cleaning technologies, including perc and petroleum, and will examine water-based methods and will include a technical overview of all available traditional and alternative technologies, solvents, and processes.

Also under the DfE program, EPA seeks to remove barriers and create incentives to use alternative garment cleaning methods. This includes several demonstration projects with "typical" neighborhood drycleaning shops with one major difference that used alternative water-based technologies instead of solvents to clean clothes.

These projects were conducted in cooperation with the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles.

EPA said that results from the project indicate that wetcleaning alternatives show promise as viable additions to the garment care industry.

DfE also has designed a training course to teach garment care professionals and staff about wetcleaning.

EPA also has been working with the Federal Trade Commission to make the garment care label "Dry Clean Only" less restrictive, so that other cleaning methods may be used when appropriate.

More information about the DfE program is available the internet: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/garment/events.htm.

If you plan to go...
EPA's "An Eye to the Future" conference will be held at the Doubletree Hotel National Airport, 300 Army-Navy Drive, Arlington, VA. The hotel is five minutes from Washington National Airport. Room reservations at the hotel at a special conference rate of $140 a night, single or double, are available through March 6. To make reservations at the hotel, call (800) 222-TREE and ask for the Garment and Textile Care conference reduced room rate.

Conference registration is being handled by Westat Inc. There is no registration fee, but advance registration is required. Registration can be made by phone (800) 263-6782; fax (301) 294-2829, or mail to Westat Inc., 1600 Research Blvd., RA 1443, Rockville, MD 20850. For a conference brochure or other information about the conference, call Janet Hunter at Westat, (800) 263-6782 or send email to her at hunterj1@westat.com.

Barton bill backers set phone, fax day

The Barton bill picked up eight more cosponsors in Congress's first week back in session this year, bringing the total to 67, but no new names were added to the list during the first three weeks of February.

Supporters of the Barton bill (HR1711) were planning two events for the first week of March which they hope will spur additional support for the legislation and set a course for future action.

The Mid-Atlantic Cleaners and Launderers Association was organizing a Congressional Phone and Fax Day on Wednesday, March 4, in which individual cleaners will call or fax their representatives to request sponsorship of the legislation.

In a simultaneous "face to face" effort, MACLA will assist members in making appointments with their representatives for meetings in Washington, DC, that day, also. MACLA said it will arrange for "professional support as needed" during the face-to-face meetings.

Members unable to visit Washington that day can still participate by calling or sending faxes to their representatives. MACLA has provided a sample fax form and is offering additional guidance and support to cleaners who want to participate in the effort.

Although the MACLA program is mainly designed to involve the members of the regional association, non-members, including those who are not within the MACLA territory, can join the campaign as well.

MACLA has had some success getting Barton bill cosponsors in the states it represents. Of the 11 representatives from Virginia, four -- Owen R. Pickett, Norman Sisisky, Virgil H. Goode Jr., and Robert Goodlatte -- are signed on to the bill.

The other seven Virginia representatives, as well as all eight from Maryland, all three from West Virginia and the District of Columbia non-voting members must be encouraged to cosponsor the legislation.

"We cannot let up. The stakes are high, We must try everything to push this effort toward a successful conclusion," said Earl Knight, chairman of MACLA's legislative, environmental and regulatory committee."

Meeting with Barton
The action will shift to Rep. Barton's home state of Texas the following weekend. The Congressman is scheduled to be among speakers at a Saturday, March 7, program during the Southwest Drycleaners Association convention in Austin.

A panel of industry leaders will also discuss legislative strategy during the program.

Brooksher Banks of Fashion Park Cleaners in Little Rock, AR, will moderate the discussion with panelists Abe Cho and Tae Hee Han of the Korean American Cleaners Association of New Jersey, Bill Seitz of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association-International, Bill Fisher of the International Fabricare Institute, Gary Baise of the Washington, DC, law firm of Baise & Miller, and Barney Deden, an Omaha, NE, drycleaner who has been a leading campaigner for the legislation.

Also during that weekend in Austin, the Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Educational (FLARE) organization will sponsor a Saturday afternoon discussion of legislative strategy and will hold a breakfast meeting on the morning of Sunday, March 8 to draw up an industry-wide action plan.

"We are confident that the fabric care industry Barton bill action meeting will propel H.R. 1711 closer to passage," said FLARE Administrator James Mayberry. "United and energized we can be strong enough to succeed."

For more information about the program, or to assist FLARE in its Barton bill efforts, contact Mayberry at (630) 416-6221.

Barton has said that if 100 of his colleagues agree to cosponsor his legislation he will be able to convince House leadership and committee chairs to move ahead with hearings.

Since he introduced the legislation last May, steady progress has been marked toward that goal, but the 66 who have joined Barton so far is a bit short of the goal.

Time is short, too. In all likelihood, congressional activity will slow to a crawl in late spring or early summer and little may be accomplished until after the November elections.

Congress could conceivably meet in a "lame duck" session after the elections, but any bills that do not pass by the year-end adjournment will expire.

New legislation would have to be reintroduced in the 106th Congress that convenes in January, 1999.

Joining the cosponsor at the end of January were seven Republicans and one Democrat.

Republicans signing on were Charles T. Canady of Florida; Dan Burton of Indiana; Howard Coble of North Carolina; Rep. Richard H. Baker, Louisiana; Jay Kim of California; Nick Smith of Michigan; and Vince Snowbarger of Kansas. Ohio Democrat James A. Traficant also joined the list of cosponsors.

The 67 sponsors include 15 Democrats and 52 Republicans from 26 states.

Fund-raising campaign
In addition to encouraging cleaners to get their representatives to sign on as cosponsors, industry supporters of the legislation are seeking contributions to the Dry Cleaners Action Fund of America, which was organized last fall to raise money to defray expenses involved in keeping the legislation moving.

Both MACLA and SDA have made donations to the fund, as has the Michigan Institute of Laundering and Drycleaning, which is also absorbing the administrative costs of the fund.

Association contributions to DCAFA include $10,000 from MACLA. $5,000 from SDA $5,200 from the Nebraska Fabricare Association and approximately $40,00 out of $50,000 in pledges from MILD members.

The legislative effort has also received substantial financial support from the Martinizing Environmental Group and comet Franchises. A number of smaller donations have also been received, according to Merry Bering, executive director of the Michigan group, who is leading the DCAFA efforts.

Donations can be sent to DCAFA, c/o MILD, PO Box 14044, Lansing, MI, 48901.

Phone and fax day instructions
Note: The following is adapted from material produced by the Mid-Atlantic Cleaners and Launderers Association.

To participate in the Congressional Phone and Fax Day, here's what to do:

Locate the name and telephone and fax number of your elected Member of Congress. If you need assistance, contact National Clothesline (215) 830-8467. If you can give us your nine-digit zip code, we can locate your representative and provide other information that may be helpful.

The fax message below was provided by MACLA, You may use it or adapt your own message from it. MACALA members will be phoning and faxing their representatives on Wednesday, March 4. You may join in on that date or send your message at another time that is convenient for you.

With any message you send, be sure to include your name, address and phone number. Do not send this instruction portion with your fax.

IMPORTANT CONSTITUENT COMMUNICATION

Via Fax To:

From:

I am sending this communication to ask for your support of H.R. 1711, the Small Business Remediation Act. This bill, sponsored by Representative Joe Barton and nearly 70 of your colleagues, seeks to establish a reasonable clean-up standard for any possible soil contamination associated with drycleaning sites.

Right now, clean-up standards for soil remediation are governed by a de facto application of the federal safe drinking water standard for the relevant compound, perchloroethylene, thus creating a strangulation hold on drycleaners, landlords, property owners and lenders. Even if you achieve it, what is the sense in cleaning up dirt to the point that it is safe enough to eat?

The provisions in H.R. 1711 would put in place a stringent, fair, problem solving, scientific, common sense, cleanup standard for perchloroethylene where none now exists. H.R.

1711 does not change the federal drinking water standards nor affect the ability of EPA or the States to require remediation of drycleaning sites. But without this Bill becoming law, lost jobs, bankruptcy and yet another clean-up debacle to deal with will be the legacy of our industry.

You have a chance to help fix an expensive national failure that makes criminals and victims out of innocent people who have broken no law. Please sign on as a cosponsor of H.R.1711, or support the Bill during Committee and floor votes. It's a good bill that deserves your affirmative consideration. Can I count you?

Yours truly,

Study showing increased risk of miscarriages prompts warning

A study recently released in the United Kingdom suggesting that pregnant drycleaning machine operators have a greater likelihood of miscarriage prompted a UK trade association to warn that pregnant women should not be operate or work in close proximity to a drycleaning machine.

The epidemiological study funded by the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE), found a rate of miscarriages for cleaning machine operators of about one in six compared to one in eight in the general population.

The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), which is part of the UK government's Department of Health, agreed that there is a connection between job category and spontaneous abortion but said the increased risk of miscarriages could not be specifically attributed to exposure to perchloroethylene.

"There is no evidence for a plausible biological mechanism by which tetrachloroethylene [perc] could cause this effect and that other factors could have contributed to the observed risk," the COT said in its review of the study.

Drycleaning plant workers not involved in operating the drycleaning machine had a miscarriage rate about the same as that of the general population, the COT report noted. Thus the committee concluded that not only is there no risk to cleaning plant workers not directly involved in operating the drycleaning machine, there is also no risk to the general public who visit drycleaning premises.

Commenting on the study in the February issue of the UK publication, Laundry & Cleaning Today, Chris Tebbs, managing director of the UK's Fabric Care Research Association, said, "Clearly we cannot afford to be complacent, but on the other hand neither should we be over-reactive. We cannot stress enough the importance of taking proper care and it is in everybody's best interests if we continually work at limiting the emissions to the atmosphere.

"We know from figures that we have sampled in recent years that the majority of cleaners are conforming to the regulations and are doing even better than just the basic minimum."

FCRA reiterated a previous advisory that said pregnant women in drycleaning plants should not:

It is not clear whether the increased miscarriage risk is due to exposure to perc. Other factors could be at work, the UK's Department of Health noted. Spontaneous abortion among drycleaning workers was examined in a 1986 study undertaken at the Institut de Recherche et en Securite du Travail du Quebec. That study indicated that "women whose work entailed heavy lifting, other physical effort, long hours, exposure to noise, and exposure to cold had also significantly increased risk ratios."

Further research
Researchers are also looking at the relationship between low birth weight and job category, the COT report noted. COT is withholding comment on that aspect of the study until the work is finished.

The HSE study grew out of a review of perc by the committee in 1993 following the publication of other studies that suggested exposure to perc could be linked to miscarriage.

At the time, the committee decided that available epidemiological evidence, although methodologically weak, was consistent with the view that perc may be a reproductive toxicant in humans. Available animal data at that time did not support that view, the committee noted.

HSE commissioned a further epidemiological study on the possible reproductive toxicity of perc after receiving the committee's conclusions.

A draft risk assessment of perc has been prepared by the UK under the European Union's Existing Substances Regulations (ESR), the committee noted. According to the COT report, the draft concludes:

"Although there is no convincing evidence that tetrachloroethylene causes developmental toxicity in humans, concern has been raised regarding the risk of spontaneous abortion in, particularly, drycleaning workers."

The new study, the committee said, adds "a little weight to the existing epidemiological evidence for the risk of spontaneous abortion in drycleaning workers" but does not alter the conclusion in the draft ESR review.

In the European Union, perc is classified as a Category 3 carcinogen -- possible risk of irreversible effects -- but not as a substance toxic to reproduction.

Further review of the findings by UK government officials is planned. Murray Devine, head of chemicals policy at HSE, said in a statement reported in the UK trade press that the study will now be considered by the Health and Safety Commission's advisory committee on toxic substance and occupations health.

"The first task will be to review the applicability of the study's findings to drycleaning as a whole and identify the factors that may contribute to the reported increased risk," Devine said. "The aim will be to recommend steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of miscarriage among drycleaning operators."

UK employers are required to prevent or control workers' exposure to perc. The eight-hour time-weighted exposure limit is 50 parts per million. The short term exposure limit is 100 parts per million.

In comparison the eight-hour time-weighted limit in the United States as prescribed by OSHA is 100 parts per million; the short-term limit is 200 part per million. OSHA is reviewing the standards for U.S. workers and there is a strong likelihood that the U.S. limits will be lowered drastically.

Toronto to host trade show, conference

Toronto will host the Clean Canada 98 trade show and conference April 3-5 at the Toronto Congress Centre.

More than 100 exhibitors and some 4,000 laundry and drycleaning professionals from across Canada are expected to attend. The Canadian Cleaners and Launderers Allied Trades Association is sponsoring the event.

Those who preregister by March 2 will have free admission to the exhibit which will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, April 3 and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 4 and 5. There will be a $10 on-site fee for those who are not pre-registered.

In addition to showing their newest machines, products and services, exhibitors will conduct a series of free industry-related seminars for trade show attendees.

A conference on the Impact of Change in the '90s and Beyond will be held concurrently, presenting professional speakers on industry trends, issues and regulatory changes. A separate fee of $50 is being charged for the conference.

Speakers will include Jim Colletti, director of sales of Rynex Corp., who will provide updates and current information about Rynex at the Friday session starting at 9:30 am.

Also on the Friday program is Dr. Nancy Cassell, associate professor of textile marketing at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She will discuss consumer attitudes and trends regrading fabrics and clothing.

Another confirmed speaker is Brad Lienhart, president and CEO of MiCELL Technologies Inc., which is developing a liquid carbon dioxide cleaning system. Lienhart will be give an update on CO2 developments on Saturday, April 4 starting at 9:30 a.m.

Vic Vandermolen, executive director of the Ontario Fabricare Association and the Canadian Fabricare Association, will discuss the new legislation that is coming to Ontario as well as new federal rules that are in the pipeline regarding technology standards.

Also on Saturday, Ken Adamson will be speak on the "Textile Care Spectra" and the results of his work in a dedicated wetcleaning plant in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dr. Anne Wilcock of the University of Guelph will discuss her extensive research on "green cleaning" of textiles and her work with Environment Canada on wetcleaning.

For more information about registration, write to Harley Austin, International Trade Show Services, 20 Butterick Rd., Toronto, Ontario, M8W 3Z8; or phone (416) 252-7791; fax (416) 252-9848; or send email to: bharleya@intltradeshows.com.

Editorial: Just a passing fad, or a mega trend

One of the advantages of today's umpty-eleven channel cable television systems is the opportunity to nightly peer through the glass knothole into the not-so-distant past. Whether it's the History Channel reliving the days of Prohibition when rum-running gangsters ruled the city streets or the Classic Sports Channel taking us back to the Dodgers and Yankees battling it out in the 1952 World Series, one thing stands out in those old black-and-white images. Back in the good old days, whenever they were, there didn't seem to be such a thing as casual dress.

The mobsters of the 1920s prided themselves on their tailored wardrobes. For many, in fact, being well dressed was a sign that they had attained a certain status in their chosen, er, profession. That's a far cry from today's professionals for whom being able to dress casually is a sign of having a good job that pays them for their skills and knowledge, not their appearance. And the baseball fans of the '50s... suits, ties and hats -- hats! -- on the men. Dresses on the women. Not a shirtless fan in the crowd.

Looking through those windows into the past leads one to believe that the trend toward more casual attire was not invented in the 1990s. It is a century-long trend that took a step or two back before accelerating again in this decade. Think about it. People from the beginning of this century would be shocked at the way we are dressing at the end of the century -- and that's even before they take a trip to the beach.

Some cleaners, longing for the dress-up days of the '80s, hope for a swing of the fashion pendulum that would bring more folks back to the cleaners more often. The whims of fad and fashion are tough to predict, but statistics, demographics and surveys suggest that casual is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The Baby Boomer generation, which never tires of driving the market, is not likely to stimulate a return to high fashion. Quite the opposite, in fact, according to an apparel industry analyst. The "boomers," he noted (see page 34), are now turning 50 and moving into an age group that typically prefers casual styles of dress and spends less money on apparel. By the time they turn 55, women decrease their spending on apparel by 20 percent. Men cut back by 35 percent. It is an issue that affects the entire apparel chain, drycleaners included. Combine the two trends -- a growing acceptance of casual dress throughout the century and a huge consumer market made up of baby boomers opting for more casual styles -- and looks unlikely that we'll see a resurgence of dressiness any time soon. A cleaner might grow old and bearded, and his machines covered in cobwebs, waiting for that pendulum swing.

It is said that those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it. The corollary might be that those who live for the past are doomed in the future. To find the future of professional garment care services, don't wait for the good old days to return. Follow the trends. Find where the market is going and get their first. Let's not have our grandchildren turn on the History Channel some evening to see a program on the demise of the drycleaner.

Editorial: Be certain about certification

There is a push within the textile care industry to develop some sort of certification of cleaners. Some of the proponents favor a process at the national level, others look for a state-by-state program. IFI and NCAI, the two largest cleaners associations in the United States, no doubt will point to their respective programs as examples of certification. We're sure the two have fine programs, but that's not the issue. This issue is not what we have, but what we need.

Before becoming deeply involved in the process, define the goals of certification. There is little good in creating a means to an end if we can't agree on the purpose. We may want to ask what value certification adds to the industry in the eyes of consumers, government regulatory bodies and other members of the textile care community. In addition, if we create a certification process, we should be aware that what evolves will include representatives of all the "stakeholders" -- cleaners, consumers, environmental interests, labor groups, government and manufacturers. The experience with the Professional Wet Cleaning Partnership created a couple years ago clearly indicates the difficulty of the challenge.

If certification is to mean anything, it needs input from all cleaners. We encourage cleaners to call the trade associations on the issue. Getting involved in the process now can prevent trouble later.

Letter to the Editor: Barton bill opponent responds to critics

TO THE EDITOR:

I was entertained by MILD's executive director's statements in the February National Clothesline about me, Steve Clifford. She said that my December letter was anti-H.R. 1711, and that she checked up on me and discovered that I am not a member of MILD, and have operated laundromats, but do not have a vested interest in the drycleaning industry.

Well, Ms. Bering, I wish I'd never had a vested interest in the drycleaning industry, I'll tell you that. I am the former owner of a contaminated site. I am currently retired, and I did operate a small drycleaning business in a section of one of my laundromats for 17 years. My wife and I had the scare of our life recently when the state DEQ ran some tests there and informed us that we could be held responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs under a worst-case scenario. Is that interest vested enough for you?

My wife and I were frightened that we could lose our hard-earned retirement savings. Can you imagine what that feels like? In Michigan, they'll let you keep your home, a car, and a few thousand dollars, and that's it. I have a son and a grandchild that depend on me for financial assistance, and my wife and I wept at the thought that our savings could be wiped out.

I never joined MILD because I didn't think it would do anything to help the little guy. I called on MILD for assistance back in the seventies, when the state was giving me a hard time about my laundromat lagoon system, and was told that MILD doesn't assist in individual cases. And that's okay, I guess. MILD looks at the big picture.

The big picture on the Barton bill looks bleak to me. I think it's hopelessly simplistic, and has no chance of being signed into law by Bill Clinton or Al Gore. The fact is, it will never even make it out of committee, and is nothing more than a black hole soaking up innocent drycleaners' hard-earned money.

I'm sure that MILD is staffed by nice people. But people, wake up! Drycleaners in Michigan need a state law that will spread the pain evenly amongst all current and former drycleaners, perc manufacturers and distributors. The current Michigan law is a big improvement, but is still unfair, in that it can capriciously wipe out an individual here and there, while everyone else in the industry rolls merrily along accumulating the usual profits.

Many other states have laws that protect individuals from financial ruin. That's what we need in Michigan. If MILD would stop wasting precious resources on a bill that has absolutely no chance of passage, and focus on lobbying for state law that would spread the pain a little more evenly, that's something that would deserve consideration and support.

In addition to some drycleaning experience, my background is in government also. I was born and raised in Washington D.C., and worked for the federal government for many years.

I grew up reading the Washington Post every day, and I know a thing or two about what's practical and what isn't. The Barton bill is impractical, and for that reason, is not supported by the perc manufacturers. They are sophisticated corporations, and also know a thing or two about what you can expect from Washington.

Bottom line is, if you think for a minute that Washington will give drycleaners a free pass on ground contamination, think again. It ain't gonna happen.

Steve Clifford
Beulah MI 49617
steve@ptway.com

Are you equipped for the big game?

BY MIKE ACHIN

No this isn't a column to tell you how far the University of Rhode Island Rams are going to go in the "Big Tournament" this year. This is a column to alert spotters and plant owners that you should be mad at yourself for letting your spotting board slip.

In my job I have the privilege to visit many plants and I will say that many of you keep your spotting area in very good shape. However, some of the cleaners I see insist that our chemicals do not work but in reality the problem is:

A. Lack of knowledge.

B. No vacuum on the board.

C. Improper chemicals on the board.

The last statement is what propelled me to write this article. A number of years ago I wrote a series of articles entitled MIA, as in why are some chemicals "Missing In Action" from the spotting board?

Sadly enough, some are still missing.

I am asking anyone reading this article to take a look at your spotting board and make sure you have all the chemicals I am about to list which all too often are missing.

1. Neutral lubricants. Ours is called Tergit but you can get them from your distributor under a variety of names. Neutral lubricants help penetrate the stain and lift the stain from the fabric.

For you sports fans, neutral lubes are the set-up pitcher before the closer comes in.

Many tough stains need to have neutral lube applied first, which will allow the stain to begin separating from the fabric. Next you apply your tannin, protein, etc.... to finish the job.

Many times you will find out that neutral lubricant, steam and a little mechanical action is all you need to remove many stains.

2. Volatile dry solvents. Many people go automatically to their paint, oil and grease remover when they encounter a "dryside" stain. Too many times the P.O.G. is too strong and you end up pulling color. A lot of times the stain would have come out with your V.D.S. without pulling color.

V.D.S. is also great for touch-up work. Many times a garment is about to go out the door and somehow picks up a grease stain. Rather then do the garment over, you most likely can remove the stain with V.D.S., feather it out with your air gun and send it out. You can do this because the volatile dry spotter evaporates from the fabric at a very quick rate.

3. Rust remover. Everyone has rust remover on the spotting board, but most people think it only works on rust. Rust remover is a great tannin stain remover. Many times your last traces of a tough "yellow" stain can be removed with just a drop of rust remover.

4. Way back when (not really too long ago) you could use the same paint, oil and grease removers for wetside or dryside spotting.

You do not want to do this anymore. There are now specialty chemicals such as laundry Wetspo or laundry Targo which do a fantastic job removing dryside stains but are made for wetside spotting.

Please make sure your board is equipped to attack dryside stains with the proper chemicals.

5. Digesters. Digesters come in liquid or powder form. Probably the most popular is R.S.R. in the powdered form.

Digesters attack protein stains. The problem with digesters is that they take time, which is not something that we always have. However, if you would take the time to learn how to use digesters you will be shocked at the urine, perspiration, blood stains, etc. that you thought would never come out that come out fine!

Warning: Your sorry tag usage will be greatly reduced.

6. Leveling agents. It continues to shock me how many people do not even know what leveling agents are. Every summer my crew and I visit customer after customer with redeposition problems, water rings, etc., which could be virtually eliminated if a leveling agent was used.

Leveling agents should be used year-round, but our calls typically increase in the spring/summer due to the lighter fabrics and the increase in relative humidity.

Basically, levelling agents should be used on light colored garments after you have flushed out with the steam gun on garments about to be drycleaned.

By applying the leveling agent after you have used the steam gun, you will prevent any "hard" rings from forming and any water left in the fabric will be suspended by the leveling agent. This prevents free moisture from staying on the garment which causes redeposition.

Most leveling agents need to sit about 15 minutes before you throw the garments into the drycleaning machine, but make sure you read the directions and follow the manufacturers guidelines.

As with any chemical or fabric that worries you: when in doubt test, test, test! That is probably the most important piece of information you can remember while spotting:

TEST, TEST, TEST!

Mike Achin is eastern regional manager for Laidlaw Corp. and an ardent "Rhody" fan. He invites readers to contact him by phone or fax at (508) 699-5521, pager at (388) 935-7919 or email at hangers@ici.net.

Benefit plans for small businesses

BY STEPHEN THOMA

To attract and retain the best employees in today's tight employment market, smaller companies are looking to offer better benefits packages, including retirement plans.

Among all plans being implemented, one of the most popular is the 401(k) plan.

In 1996, 11 percent of companies with five to 50 employees offered a 401(k) plan, while 25 percent of companies with 50 to 100 workers offered this retirement plan option, according to Access Research Inc., a Windsor, CT, benefit consulting firm.

By the year 2000, Access Research expects that 16 percent of the smallest companies (five to 50 employees) and almost a third (32 percent) of companies with 50 to 100 workers will offer a 401(k) plan.

If you are considering adding a retirement plan to your benefits package, you may already know that choosing among the numerous types of plans can be difficult

The type of plan should relate closely to your company's goals, whether that means low cost, ease and convenience, or the opportunity for you and your employees to invest the most you can toward your retirement.

Plan objectives
Let's take a look at some of the most common objectives small business owners have for offering retirement plans, and suggest a type of plan that might help accomplish each:

You want to provide attractive benefits for your employees, but need to minimize paperwork and costs.

A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan permits employer and/or employee contributions to Individual Retirement Accounts maintained by your employees, up to 15 percent of compensation, or $24,000 for 1997.

SEPs offer the tax benefits of a qualified plan -- employer contributions are tax deductible and plan assets grow tax deferred until withdrawn -- without the annual reporting requirements of most retirement plans.

You want a convenient plan and would like to make company contributions to your employees' accounts.

Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) plans are available for employers with 100 or fewer employees. They can be funded either through Individual Retirement Accounts for each employee or as a 401(k) plan.

They are free of certain complex nondiscrimination rules and testing requirements, as long as you either match employee elective contributions dollar-for-dollar up to 3 percent of an employee's compensation or make contributions of 2 percent of each eligible employee's compensation, up to $160,000.

You would like your employees to take part in funding their own retirement

The 401(k) is a cost-effective plan that is becoming prevalent among companies of all sizes.

Participants contribute a percentage of their pre-tax income to their account under the plan and the assets in their account have the opportunity to grow tax-deferred until they are withdrawn.

Your company can, at its discretion, match all or a portion of each employee's contribution, subject to legal limits. A loan feature can be incorporated as part of the plan.

You want to reduce your company's potential fiduciary responsibility for your retirement plan.

Allow participants to direct their own investments in a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan.

You can reduce your fiduciary liability if you comply with the Department of Labor's Section 404(c) regulations, which are designed to ensure that plan participants have information to exercise independent control over their account assets and sufficient opportunity to diversify their investments.

In a self-directed plan following the Section 404(c) guidelines, fiduciaries are not liable for losses that are the direct result of a participant's own investment actions.

You want to maximize tax deductions for your business and reward older, long-time, higher-wage earners.

A defined benefit plan, which provides a fixed benefit to employees at retirement, can help meet these goals and maximize your own benefits if you are close to retirement age.

Defined benefit plans offer the maximum tax deductible contribution allowable by law, with a maximum annual benefit limit of $125,000 for 1997. Mandatory employer contributions are based on actuarial assumptions, compensation, age and years of service.

Your company is young and has unpredictable cash flow, so you want to reward employees but keep contributions flexible.

Defined contribution plans such as a 401(k) plan offer more flexibility than defined benefit plans.

Contributions are generally made as a percentage of compensation. Participants' benefits are based on the amount contributed and the performance of investments.

One type of defined contribution plan -- a profit-sharing plan -- can provide you with maximum funding flexibility because you can determine each year how much you want to contribute or whether you want to contribute at all.

Your company has predictable income from year to year and you want to maximize company contributions.

Profit sharing plans allow a maximum annual deductible contribution for each eligible employee of 15 percent of eligible compensation.

You can contribute a higher amount and receive greater tax deductions through a money purchase plan, in which the maximum annual deductible contribution is 25 percent of eligible compensation.

Unlike profit sharing plans, however, employers are required to make fixed contributions every year to a money purchase pension plan.

You need contribution flexibility, but would like to maximize your company's tax- deductible contributions.

You can maintain two plans -- a money purchase plan with a 10 percent contribution rate and a profit-sharing plan with a discretionary contribution rate of up to 15 percent.

In this way, your business can contribute up to 25 percent of eligible compensation in profitable years (the maximum allowable percentage in a combination of these two plans), but is only obligated to make the money purchase pension plan contribution each year.

You want to selectively reward key employees.

A non-qualified deferred compensation plan augments the benefits of a qualified retirement plan. It can permit key executives to defer an unlimited amount of compensation until a specified date. Plan assets can grow tax-deferred until they are distributed.

If you currently offer a retirement plan, now is a good time to determine whether switching to another type of plan might benefit you and your employees.

Under current law, an overall limit on benefits and contributions is applied for employees who participate in both a defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan. This overall limit has been repealed, effective for plan years beginning after Dec. 31, 1999.

The repeal could allow participants, including yourself, to increase retirement plan contributions.

G. Stephen Thoma is Senior Vice President and Director of business Financial Services for Merrill Lynch.

Advice on converting to petroleum

BY EVERETT CHILDERS
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in the Fabricare E-Mail List, an internet forum with about 500 drycleaning industry participants. Industry members can join the forum by sending email to its administrator, Dave Spensley at cleanlist@uncled.com. The email message should include your name, business name or industry affiliation, location and phone or fax number.

Several years ago there was a very large company (a lot of individual plants) that began converting perc transfer machines to a transfer petroleum operation.

Petroleum solvent, which is much lighter than perc and also lighter than water, will float on water.

Therefore the water separators need to be re-engineered to about three times the capacity of a perc separator due to the different specific gravities of the liquids. It simply takes longer for the water and petroleum to separate.

The company is using a commercially available petroleum reclaiming tumbler for the drying operation. The reclaiming tumbler is a standard for petroleum drycleaning. This drycleaning company, to my knowledge, has had no problems with this arrangement.

They have also converted dry-to-dry perc machines to petroleum dry-to-dry machines. If this is done, there is a possibility of having an explosion or fire due to a lighter or other sparking device in the hot tumbler during the dry cycle.

The only time there can be a chance for a fire is when the vapors of the solvent are at their flash-point, in the presence of oxygen, and also with an ignition source.

Ingredients for a fire
With the conversion of a perc unit to a petroleum unit, during the wet phase of the cycle, there can not be a fire unless the solvent is past the flash-point and the other factors are there -- enough oxygen and an ignition source. With a conventional low flash-point petroleum solvent (105 degrees F., for example) this can be reached in the summer time in the hot sections of the country quite easily.

During the drying cycle is where all of this comes together: heat, oxygen and a possibility of a spark. This company is continuing to change over their plants and eliminating a lot of problems, hassles and liability that are occurring with perc.

To eliminate the possibility of a fire or explosion, the conversion kits available for the change-over are made up of an oxygen sensing device that checks for oxygen and temperature during the dry cycle.

The conversion kits also include a nitrogen generator. When the sensing device (s) start detecting these components they can inject nitrogen, which displaces the oxygen, therefore eliminating one of the three things needed for ignition.

Another way that this can be avoided is to suck out the oxygen from the drying chamber with a vacuum pump. Again, no oxygen, no chance of ignition.

Remember though, the lower the flash-point of the solvent, the lower the temperature in which ignition can occur, all other things being equal.

When converting a dry-to-dry perc machine to a dry-to-dry petroleum machine, the still has to be disconnected as it will not work with petroleum solvent. The DF-2000 synthetic petroleum solvent from Exxon needs to be distilled in a vacuum still to reduce the temperature needed to boil the solvent at a temperature which will not destroy the solvent.

Human error
There have been a couple of explosions that I know of. One of them occurred with a low flash-point solvent and the operator had figured out how to by pass and make the oxygen sensor inoperative. (the damn bell probably kept ringing and disturbed the workers!).

The second case was when there was no conversion. A machine was simply drained of perc and a low flash-point solvent was installed. With this kind of rationalization, I also suspect it was a pretty shoddy operation including housekeeping, lack of maintenance and a general lack of knowledge regarding petroleum solvents.

The engineering of the conversion kits seem to be pretty straightforward with adequate safeguards built in. If they are done right and maintained properly there should be a zilch chance of anything bad occurring. If the units are "re-engineered" in the field, there is no telling what can happen.

While on the subject, flash-points can be seriously altered (lowered) by adding some spotting chemicals or blending with other solvents with a lower flash-point. Some drycleaners think their drycleaning machines are stationary toilets and everything is to be flushed down them. This will result in lowered flash-points, stinking solvent and more difficult distilling.

Not normally an opinionated person, I will break tradition and offer an opinion.

At a crossroads
We just may be at a crossroads in our industry. Regarding drycleaning solvents, perc does not seem to be gaining favor among anyone in the civilized world.

Alternative solvents are still, at this point, going to go into production, someday, maybe.

Petroleum solvent has been used since the early 1900s. Fire laws have been written to stop new plants from going into business if they have a flash-point below 140 degrees F.

With a higher flash-point, it is getting much easier to install a new petro plant in shopping centers, with the blessing of the shopping center owners. The only available synthetic petroleum solvent available today has a flash-point of 147 degrees F.

The higher flash-point solvents have been in use in Germany since about 1990 with a high conversion rate to a high flash-point (synthetic petroleum) solvent. There are several companies there that supply the solvent.

As a summary, Exxon is the only company in the US at this time supplying the high flash-point solvent. They are exceedingly aware of liability when producing a product for any industry. They obviously feel this is a safe solvent when used properly.

Global solutions is making a conversion kit for the conversion of dry-to-dry perc machines to petroleum machines and also Pros, who is doing the same, evidently have no qualms about making a conversion kit available to the drycleaning industry.

There are at least a dozen drycleaning manufacturers making a synthetic solvent machine available and several chemical companies are making 100% compatible detergents available for the solvent.

The MSDS sheets for the solvent are pretty dull reading -- nothing scary there. The literature for the conversion kits is pretty simple and straightforward.

A disclaimer
I would also like to note that I have no ties to any of the above listed companies. I do travel with Jim Schreiner to his meetings that explain the Exxon DF 2000 solvent and its use. I am there to give a history of drycleaning and where we are now in the industry, answer drycleaning operational questions, and make those in attendance aware of all the gory things that are upon us such as perc taxes, EPA and OSHA regulations regarding perc, retroactive liability, Superfund, toxic air emissions and what other solvents are available for the drycleaning of garments.

There are a number of informational meetings scheduled for the next few months throughout the country. If you think you may have a new solvent in your future, or simply want to know what the hoop-la is all about, plan to attend one.

A warning
To those inquisitive folks out there and tinkerers: Do not just simply switch solvents to give it a try. Do it right. Follow the safety rules and keep legal. The only way to do this is get sound engineering information regarding the conversion and consider using one of the commercially available conversion units. They are not that expensive and you can probably get a tax break for the conversion.

Phone numbers and web sites of the companies mentioned:

Exxon, (800) 252-8835; http://www.df2000.com

Global Solutions, (716) 383-5405; http://www.gsretrofit.com/

PROS, (888) 545-4300; http://www.htinfo.com/pros.htm.

Everett Childers is a drycleaner, educator, consultant and author of "The Master Drycleaners Notebook." He can be reached by phone at (360) 750-5684 or email at echild@e-z.net.

Want to learn more?

Exxon's series of evening seminars around the country on drycleaning with petroleum solvents continues this month with stops in Miami, Florida, on March 17, Orlando, Florida, on March 18 and Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19. The seminars are open to all interested drycleaners distributors and representatives of equipment companies. Exxon's Jim Schreiner and industry educator Everett Childers are leading the seminars. The sessions begin at 6:30 in the evening and generally last for 60 to 90 minutes.

Seminars in eastern U.S. cities are being planned for April. To register or for more information, call Exxon, (800) 252-8835 and select option 2.

For more information on perc to petroleum conversions, see the May, 1996 issue of IFI's Fabricare magazine, "Converting Perc Machines for Higher Flash Point Solvents." Hoyt Corp. has also published information on this topic. Call the company, (508) 636-8811 to obtain a copy.

Booth rates for Clean 99 are announced

ATLANTA, GA -- Prices for exhibit space and attendee registration have been announced for Clean '99 in Orlando, FL, June 24-27, 1999.

Exhibitors at Clean '99 may qualify for additional discounts if they are members of one of the six cosponsoring trade associations.

The base rate for exhibit space will be $34 per square foot with a minimum size booth of 100 square feet. The square foot rate declines as the amount of space increases. The lowest non-member rate is $29 per square foot for booths of more than 3,600 square feet.

The discount for companies that are members of one of the cosponsoring trade associations is $7 per square foot. Thus the rate for a minimum size booth 100-sq.-ft. is $27 per square foot, or $2,700.

An discount of $3 per square foot is available for companies that are members of the Textile Care Allied Trade Association in addition to one of the other cosponsoring organizations. For companies that qualify for that rate, the minimum size booth will be $24 per square foot.

The lowest available rate is $19 per square foot. That applies to companies that are members of TCATA and one other sponsoring association and that take more than 3,600 square feet of exhibit space.

The single square foot rate covers most exhibit costs from the time the exhibit arrives at the convention facility until it is removed. Within limitations, those costs include labor, freight handling, booth drape, standard furniture and carpet, daily vacuuming and utilities. Exhibits also receive two complimentary registrations for each 100 square feet of exhibit space they purchase.

In addition to TCATA, which represents industry manufacturers and distributors, sponsoring associations include the International Fabricare Institute, the Coin Laundry Association, the Textile Rental Services Association,the Uniform & Textile Services Association and the National Association of Institutional Linen Management.

"The Clean Executive Committee wants to show its support of those exhibitors who in turn support the sponsoring association with their memberships," said David H. Cotter, committee chairman and executive director of TCATA. "We also want to encourage exhibitors to participate in the association that represent their industry on a year-round basis through membership."

The Clean Executive committee, which sets policy for the show and oversees its management, is made up of the highest paid executive staff of the sponsoring association.

Attendee registration fees for the Orlando show will be the same as for the Clean '97 show in Las Vegas. Pre-registration will be $35 per person; on-site registration will be $60. The fee includes access to the exhibit hall and all education sessions.

More than 26,000 people attended the Las Vegas exhibition where 546 companies covered more than 255,000 net square feet of exhibit space.

Riddle & Associates, the show management firm, said the Clean '99 prospectus will be available this May. In the meantime, show information may be obtained by contacting Riddle, phone (404) 876-1988; fax (404) 876-5121; or email info@cleanshow.com.

The Clean show also maintains a web site that provides information about exhibitors as well as the show itself: http://www.cleanshow.com.

Restorationists convene this month

The American Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration (ASCR) will hold its 53rd annual convention and exhibition at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL,. March 9-13.

"Changing Marketplace. Changing Opportunities" is the theme of the program. Opening day on Monday, March 10 will feature a golf tournament, a tour of the Walt Disney World Resort, advisory committee meetings and a welcome reception in the exhibit hall.

Keynote speaker Thomas J. Suddes of The Suddes Group will open the session on Tuesday morning. Exhibits will be open for viewing from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. At 2 p.m., Chuck Violand of Violand Management Associates will speak on "Leading Your Company in the 21st Century: How to Recognize and Avoid Six Fatal Mistakes."

The second afternoon program will feature Mike Henning of the Henning Family Business Center. Bill Yeadon of The Cavalry II will be the last speaker of the day. A new member roundtable will conclude the Tuesday schedule.

A parade of speakers will address a variety of issues through the day both Wednesday and Thursday.

Topics on Wednesday include rug restoration and cleaning, working with the national flood insurance program, residential mold remediation, microbial and particulate remediation, color run restoration and color loss problems, management practices and microbiological testing.

Thursday's speakers will address vapor emission conditions in concrete, situational ethics in dealing with adjusters, the "lighter side" of financial numbers, unusual sales approaches, water damage pricing, bioremediation of oil spills, transferring business ownership to a family member, an internet update, training in today's labor and consumer environment, and leather and suede cleaning.

A half-day program on Friday will present panel discussion with experts on speakers on fire and smoke damage guidelines, water damage standards, the trend away from carpet and its effect on damage repair.

The ASCR Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon will begin at noon. A closing reception will be held in the evening.

ASCR is an international professional trade association whose members specialize in cleaning, inspection repair and restoration services. The association has five divisions: The Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Institute; the Mechanical Systems Hygiene Institute, the National Institute of Disaster Restoration; the National Institute of Rug Cleaning; and the Water Loss Institute.

For more information on the association, contact ASCR by phone, (301) 604-4411; fax 301-604-4713, email, info@ascr.org; or visit the ASCR website, http://www.ascr.org.

The next step for ultrasonic cleaning

A Florida-based non-profit technology development company wants to take ultrasonic garment cleaning to the next level by building a prototype ultrasonic cleaning machine.

The Fraunhofer Technology Center in Hialeah, Florida, believes an ultrasonic clothes washing process offers several benefits, ranging from reduced energy and water consumption in laundry, time and money savings for households and less discharge of waste cleaning solvents.

Thomas L. Hoffmann, manager of technology development for Fraunhofer, said the prototype model of a continuous flow washing system would be the outgrowth of past research and experimentation with ultrasonic cleaning of textiles.

He cited an ultrasonic cleaning system demonstrated in Spain as an example of the technology in action.

In that system, fabric from a roll is passed through the ultrasonic cleaning system. The concept, Hoffman believes, can be adapted to a continuous flow system in which garments would be cleaned ultrasonically.

Getting from the current state of the art -- cleaning a bolt of unstructured fabric to cleaning individual garments -- is the development phase that Fraunhofer is working on. The company concentrates on contract project work on a confidential basis with proprietary rights protected for its customers.

To that end, Fraunhofer is seeking partners to invest in the process. The technology center believes the next phase of the development process -- building a prototype machine -- could be completed in two years at a cost of $2 million.

Fraunhofer believes that ultrasonic garment cleaning should interest both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy since it provides dual benefits of reduced pollution and reduced energy consumption.

The approach it envisions is based in part on Department of Energy research that found ultrasonically cleaned fabrics show acceptable soil removal and sufficient potential to warrant further development.

Home laundry accounts for about 22 percent of domestic water use in the United States, according to Fraunhofer. That totals 174 million cubic feet of water annually at a cost of about $5 billion. The energy used to heat water and run clothes dryers costs another $15 billion.

If universally adopted, an ultrasonic washing process could cut these costs in half, Fraunhofer believes.

Even if only 10 percent of U.S. families used this approach, annual saving in water and energy would be $1 billion. Since those calculations are for the U.S. alone, worldwide adoption of the technology would lead to even greater savings and pollution reduction.

Double benefits
Hoffmann also said that the system could benefit the cleaning and laundry industry, not only by resolving environmental issues that the industries face now but also by providing an opportunity for professional cleaners to capture more of the home laundry market, especially if the system were used in combination with the "Smart Box" pick up and delivery set up envisioned by Kansas City cleaner David Porter.

Porter has conducted extensive investigations into both ultrasonic cleaning and the "smart box" service and surveys of his customer base indicate that consumers would be favorable to a scheme that would relieve them of much of the workload of processing laundry at home.

Porter worked with the DOE's Kansas City office in tests of ultrasonic applications for fabric cleaning.

How it works
As Fraunhofer describes the ultrasonic washing process, mechanical forces induced by high intensity sound in a fluid media dissolve and displace adherent contaminants very efficiently. This occurs because strong sound waves propagate well through water, which is nearly incompressible. During such propagation, negative acoustic pressure causes the fluid to fracture generating so-called "cavitation bubbles."

These water vapor-filled bubbles grow first during the negative acoustic pressure cycle and then collapse rapidly when the pressure of the sound wave is reversed. This collapse accompanies a violent implosion of the bubble, generating fluid jets and shock waves which propagate into the fluid.

The micro-agitation occurring in the vicinity of the cavitation bubble effectively displaces soil particles, which are bound to the fabric by ionic or cohesive forces. This agitation takes place not only at the textile surface, but also deep within the structure of the fabric.

Hoffmann can be reached at Fraunhofer's Technology Development Center by phone, (305) 863-9096; fax (305) 863-9097 or email, tlh@FTeCH.org. More information is also available on the FTech world wide web site: http://www.FTech.org.

IDC Fellowship awards to three

Recipients of International Drycleaners Congress fellowships for 1998 come from the United States, Canada and Columbia.

IDC's International Fellowship program was introduced in 1984 so young members of the industry could visit textile service companies in other nations and learn more about drycleaning, laundry and uniform operations. The fellowships also provide an opportunity to learn the culture, traditions, geography and history of other countries.

Through the fellowship programs, sons and daughters of IDC members have visited with IDC members in Canada, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, India, Taiwan, Japan, Venezuela, Germany and the United States. Tom Hopkins, president-elect of IDC, is chairman of the program this year.

The recipients of the fellowships, who will report on their experiences at the IDC convention, are as follows:

JOHN-PAUL (J.P.) RENAUD
R. R Street Fellowship

Born in 1964, Renaud graduated from the 190th general drycleaning course held at the International Fabricare Institute in 1982.

He is part owner of Newtex Cleaners, a 40-year-old family-owned and operated business located in Kitchener, Ontario. As plant manager, his responsibilities include production and maintenance. Three siblings also work in the company.

His father, Bill Renaud Sr., is president of the company and a longtime IDC member.

Newtex has a central drycleaning plant serving 12 dry stores and a pick-up and delivery service. The company offers drycleaning, wetcleaning, shirt laundering, drapery cleaning, fur restoration and general dyeing.

Renaud is married and has three children. He is a recent graduate of the Ontario Certified Environmental Drycleaning Course and was the first to register a perfect score on the test.

MARCOS SCHVARTZMAN
Leroy Burch Fellow

Born in 1969 in Cali, Columbia, Schvartzman has lived most of his life in Bogota. He studied at the Colegio Colomb Hebrea from which he graduated in 1986. He also is a graduate of Universidad Javeranee in Bogota where he studied industrial engineering. He is a graduate of IFI's general drycleaning course.

In 1991, he and Joseph Kaplan, son of IDC vice president for Latin America Murray Kaplan, opened their first package plant in Bogota.

Within a year, they opened a second plant in Cali and now operate three plants and four dry stores.

Schvartzman is responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of the business.

JOSEPH HALLAK JR.
George Laumann Fellow

Hallak was born in New Jersey in 1961 and is the son of the late Joe Sr. and Marie-Louise Hallak who emigrated from France to the United States.

Opened in 1966, Hallak Cleaners serves the high-end market in Manhattan with a pick-up and delivery service. A central plant was opened in 1983 in Hackensack, NJ.

The New York plant was closed in 1988 and a dry store opened across the street from the former plant in Manhattan. A larger plant in New Jersey was opened in 1994 to accommodate the increased volume and to provide a retail location.

Hallak attended Seton Hall University and Farleigh Dickenson College before joining his father at Hallak Cleaners in 1989. His older brother, John-Claude, joined the company in 1982.

Hallak is married with two children and another on the way.

IDC to mark 40th in Munich

The International Drycleaners Congress will mark its 40th anniversary at its May 3-7 convention at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany.

Under the theme, "Professional Care and Fashion: A Winning Combination," the business programs will present speakers from 10 different countries. Also planned are social activities, a tour of the Germany's Hohenstein Institute on Saturday, May 2, and pre- and post-convention tours.

The business programs begin Monday with a panel discussion on Innovative Marketing Strategies. Monday afternoon has been set aside for a tour of Munich followed by a traditional dinner at Augustiner Keller.

The opening panel on Tuesday will be The State of the Textile Care Industry. Following that panel, L. Ross Beard of R. R. Street & Co. Inc., will speak on Future Trend Predictions for a Global Fabricare Industry.

An International Assessment of New Cleaning Technologies and Environmental Issues will be the charge of the second panel of the morning.

The Wednesday program will open with presentations from recipients of IDC fellowships. Following a break, Dr. Stefan Mecheels of Hohenstein will speak on Textile Care: Integral Part of the Textile Industry. The morning panel discussion will address, "Textile Care and Fashion: The Winning Combination".

Convention registration is $590 US per person which includes the welcome reception buffet, the IDC luncheon, all convention sessions, the Munich sight-seeing tour and dinner and the IDC Banquet and entertainment.

For more information, call IDC, (513) 523-4121 or fax (513) 523-1370.

IFI offers march seminars in Alabama, Minnesota

SILVER SPRING, MD -- A wedding gown workshop in Alabama and stain removal and finishing seminars in Minnesota will be offered by the International Fabricare Institute this month.

The wedding gown workshop will be presented at the Blue Ribbon Fabricare Center in Jemison, AL, on March 28.

The workshop will focus on wedding gown cleaning and services.

Topics to be covered are inspection, cleaning techniques and stain removal, finishing techniques, restoration, alterations and repairs and packaging.

The workshop is cosponsored by Blue Ribbon Fabricare Center and the South Eastern Fabricare Association. Registration is $125.

The stain removal seminar will be held in Minneapolis, MN on March 28. Topics to be covered in these sessions are elements of the stain removal process, including fibers and fabrics, tools and agents, stain removal procedures and unusual stain removal problems.

The Finishing seminars, also in Minneapolis, will be held on March 29. The program will provide an overview of finishing for newcomers to the trade, help on specific problems for more experienced finishers and advice on teaching finishing for owners and managers.

The seminars are part of IFI's education program which also includes resident courses at the Silver Spring headquarters and correspondence courses.

An Advanced Stain Removal seminar, which will cover bleaches, handling specialty items and removing difficult stains, will be offered at IFI headquarters in Silver Spring, May 14-16.

The cost for IFI members is $210; for non-members, it is $300.

IFI also plans a two-day Total Quality Management seminar June 26 and 27. The session will cover quality service and managing, including customer expectations, mission statements, job analysis and employee relations. The course is $195 for IFI members and $295 for non-members.

The Certified Environmental Drycleaners (CED) and Certified Professional Drycleaners (CPD) examinations will be offered at various locations around the United States October 3. The registration deadline is Aug. 15.

Resident courses
The schedule of resident courses at IFI headquarters in Silver Spring continues as well. In addition to introductory and advanced drycleaning courses, IFI is offering seminars on basic and advanced stain removal and Total Quality Management.

Remaining starting dates for 1998 are April 20, June 1, July 13, August 10, Sept. 14 and Oct. 26.

Tuition is $350 for IFI members and $455 for non-members.

Sessions of a two-week Advanced Drycleaning course will follow each of the introductory courses for students who would like to take the two back-to-back over a three-week period.

Starting dates for the advanced course are April 27, June 8, July 20, Aug. 17, Sept. 21 and Nov 2.

Tuition for the advanced course is $700 for IFI members and $910 for non-members.

If the introductory and advanced courses are taken back to back, the cost for both is $995 for IFI members and $1,295 for non-members.

For information on these and other IFI education programs, call (800) 434-622, ext. 144.

Italian venue added to show slate

The international trade show calendar underwent yet another revision last month with an announcement that an Expo Detergo show will be held in Milan, Italy, October 30-November 2.

Last held in 1996 with 17,000 attendees, Expo Detergo is organized by the Italian Federation for the Care of Textiles and Kindred Products. The 12th show in the Detergo series will be a four-day event in the new Portello exhibition facilities.

Show organizers note that the industry is undergoing "sweeping changes: reduction of the number of companies with the remaining ones pursuing a managerial philosophy... optimizing results and performance."

For information about the Detergo show, contact the show secretary by phone at (02) 32.67.74; fax (02) 33.00.38.19; or email at union.manut.tessili@agora.stm.it.

As of mid-February, the lineup of industry exhibitions outside the North American continent was as follows:

Clean UK is scheduled for June 14-15 at the Wembley Exhibition Center in England, as the focus for European cleaners, launderers and allied trades firms in 1998. Clean UK is organized on behalf of the Society of Laundry Engineers and Allied Trades by D.M.G. Trinity Ltd.

The Fabric Care Research Association and the Textile Services Association will have technical advisers on hand to answer fabric and garment care questions.

More information on the Clean UK show is available by calling 01 895 677 677 or faxing to 01 895 676 027.

Expo Lorsa '98, an exhibition in Guadalajara, Mexico, Aug. 6-8, was announced in December. No additional information is available at this time. Organizers provided an email address at which they can be contacted: lorsa@acnet.net.

TexCare Asia will be held at the Singapore World Trade Centre Aug. 19-21 with workshops, panel discussions and seminars in conjunction with the exhibition. More information about the show is available from Messe Frankfurt GmbH, Dirk John or Ulla Reinehr; phone 49 69 7575-6297 or fax 49 69 7575-6612.

In the U.S. and Canada, the show schedule remains unchanged. U.S. shows will be held in Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Washington state, Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois, California, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey. Toronto will be the host city for a show sponsored by the Canadian Cleaners & Launderers Allied Trades Association in April.

For a complete listing of the 1998 trade shows, the Corner Cleaner web site.

Perc-eating bugs are fussy about where they dine

When stories about perc-eating "bugs" that could clean up contaminated drycleaning sites were in the media last fall, Wisconsin Fabricare Institute executive director Joe Phillips challenged environmental consultants and engineers to look into the possibilities.

Phillips' interest stemmed from reports on CNN and in the trade press about Strain 195, a bacteria said to reduce perc to a harmless ethene gas. Phillips issued his challenge in the November-December issue of the's publication, Impressions. He got a quick response from Charlie Zeal of Rust Environmental and Infrastructure.

In a response printed in the January-February issue of WFI's bulletin, Zeal said that under the right conditions the bugs have been found to be "very effective in biodegrading gasoline and other petroleum products or facilitating the in-situ dechlorination of perc and other chlorinated compounds."

But to be effective, the site conditions must be "just right." Zeal said a bug that can degrade perc under a specific set of conditions generally cannot degrade perc, let alone survive, in a different environmental setting.

"Artificially augmenting unfavorable subsurface conditions to make them more favorable for in-situ biodegradation or dechlorination is very difficult and is the current focus of US EPA and U.S. Air Force efforts," Zeal wrote.

Picky eaters
"Simply bringing bugs that worked at another site to your site doesn't necessarily mean you're going to obtain the same results," he added.

Zeal noted that the use of "bugs" and biodegradation to assist with the treatment of sites contaminated by gasoline and other petroleum products from underground storage tanks has become commonplace. But compared to petroleum products, chlorinated compounds are relatively resistant to biodegradation and have significantly different characteristics.

The good news, Zeal said, is that perc, like gasoline, is a relatively volatile compound making it amenable to relatively inexpensive treatment technologies like air sparging and soil vapor extraction.

CNN report
The optimism for a simple perc-contamination treatment stimulated by CNN's report last fall was also tempered by one of the sources for CNN's story, James Gossett of Cornell University.

Contacted by the International Fabricare Institute after the CNN report aired, Gossett said that the bacteria "may not be the answer to drycleaners' contamination problems."

Gossett, one of the researchers who identified the strain's potential, told IFI that Strain 195 is at least five years away from field use and even then it would only be used to augment current microbial activity on the site.

The CNN report, Gossett said, was factual but it did not go far enough.

"Strain 195 may not be the answer the industry is searching for, although it does show promise," IFI said in an article in the December issue of Fabricare magazine.

Field tests at Department of Defense sites will help answer important questions concerning whether the strain occurs naturally in the subsurface and what conditions are required for its existence, IFI said.

Demographics say casual dress will stay

Counting on a reversal of the casual dress trend to boost drycleaning business may amount to betting on a slow horse.

Jack Pickler, a senior vice president for Prudential Securities said the aging of the baby boomer generation portends changes in the spending habits of that important segment of the consuming population.

"What we see is that as people get older, their personal styles tend to be more casual and less dressy," Pickler told the New York Textile Group according to a Women's wear Daily article.

The oldest baby boomers turned 50 in 1996. By 2000 the 45-to-54 age group will increase by 33 percent, according to census data.

Prudential data shows that women, who account for 70 percent of all purchases of soft goods, decrease their apparel spending by 20 percent beginning at age 55. For men, the drop is even more dramatic -- 35 percent.

People in the 45-54 age group spend the most for home furnishings, Pickler said. With their children grown and leaving the next, they redecorate. Thus, fashion and apparel's loss becomes home furnishings' gain.

In addition to Pickler's prediction of increasingly unfavorable demographics for the apparel industry, he also forecast the growth of apparel production in countries that are part of the North American Free grade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).

Mexico and Canada will continue to gain in textile and apparel imports to the United States in 1998, Pickler predicted. Mexico will remain the number-one importer to the United States but the combined imports of the top four CBI countries -- the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica and Costa Rica -- will exceed those of Mexico.

Meanwhile, U.S. mills are expanding their efforts to sell into overseas markets, Pickler noted.

Viewpoint: Will mediocrity become the industry standard?

BY BILL BOGUS

Yes, mediocrity will prevail when quality and mediocrity have no recognizable differences, when total dependency is placed upon the cleaning unit.

It is true that the cleaning equipment cleaners have today makes it easier to do better work, providing the drycleaner does his share of the cleaning process. The unit depends upon the operator to push the right button. Distilling and changing cartridges is the responsibility of the operator when use has expired. Procrastination should not be allowed to influence decisions.

It is absolutely true that the cleaning unit can function by using dirty solvent; no detergents, poor filtration and no distillation allowing dirt and filth to permeate all garments in any given load. The slightly soiled garments will pick up more dirt and filth. The dirtiest garments will lose more. This type of cleaning will give reason for customers to be dissatisfied. This also will give reason for customers not to come back.

Technology helps us to become better drycleaners, however the final touch of any accomplishments comes from the mind and not by pushing a button.

There are times when our behavior is that of a dog chasing its tail. The dog's determination is guided by instinct, and not reasoning. Man is capable of reasoning and making decisions. When decisions are made without knowledge then failure becomes dominant over right. When experience alone becomes practice then mediocrity prevails.

Keeping in mind that drycleaning is part art and science, Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher (322-384 BC) knew this when he gave his meaning of art. He said, "Art is a higher knowledge than experience. We discover or rediscover the meaning of 'awe' and the sublime." Art is the curiosity in the searching of 'why' and 'sublime' is taking something good to a higher level of excellence that changes 'awe' into awesome.

Eleven years ago, Bill Seitz, executive director of Neighborhood Cleaners Association International, had this to say about competition. "Your future doesn't depend upon what your competitor is doing. It depends on what you do to make your business successful. And drycleaners who compete with 'dollar' discount cleaners should pay more attention to their own service and quality rather than worry about lower prices offered by their competitors."

In the competitive world of doing business, competition brings out the best and exposes the worst. Competition can makes good things happen. But the wrong kind can destroy good things. Mediocrity and the lack of good carries the burden of criticism. Consumers want good service. In the sports world, the champions get the biggest crowds. When people get what they want and enjoy, they will want more. It is time we should give customers the kind of cleaning they want. We can not dictate "wants," but we can influence "more."

When drycleaning becomes an unliked chore, like a kid getting his first haircut, then customers will patronize the service only when necessary. Frequency and potential volume will become more of a desire than a happening. Under such circumstances, the battle between drycleaners fighting for volume would be like two hungry dogs going after a small piece of meat. This is competition at its worst.

Nothing can be accomplished by waiting. Perhaps we have become calloused by being flogged by the news media spitting out derogatory remarks about our services.

Or do we feel such remarks will soon go away? Not so. Years ago someone made a disparaging remark about drycleaners that hasn't gone away. Whoever it was, it might have been a dissatisfied customer saying, "taken to the cleaners" and today that same remark is used as a metaphor.

Now suppose we turned it around and used this familiar remark to our advantage: "Taken to the cleaners... and coming back like new."

Just thinking, here's another one, "Clothes go out of style sooner than wearing out when drycleaned."

I know there are cleaners out there who can come up with some good ideas. There is an old Jewish proverb that says: "We learn in company." We can also do more good in company -- all of us.

Any endeavor in business requires leadership with knowledge. This leadership becomes peer for the followers who eventually become peers so that all may attain success. Otherwise we may all suffer like the mules. When a mule train burdened with supplies, travels a difficult terrain, it's the rear mules that get the whip.

Bill Bogus is president of Textile Restoration Services Inc. in Laurel, MD. He can be reached at (301) 776-4961.

Northeast News

NEFA ready for trade show

The North East Fabricare Association will hold its biennial exhibit April 3-5 in the Worcester Centrum in Worcester, MA.

Fabricare Image '98 is "one of the leading industry shows in the nation," NEFA executive vice president Peter Blake said. "It offers cleaners the opportunity to see new technology, hear about breakthrough ideas in management, discuss problems and solutions and relax with others who share a common experience." NEFA representatives said the education sessions are complete and a variety of social events are planned. Through mid-February, 240 booths were contracted by exhibitors.

The Crowne Plaza in Worcester is the headquarters hotel for the weekend. Shuttles will run between the hotel and the convention center.

The seminars planned for the convention range from membership benefits to customer service.

The programs start Friday night with the "Get Reacquainted Membership Cocktail Reception." The idea is to offer an opportunity for cleaners to mingle in a relaxed setting.

Education sessions start with "Membership Doesn't Cost, It Pays" is a buffet breakfast workshop designed to demonstrate what is available through membership, and how association members can use the association to improve their profitability. Presentations include representatives from ITT Hartford, First Data Merchants, Aetna/U.S. Health Care, Safety-Kleen, as well as NEFA and the International Fabricare Institute.

"Managing For Profit: Improving Your Bottom Line" features NEFA management consultant Ted Barry. The session examines ways to analyze business operations and make improvements to maximize profit potential. Ways to help you control costs, use tools to look at expenses, and explore ways to increase business will be discussed.

"Fabric and Fashions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a presentation by Fran Sadler of IFI.

"Every drycleaner in the world has to deal with problem garments at one time or another, and finding a solution to deal with these can be a real headache," NEFA said. Sadler uses an entertaining and informative program with a fashion show to illustrate some of the common as well as the not-so-common problems encountered in textile care.

"Is The Customer Always Right At Your Counter?" is a humorous look at customer service, presented by Sue Armstrong. Armstrong will discuss the history of drycleaning and customer courtesy, and provide tips on how to greet customers, techniques for handling telephone calls, and methods for managing the angry or difficult customer. She uses a series of actual conversations and experiences in her program.

NEFA's Saturday Night Festival is "a night of celebration." A short ceremony precedes dinner and dancing. Raffle prizes will be awarded throughout the night. Fabricare Image Schedule Friday, April 3 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

For information on Fabricare Image '98, call the NEFA office, (781) 245-6688.

NCAI encourages compliance

Now that fourth generation drycleaning equipment is mandatory for use in mixed use buildings in New York, the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International is warning laggards to get up to speed in their plants.

"For those of you who have not replaced your transfer equipment with fourth generation machinery, be aware that you're looking for trouble," the association warned.

NCAI said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation enforcement staff members are shutting down first generation machines that are either "improperly controlled" or not housed in a vapor barrier enclosure with proper ventilation.

There is no discussion or extension regarding the unit. In fact, NCAI, added, the DEC may require a cleaner with the equipment to enter into a consent agreement or levy a fine for the violation.

The reasoning behind the firm stand is that the DEC believes cleaners have had adequate warning and time to replace antiquated cleaning systems with machinery that meets state law.

"Anyone concerned with being a lawful drycleaner should know the rules by now," NCAI added. "Don't push your luck. Get in compliance." NCAI can provide information on drycleaning regulations.

Two courses offered by NCAI

Two one-day training programs taught by Dan Eisen are offered this month by the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International.

The courses will be held at Carriage Trade Cleaners in Zephyr Hills, FL.

A finishing course is planned March 14. Eisen will show attendees the proper use of finishing equipment, including a utility press and topper/legger as well as ways to finish jackets, dresses, silk blouses, seaters, skirts and pleated skirts.

On March 15 an advanced spotting course will explore how to use bleaches, ways to make problem fabrics "non-problems," maximizing stain removal, ways to avoid damaging materials, how to achieve production and quality, silk handling and identification of stains.

For information on the classes, contact NCAI, (212) 967-3002.

Barton bill is tough sell in the Northeast

The national campaign to enlist members of Congress as cosponsors of the Small Business Remediation Act (HR 1711, commonly called the Barton Bill) has fared poorly in the Northeast. From Pennsylvania and Delaware to New Hampshire and Maine, only two members of Congress are listed in the supporters column -- one from New York and one from New Hampshire.

Association executives in the region have stated their support of the bill, but it has not been translated into members of Congress from the region signing on to the measure.

"It's a different world in the northeast," an association executive claimed. "Look at the Midwest. Up until the NESHAP standards came out, they were still allowing transfer machines." A second point made is the political makeup of the region.

The Barton Bill "is a hard sell to Congressmen from around here," the executive added. "They have constituents" who would not understand their support of the act. "A lot of it is a fear of infringing on the states," North East Fabricare Association executive director Peter Blake said. "Massachusetts already has a law on standards." NEFA has been making contacts and "we are supporting the Barton Bill," he added.

The Pennsylvania Drycleaners Launderers Association has also stated its support of the measure. But within its two-state area there are no Congressional sponsors. PDLA represents IFI members in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Neighborhood Cleaners Association International, which represents the largest number of cleaners in the northeast affiliated with a trade group, has often voiced its support of the Barton Bill. However, NCAI resources have been tied up in dealing with regional legislative issues, leaving little time for Barton Bill work.

Two members of Congress from the Northeast are being lobbied on the Barton Bill by staff members of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International.

U. S. Representative Adolphos Towne of Brooklyn, NY, met last month with Vincent Beazer and Nora Nealis of NCAI to discuss HR 1711, the Barton Bill.

The Congressman greeted the two "warmly, having worked with Vincent before," NCAI said. "He was up to speed on the Barton Bill and was very much aware that environmental standards have to be sensible." Nealis said the representative is "very attuned" to environmental issues "with a genuine concern for his constituents." "I really got the feeling that he cared and will look at the Barton Bill," she added.

NCAI representatives and drycleaner Arthur Weiss met with New Jersey Congressman Christopher Smith in December to make a case for the bill.

In a follow-up in January, the Congressman told NCAI he would be getting in touch with U.S. EPA director Carol Browner to find out why the EPA was using such strict guidelines.

Nealis said Rep. Smith told her "drycleaners have faced substantial potential liability from remediation orders for perc contamination of soil surrounding some drycleaning businesses." This in turn creates potential liability and affects leases and borrowing.

In his letter to Browner, Rep. Smith wrote that drycleaners said there is no EPA cleanup standard for perc. "By default, some authorities have been using the federal drinking water standard, which is currently 5 ppb. It has been argued by those in the industry that this standard is prohibitively costly and that it is technologically impossible to clean soil or groundwater that is not part of the drinking water supply to a level where the risk of exposure is low and the level of exposure ins extremely unlikely." Smith said the public must be protected from contamination, but added "where there is no federal remediation standard, drycleaning business owners may be unjustifiably required to adhere to a more rigorous standard."

NCAI says wetcleaner drycleans

The Neighborhood Cleaners Association International charged the wetcleaning company Ecomat has not followed its "own widely publicized policy" by engaging in what NCAI calls "deceptive practice." The accusations are based on two notarized statements alleging that as recently as 1996 an Ecomat store "sent some clothing out to be drycleaned when wetcleaning wouldn't do the job."

One of the statements is from a Manhattan drycleaner who processed garments he believes were from an Ecomat operation; the other is from a former Ecomat employee who "was asked to take certain garments that couldn't be wetcleaned to local drycleaners for drycleaning."

A second accusation said "on several occasions, when garments were due the same day, Ecomat would simply tumble them in a dryer and press them." A January 15, 1998, statement by a former Ecomat employee who worked in the store from June to September, 1996, described the invoicing that was to be used.

"At first, the garments were invoiced to Ecomat but then I was told to use my own name on the invoice and was given cash to pay for them," the former employee said.

"Enough is enough," NCAI executive director William Seitz said. "Wetcleaning is a fine process. We use it ourselves and have done so for more than 50 years. But Ecomat tells their customers that they do not use perc and other drycleaning solvents and methods." Seitz also charged that Ecomat persuaded "some easily convinceable public officials, including the New York City Public Advocate, to help them promote their concept." NCAI claims this put a few "well-run drycleaners out of business despite a clear absence of facts, fairness and due process."

MidAtlantic

MACLA eyes legislation

DANVILLE, VA -- Drycleaning training and anti-discrimination legislation in two states are the focus of a Middle Atlantic area association's attention this winter.

A two-day long training program on drycleaning will be held by the Mid-Atlantic Cleaners and Launderers Association April 25-26 in Danville, VA. Industry consultant Everett Childers will conduct the sessions.

The program covers 20 topics, ranging from fibers and fabrics to workflow and wedding gown processing. "This class is presented only a few times each year throughout the United States and Canada and is limited to 40 students," MACLA said. Attendees will learn "how to make more money on general drycleaning, extra spotting, wetcleaning, wedding dresses and finishing of garments." Class fees and times are available from the association.

Another topic MACLA has been following is the introduction of anti-discrimination pricing bills in Maryland and Virginia.

Both measures would make it illegal to discriminate by pricing the cleaning of garments differently on a basis determined by gender.

In Maryland, bill sponsor Anita Stup introduced a measure after "her agent visited four drycleaning businesses in the Frederick, MD, area. She indicated that each business... used gender as a frame of reference when responding to pricing questions," MACLA reported.

MACLA executive director Dave Norford said the Virginia bill presents a different set of challenges because "the larger issue of gender equity has been engaged by Delegate Gladys Keating." "Delegate Keating's bill, in some respects, is easier to deal with because we are already so far out in front on avoiding gender and other possible discriminatory factors," Norford said.

Norford charged that small, family-owned businesses are easy targets for politicians and the media.

"Sending undercover agents into cleaners and then characterizing their inability to answer a question regarding pricing or specific servicing requirements without using reference to gender provide easy prey for the five o'clock news," he said. "This should never happen because the answers are so easy if a clearly-stated non-discriminatory pricing policy is in place and customer service representatives are trained." MACLA has offered a Non-Discriminatory Pricing Guide for several years. In addition, the association has been aggressive in educating its members on non-gender-based pricing policies.

To contact MACLA, call (540) 775-2525.

Zellers to lead seminar

Industry consultant and trainer Jane Zellers will lead four training programs in Delaware and Pennsylvania during the last week of April.

On April 27, a Customer Service Appreciation will be held in Allentown, PA.

The April 28 seminar is Stain Removal. It is in Wilmington, DE.

A Customer Service Appreciation session is planned April 29 in Harrisburg, PA, and April 30 in Pittsburgh, PA.

For information, call the Pennsylvania Drycleaners Launderers Association, (800) 822- PDLA.

Midwest

Changes sought in Wisconsin cleanup law

GREENFIELD WI -- The Wisconsin Drycleaners Environmental Response Fund became law last year and is now in effect, but changes are being sought in the legislature.

According to the Wisconsin Fabricare Institute, the suggested changes would "clarify the interim remediation provision and spell out reimbursement of the Department of Natural Resources." "WFI plans to use this opportunity to offer some changes of its own," the group advised members. Chief among these is a correction in wording about the 1.8 percent gross receipts tax. As the state Department of Revenue now interprets the law, the tax applies only to drycleaning work performed.

"If left to be applied only to 'drycleaning,' the funds collected will be insufficient to carry out a meaningful cleanup of contaminated sites in Wisconsin," WFI executive director Joe Phillips said. "We want to get some clarification. Inadvertently, the language of the law came to apply to just drycleaning. Our intent all along was laundry as well as drycleaning." When the final version of the bill was created, the word "facilities" was inadvertently left out of the descriptive "drycleaning facilities." "The upshot is, as it appears now, we will probably raise $1.3 million while otherwise it would be $2 million," Phillips said. "We've been basing all our programs on approximately $2 million a year. To operate with 60 percent of that would take a lot longer." Another change sought is the establishment of a quarterly payment plan for the licensing fee. Right now the cleaner must pay it in one lump sum.

DERF established a cleanup program funded by a 1.8 percent gross receipts tax. The tax went into effect Oct. 14, 1997. Other fees include a $5 a gallon tax on perc and $0.75 a gallon fee on petroleum solvent.

Wisconsin cleaners had an opportunity to discuss the program at the association's winter convention in Green Bay in February. According to Phillips, "we had an hour and a half question and answer session with (people from the state) Department of Revenue, Department of Natural Resource and an attorney. There were many questions and comments from the audience We had 100 people attending." "There was very little opposition to including laundry," Phillips said Overall, WFI said "the convention went well, with 175 attendees and 45 tabletop exhibits." Along with a review of the environmental response law, cleaners at the convention were given computer software presentations by Maineline and DCCS. These were very well attended as well, WFI said.

The association also touted its certification programs, noting that May is the first testing session for the Wisconsin Certified Professional Drycleaner program. This project is specific to Wisconsin and the association developed a manual on the program requirements with help from the University of Wisconsin Extension Service. WFI also offers a Wisconsin certified environmental drycleaner examination.

For information on WFI programs, call (414)529-4707.

Slatten seminar in Iowa

The Iowa Fabricare Association will hold a spotting seminar in Des Moines April 25 with Kenney Slatten leading the session.

The all-day program includes coverage of such topics as fibers and fabrics, wet- and dry-side spotting chemicals, solvents, procedures, bleaches and strippers, problem garments and spotting needs.

Participants will receive a certificate at the end of the class.

IFA also announced the dates of its fall meeting and seminar. The program will be held the weekend of Sept. 25-27 in Ames, IA, with a special tailgate party and football game between Iowa State and Texas Tech included in the weekend plans.

Also planned are a golf tournament, the annual meeting of the membership, officers elections and a tour of a drycleaning plant.

A program on laws and liability for drycleaners will be included on the Sunday morning breakfast program agenda.

The convention will be held at the Ramada Inn. For details, call IFA, (515) 225-3654.

MILD in Women's Day Exhibit

The Michigan Institute of Laundering & Drycleaning will be an exhibitor in the International Women's Show April 30 ­ May 3 for the second consecutive year.

The association first participated last year where it was well-received by attendees.

"Those that worked the booth answered questions for the public," MILD reported. "A lot of consumers wanted to know if their cleaner was a member or were looking for a new cleaner and wanted to know who in their area would be a good choice." The decision by MILD to represent the textile care industry at a consumer show was a good public relations move by the association, it added. Consumers were able to ask textile care professionals about the industry and what it does for them MILD is now inviting cleaners who want to be included in a booth sponsor list at the show to contact the association. Sponsors will be allowed to provide promotional items which will be given out at the show.

For information, contact MILD executive director Merry Bering, (517) 337-2909.

Ajax seminar in Cincinnati

Ajax presses are the subject of a service seminar the week of April 20-24 in Cincinnati, OH. The program provides hands-on training for service technicians who may work on Ajax presses. It will be held at the Ajax company showroom. New and older model presses will be used in the training. Students will be shown installation techniques, the components and circuitry in the units and proper shirt-pressing processes. The course has been changed to include more hands-on work, as requested by participants in previous training sessions. Class size is limited to 15 persons. For information on the training, contact Susan D'Agnillo, (513) 731-7550.

SouthCentral

SDA keeps up work on Barton bill

The Southwest Drycleaners Association, headquartered in the home state of the sponsor of the Small Business Remediation Act, continues to keep up the pressure on other industry groups to round up support for the bill, HR 1711. The SDA is highlighting the Small Business Remediation Act (aka the Barton Bill) at its Saturday morning session of its annual convention March 7-8. Congressman Joe Barton will explain the issue, followed immediately by a panel discussion.

Among the participants are drycleaner Brooksher Banks, Federation of Korean Drycleaners Associations president Moon Jong Chun, Korean Cleaners Association of New Jersey president Tae Hee Han and environmental protection advisor Abe Cho, Washington, DC, attorney Gary Baise, Neighborhood Cleaners Association International executive director Bill Seitz, International Fabricare Institute chief executive officer Bill Fisher and drycleaner Barney Deden.

Merry Bering of Michigan is heading the bill's fund-raising arm, the Dry Cleaners Action Fund.

For information on SDA, call (210) 826-4684.

South Central association eyes name change

A name change for the South Central Fabricare Association will be on the agenda its annual meeting this month in Alexandria, LA.

In addition, the association convention on March 27-28 will also include four presentations.

The name change would be restyling the group as the Louisiana/Mississippi Drycleaners Association. A vote of the membership is required to put it into effect.

The association board endorsed the proposal to change the name, SCFA executive director Darienne Wilson said. "Supporters of the proposal say it reflects a trend in the industry to clearly identify what industry our association represents. In calling ourselves drycleaners, we will present the name of an easily-recognized craft to the consumer, clearly identifying ourselves as drycleaners -- experts in the art of garment care and restoration." "Winning Through Legislation," is the topic of Merry Bering's session She is the executive director of the Michigan Institute of Laundering & Drycleaning.

"Rynex, the Solvent" is a discussion of the "revolutionary solvent" by Rynex representative Jim Colletti.

Mike Henning will explain how a family business can plan "Succession Without Conflict." "Managing the Relationship with Employees and Customers" is the program to be presented by John Stepness.

Wilson said this year's "convention will reflect the changes in the industry. Bill Rush has a pictorial history of the Louisiana Fabricare Association which will be on display." She also said the association is "fortunate to have active members who truly care about both our industry and our association." The convention will be held in the Hotel Bentley in Alexandria. In addition to the education programs, there will be a golf tournament, dinner and other social activities.

For information on SCFA programs and the convention, call (601) 352-4291.

South

NCALC seeks new insuror

North Carolina Association of Launderers and Cleaners executive director Steve Winzeler said that despite the recent cancellation of coverage by its carrier of choice, Environmental Compliance Services (ECS), cleaners still have an option when looking for liability insurance.

The NIE insurance company was expected to be endorsed as the association's carrier of choice at the February NCALC board meeting. The insurance agent is same person who handled the previous accounts, Darryl Wilson.

Last year NIE negotiated a deal with the International Fabricare Institute to become the group's endorsed insurance carrier. The agreement established the company as IFI's "official" insurance company.

"ECS cancelled our group policy after three claims last year," Winzeler said.

"We have over 600 plants that need insurance," Winzeler added. The cancellation touched a number of people, but it did not affect every cleaner. "We still have a number of people with individual policies with ECS," he said. ECS will continue to write the policies on an individual basis.

Pollution liability insurance is still in the early stages of development, Winzeler added. "I think they will continue to change." Winzeler predicted that the insurance will not be needed as insurance companies fear in North Carolina. The growth of the fund and the demands of the cleanup will change the situation.

This change does not affect the state fund. "The fund is there; cleaners are covered," Winzeler added. "There is no doubt this thing will move the program ahead. A lot will get down to how the state looks at drycleaning contamination here." North Carolina cleaners are still in the early stages of complying with the law and face an April deadline for insurance policies.

The legally-required site insurance for cleaners must be in effect by April 1, 1998. Full implementation of all rules begins Jan. 1, 1999, the same deadline as certifications, assessment agreements and remediation agreements.

NCLAC will discuss its site liability insurance plan at the annual convention in May. For details, call NCALC, (919) 850-0707.

Florida cleanup law survives court test

The Florida drycleaning contamination cleanup program has survived a court challenge by municipal and county governments. An appeal to the third Florida court of appeals brought by municipal and county governments affirmed that local government enforcement actions and cost recovery claims are precluded under the retroactive provisions of the law.

Attorneys for the defendants said the decision "deals a blow to local enforcement of more stringent environmental laws." David Ashton of Morgan, Lewis & Brockius claimed that the ruling, if it stands further appeal, means "it is likely that Miami-Dade County's multiple challenges will collapse domino-like." He asserted that Miami-Dade County attempted to strictly limit the state-run program.

The basis of the court action was a county cleanup of contamination discovered in 1994 in drinking water wells near shopping centers. The shopping centers cleaned their properties and the county was forced to install water mains in the area as the contamination "was not recoverable," the Bureau of National Affairs reported. Because of the great expense incurred, the county sued to recover expended funds.

The Circuit Court of Dade County found that the owners were immune from liability because they met the requirements of the Drycleaning Contamination Cleanup Act. Chapter 94-355 defined the procedures for cleanup and created a fund to pay for it.

The appeals court affirmed that the conditional immunity granted to cleaners and owners suffering site contamination against administrative and judicial action was intended to apply retroactively. Thus the local government could not sue for enforcement and rehabilitation costs.

Three associations plan trade shows

Spring trade shows in the region begin this month with gatherings in northern Kentucky and Tennessee. In May, Georgia plays host to the largest drycleaning exhibition in the South.

Spring Cleaning '98 on March 13-14 is a multi-association program sponsored by the Kentucky Fabricare Association, the Ohio Cleaners Association and the Indiana Drycleaners & Launderers Association. The Drawbridge Inn in Ft. Mitchell, KY, is the headquarters hotel for the show.

Speakers for the weekend include David Wintz discussing federal NESHAP and hazardous waste programs, Jim Liston and Brian Snyder on financial planning and Jim Beacher on plant profitability.

Drycleaner Barney Deden presenting the keynote presentation. Deden has spent the past year traveling the country in support of the small business remediation act (the Barton Bill).

For information, call (614) 221-1900.

The Southern Drycleaners Expo on March 28-29 is a presentation of the Tennessee Fabricare Association. The Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, TN, will house both the exhibits and the seminars. Two seminars are planned. Jane Zellers leads a session on stain removal and finishing. Laura Barron will speak on employee motivation.

For information, call TFA, (615) 254-3687.

The South Eastern Fabricare Association sponsors the Southern Drycleaners Show May 15-17 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta. The Renaissance Waverly Hotel is the headquarters for the exhibition. According to the association, more than 250 exhibit booths are expected to be sold for the event.

Two days of seminars are planned on such topics as alternative technologies, employee management, utility deregulation and problem garments. Topic presenters will be announced in the near future.

For details, call (770) 998-9900.

Robson gathering new group in Florida

NAPLES, FL -- Management consultant and National Clothesline columnist Alan Robson is forming a new business management group in Florida.

An informational meeting will be held March 24 at Platinum Coast Drycleaners in Naples. Robson will explain the membership requirements and details of the group. Attendees will be encouraged to participate in an answer and question session on the process and the industry. The meeting is open to all cleaners with no cost or obligation.

The Biz Builder Management Group "offers members an opportunity to exchange industry knowledge and experience," Robson said. The group meets over two days on a quarterly basis, with member plants hosting the meeting on a rotating basis.

For information on the program, call Bob Collins of Platinum Coast Cleaners, (941) 775-5110.

West

Reminder on new law for Oregon cleaners

Drycleaners in Oregon have been reminded that solvent-contaminated wastewater will not be allowed to be discharged into sewers in the state effective June 30, 1998. That is also the same day the use of transfer machines will be banned in the state.

The drycleaner advisory committee of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality discussed these and other topics at its first meeting of the year. The committee also heard that the annual drycleaning hazardous waste report was to be mailed to cleaners in February with a return deadline of May.

The committee met this winter to review ongoing developments in the three-year-old drycleaner site remediation law.

The DEQ said the drycleaner account has expended funds on four sites. It has $150,000 in emergency reserve and $300,000 in unallocated funds. Concern was voiced by drycleaner Steve Mitchell that ongoing conversions and retrofitting of drycleaning machines may affect future program revenue.

According to the committee, work is progressing at nine listed sites in the state. Most of these involve "site sampling" or site assessment. One location, Moore's Custom Cleaners, is awaiting a reevaluation of eligibility. The state of the Cox's Cleaners cleanup was discussed, with the committee hearing that the concentration rate in one small area showed a 25,000 ppm perc concentration.

Northwest Environmental Advocates representative Nicole Cordan was reported as advising the DEQ to hold off calling the program a success when "there is concern there may not be enough money in the fund to pay for all the cleanups."

Price survey in California

BELMONT, CA -- The Peninsula Dry Cleaners Association has announced the results of its annual survey of members on prices.

Among the charges polled were base fees for dresses, pants, jackets, shirts and blouses. Also tabulated were cleaning fees for shirt laundry work, household items and sweaters.

The base charge for a dress was listed at $8.83. A cocktail dress averaged $16.35 and the wedding dress fee came in at $160.

Pants were listed at $4.73, drycleaned shirts at $5.05, blouses at $5.12 and jackets at $5.88 The average shirt laundry item charge was $1.51 while the blouse average was $4.17.

A man's suit came in at $10.07 while a woman's suit averaged $13.80.

Wages averaged $8.87 for counter personnel, $9.87 for experienced help and $6.75 for new hires. Drycleaners were paid at a rate of $11.87 an hour, silk pressers at $11.25 an hour and wool finishers at $10.62 an hour.

For details, contact Marti Russell at PDCA, (650) 593-3646.

RMFA moves to new office

DENVER, CO -- The Rocky Mountain Fabricare Association announced a new office address and issued a call for nominations for its board of directors.

RMFA has relocated its offices to 3867 Tennyson Ave., Denver, CO 80212-2127.

The new location provides both office space and conference facilities, RMFA said.

Board of director candidates were sought by nominations committee chairman Monte Roberts. Members were asked to nominate candidates, including themselves, by notifying the association office.

For information, call RMFA, (303) 433-4446.

Profile: Buster Bell

A letter to the manager of the U. S. EPA Garment and Textile Care Program from drycleaner Walter T. Bell contained 18 points he hoped would be considered at the January Design for the Environment meetings. Although not ranked in order of importance, the items ranged from environmental certification of perc and petroleum cleaners to facility modifications of floors, equipment fittings and containment vessels.

"This environmental certification process should stop continuous contamination of ground and ground water now," Bell wrote. "Even though alternative solvents will be used in the future, the industry is still responsible for the cleanup of contaminated sites." "The most important issue is a plan to stop continuous pollution," Buster Bell said when asked about his suggestions. " There's contamination now." To achieve that goal, Bell offered solutions to questions which are raised.

The first thing he wants "is education, which includes environmental certification and a certified cleaner on-site."

"If all our solvents are as bad as the EPA makes them to be, there should be some qualifications for usage," Bell said. "We must have real certification. Part of that may mean that the equipment people get involved." Among the things he wants to see incorporated are training classes on a regular basis, annual retraining and laws which are more practical -- that reflect the reality of the workplace and society.

His vision also redefines certification. "It's not the certification programs the industry has today," he said. "It would be a process which would include the national and independent associations working together." Beyond testing, Bell's certification envisions plant requirements of containment tanks under all drycleaning machines, protective floor covering in plant areas and all perc and petroleum machines equipped with fittings to receive solvents with new delivery systems that will eliminate spills and leaks of solvents.

He also is adamant about proper treatment and disposal of perc contact water -- "not in sewers," he said. And Bell added that good management techniques include proper disposal of hazardous waste, including those from plants that fall into the small generator classification. "Do away with the small generator classification but don't increase the paperwork." "Once these steps have been met by a drycleaner then EPA can register the drycleaning plant and the cleaner would have to certify" the business was in compliance with all regulations. "He would take the certification test." Bell isn't looking for some complicated formula or extensive set or rules.

"Make it simple to enforce," he declared. "The cleaner sends in a document that says he has tanks, has the floor covering down; has all these things done and has a document notarized that it is done. Then if he has lied and falsified it, you can prosecute him easily." Bell is insistent that the process be fair and simple. "Make it easy and practical so it has meaning. There should be some grant money to help in the process. It has to come from everybody." The question of who has the political will to lead needs an answer too. It's a tough idea to sell to the industry.

"Both national associations are afraid it would cost them membership," Bell observed. "In reality it gives them an opportunity to recruit these people as members when you're forcing these people to come to the table to do this." "We have all these rules out there now, but how many people come to the door and check? This would be a way to reach the two- thirds of the cleaners who don't belong to an association; to educate them and bring them in." Leadership may mean "twisting a few arms," Bell admitted.

What about the cost? A way to pay for it should be found. "Look at the expense for the cleaner who is going to do this," Bell said. "The EPA can supplement the cost of certification." "Once you bring the cleaner into this process you're going to have an improved product. I don't care what level he's on. The main thing is compliance is enforceable without a lot of red tape. The supplier who's supplying the solvent sees the tanks aren't in, he's going to be hesitant to sell them the solvent. If he wants to sell to someone who is not certified, who is not in compliance, then you fine him. The main thing is to keep a balance where no one group takes control of it." One other thing about Bell's certification project. He calls for it being done at the federal level.

Another plank in his campaign for change is the cleanup of perc contamination.

"What is the financial solution?" he asked Cindy Stroup of the U. S. EPA. He provided her with a few answers.

"A joint partnership of the EPA, producers and drycleaners working together to clean up perc and solvent contamination without costly litigation to the producers and the drycleaners where nothing gets cleaned up," Bell began. He also called for the promotion of state-level cleanup trust funds which are adequately funded. To find out how the existing state programs are doing, Bell wants a "committee consisting of members of the EPA, the solvent producers, the administrators for the state environmental trust funds... and a select group of drycleaners from states that have passed environmental legislation..." This committee would study all the existing state programs and formulate recommendations that other states can use.

"The most difficult task to be undertaken would be that of assessing what would be adequate funding," Bell predicted. "It could amount from two to five percent of gross sales of laundry and drycleaning services." Bell makes these proposals seriously. He knows his business, having worked with the cleaning industry (and with its associations) for decades.

"I grew up in the laundry business. It was strictly laundry at that time," he recalled. The business was started by his mother in 1940 as a laundry. She was a second-generation cleaner -- her father had been in the laundry business as were her uncles. "It was something she was familiar with," Bell said. "The company was Bell Laundry & Cleaners in Spartanburg, South Carolina." "I came into the laundry business in 1954. Then I put in drycleaning in 1957." The business burned to the ground in a fire in January of 1966, "and we reopened in October. So we were out of business for quite a few months there. We built back on the same site and acquired the adjacent property and expanded about five years after the fire." Bell's cleaning resumé includes wetcleaning, perc and petroleum, all in use today in the plant.

Bell has been active in the association end of the trade, too. He was part of the original South Carolina Cleaners Association -- "I was president twice. I was president when we made the agreement to join South Eastern Fabricare Association. I've got the original agreements right here." Later on he became president of SEFA. It was only in the past year that Bell completed his latest term on the board of directors.

Even while working with SEFA, Bell kept his hand in local politics.

"We did reactivate the South Carolina Association for legislative purposes" a couple years ago, he said. Bell feels there's a need for local associations. Regardless of what the regional group does, "you still need an organization within that state." He credits the passage of an environmental trust fund for cleanups in South Carolina in 1995, on the South Carolina state association. Even with that measure as law, the cleaners are "still working on it." Work they must, as Bell noted that "we have tested approximately all the sites in the state. Cleaners had until October to test their site to get in under the $1,000 deductible. The big deal right now is we're going to have to go back to the legislature for an amnesty program for cleaners who did not meet the deadline to be eligible." "I would say 50 percent of the cleaners did not meet the deadline for containment tanks, certification and application for third party insurance," Bell said. "We have people paying into the fund who are technically not eligible." He wants to take the issue back to the legislature for an amnesty program, even if it "is dangerous. They may want to kill the law." He again expounded on the concept of an association.

"We're trying to open people's minds as to what associations are. The associations need to be driven by members rather than the director," he said flatly.

He expects people of integrity to serve as association officers and directors. That means giving them credit for intelligence and an ability to do the job.

"There's one thing we can get rid of -- the confidentiality agreements they have to sign for the IFI board. If a person has enough integrity to be on the board, then you don't need them to sign something." "I know at times you have to have executive meetings to discuss sensitive issues, but if you're going to elect someone to the board.... trust them." The local South Carolina association has established an example of what an association can do. Besides its success in getting a state site law passed, it "put together a managed health care program for workers compensation. The program saves several thousand dollars a year for members." "Now we're putting together a casualty program," Bell continued. "In this managed health care program, all the adjusters are registered nurses. It's estimated 35 percent of all compensation claims in South Carolina have some fraud. These people hold it to three percent." The only requirement is that the insured be a member of the South Carolina association.

Stan Caplan: Understanding Yarns and fibers, Part VII

Fibers, yarns, fabrics, dyes, and finishes: The basis of training Part VII

This series continues with the subject fabric design. There are two methods used in design: structural and surface.

Structural Design

By yarn type and arrangement whereby different colored yarns are used to achieve the effects of plaids, stripes or special surfaces by:

1. Combining or spacing of yarns.

2. Chemical treatment of the fabric, whereby the fabric is formed by treating or printing small areas all over the fabric. The treated areas shrink and cause a rough crepe-like appearance.

3. The use of novelty yarns such as boucle, knot or slub.

By weaves and variations whereby special designs woven with specific yarn arrangements, such as pique or waffle weave.

Crepes are made with highly twisted yarns that, when released from the loom, draw up causing a rough surface. Sometimes only the filling yarns care creped, or only the warp yarns or creped.

Seersucker is a fabric with alternating smooth and puckered crepe stripes.

Observe the following with CAUTION:

1. Crepe shrinks when wet.

2. Too much mechanical action during wetside spotting could flatten the crepe effect.

3. Only steam when finishing. Do not apply any press head pressure.

Surface designs -- printed

1. Direct Print
This design is engraved on rollers. The fabric is printed, directly, like a newspaper by applying printing paste containing dye stuff directly to the fabric as it passes through engraved rollers. Multi-color effects may be obtained by using a separate roller for each color.

The fabric is processed after printing to set the dyes and to remove the print paste.

CAUTION: Always test the dye on an unexposed seam before spotting.

2. Discharge print
This print is made by dyeing a fabric a solid color, then passing it through a machine, which applied the stripping agent to a fabric where the design is desired. Either a white or colored design can be created., Depending on whether a dyestuff is applied with the stripping agent. The stripping agent is rinsed and neutralized, and the fabric is subjected to a curing process.

3. Resist print
A resist print is done by two methods:

A) A chemical is printed in a design on a white or light-colored fabric. The fabric is then piece-dyed and washed. The resist pattern stays uncolored against the colored ground. The fabric may then be direct printed to color the uncolored areas.

B) A fabric may be printed with a dye paste that resists another dye when overprinted.

4. Pigment print.
This is done by mixing an insoluble pigment with a resin binder and thickener to form a printing paste. The paste is applied to the fabric from engraved rollers to form a design. The fabric is then treated at a high temperature to cure the resin binder.

Many of the binders are solvent-soluble and should be tested before cleaning or dryside spotting. Also, excessive mechanical action during wear can damage the pigments.

5. Metallic prints
in binder and then applied to a fabric by roller or screen. The print can easily rub off when wet with drycleaning solvent or a dryside spotting agent. Also, mechanical action can serve to remove some of the metallic particles, somewhat similar to pigment prints.

6. Flock prints
These are made by applying an adhesive to a fabric in a definite design, then tiny lengths of fiber, usually cotton or rayon, are blown onto the fabric and are held in place by the adhesive.

CAUTION: Always test for solubility on both dry and wet side before processing since the permanency of flock prints depends on the type of adhesive used as to whether it is solvent or water-soluble.

7. Screen print
This was formerly a hand operation, but today it is a machine operation -- screen.

The machine printing permits large patterns with richness and depth of color to produce a more perfect print than the hand operation.

The screen has a wooden frame and are usually made of silk, nylon or treated rayon. The screen is placed over the fabric and a color is then added. A separate screen is used for each color in the pattern.

For unusual combinations of colors, screen printing can be combined with direct, resist and discharge printing.

8. Block print
This is applied by hand. The fabric is stretched and clamped onto a table which is covered with a felt or woolen blanket. The color is applied to the fabric using square wooden block covered with a colored paste. The design may be cut or burned into the wood. A separate block is used for each color.

The design is printed, one block at a time, by hand, resulting in an uneven pattern outline.

The print can be identified by the dots in the fabric caused by the "pitch pins" that guide the block.

9. Heat transfer print
This is a heat transfer process using preprinted paper, which is fed through a press, reproducing the desired pattern on nylon and polyester.

This process was originally developed and sold exclusively, by the Sublistatic Corp.

The heat transfer prints are drycleanable.

10. Burn-out print.
A burn-out print uses chemicals instead of colors to create a design. The chemicals burn out one fiber in a fabric made of two fibers, leaving a sheer, or lacy and heavy design.

11. Duplex print
This is a method of printing the same design on the face and back of the fabric in two distinct operations to achieve the effect of a woven fabric.

12. Warp print
The warp print yarns are printed after they have been strung on the warp beam of the loom. The printed warp yarns are then woven with a plain colored filling yarn, producing a wavy design.

Surface Designs -- Non-printed

1. Moire Design
(Two methods: bar and scratch.)

Bar method. This is produced by application of heat pressure and moisture. The design is permanent only on acetate, nylon and other synthetic fibers that become plastic when heated at high temperatures. These are called "thermoplastics" and will retain their design impressions unless again reheated to a temperature the same or higher than that at which the design was impressed.

This method is characterized by a water or wood grain design.

Scratch method. This is produced by the application of heat and pressure (no moisture) as the fabric runs through engraved rolls.

Like the bar method, the fabric will retain the impressed design until reheated to same of higher than original temperature.

Moire designs on fibers other than thermoplastics, such as cottons, are generally non-permanent and water-soluble. Underarm areas will lose the design when the wearer perspires.

2. Embossed design (Two methods: mechanical and chemical.

Mechanical method. The design on an engraved roller is pressed into the fabric under conditions of heat, moisture and pressure.

Chemical design. The design is pressed into a fabric that has been pretreated with a resin.

CAUTION: Always test embossed fabrics for permanency of design before processing.

3. Painted Design -- hand

The design is first outlined on the fabric with wax. The artist then fills in the outlined area with a hand brush, using either a dye or an oil paint.

CAUTION: Exercise extreme care in processing and test the design first!

Note: My new video, "The Caplan Method of Stain Removal," which includes my comprehensive text with handy spotting board reference, is now available for only $199. Please contact Dennis McCrory, (800) 646-5736, PIN #4615.
Stan Caplan has over 35 years experience in his own drycleaning/laundry business and over 20 years experience teaching and consulting. A former chief instructor at the International Fabricare Institute and the Southwest Drycleaners Association school in Denton, TX, he offers consulting services on work flow concepts, lot systems management, call office efficiency studies, production studies, plant equipment layout, engineering studies and specifications, equipment specifications, TQM, training programs, cost analysis and accounting and general plant management. He can be reached at 3601 Clarks Lane, Suite 307, Baltimore, MD, 21215; phone or fax (410) 358-0870.

Ray Colucci: Traveling the route to success

My thanks for the many letters requesting additional information (and the checks for $5 to cover handling). It seems everyone wants to expand their business, and routes appear to be the fastest way, with the least investment.

My first introduction was to give advise to the opening of drop stores and the pros and cons of such a venture. Of course every area is different in its demographics, competition and future potential.

The next question is "How much would the investment be?" and "What benefit or burden would it have on my present production capacity and equipment?"

When all is said and done, I see every advantage, short- and long-term, to adding a new route or expanding an established one.

I have multiple reasons for choosing a route over a drop store and it starts with minimal investment.

But my main reason is that a route opens up so many areas of expansion that it staggers my imagination.

In my personal experience is the not unusual circumstance of having an "oil burner" back up in my summer residence. Thanks for my homeowners policy which will fully cover all the cost.

All our clothes in our closets, the draperies and slip covers, need to be picked up, drycleaned, pressed, de-odorized and delivered. There is also the cost of complete carpet cleaning.

And whom does my insurance company contact to correct such a mess?

The local cleaner, of course, who specializes in fire restoration!

Certainly a route truck is available for such a service. There isn't too much specialization needed for such work, using an ozone deodorizing unit.

Profits almost sinful
I might add that the volume and profit is almost sinful when you add in removal and re-hanging. But it covers all the variables in seeking and finding additional revenue, and minimal skills are required to handle this very profitable work.

Need another reason? Routes provide the means of soliciting steady and sophisticated stage and theater work. Of course, not every city offers TV studios or live stage performances, but I am amazed at the revenue a service dry cleaner can offer such facilities.

It seems, much to the surprise of many, that the actors union clearly specifies that no clothing or costume be worn more than once without cleaning for any performance or dress rehearsal, even for a one-minute walk on!

The other aspect is that most studios and theaters require same-day service and are willing and able to pay for such an accommodation.

This can be a burden on some operations, but if you're properly geared for such production problems and can manage your pick up and deliveries accordingly, this "hidden" business is there for your taking.

This leads into a uniform maintenance and many off-hours or overnight service for small contractors. There are many uniformed personnel in most cities -- banks, airlines, hotels, car rentals, private ambulance and all uniformed delivery services. Most municipalities (and unions) encourage these services and many times offer them in lieu of a pay raise or contract settlement.

Look for the drapes
When I operated my plant, I found a lucrative means of soliciting more business by seeking out furniture outlets and any facility that displayed draperies. These facilities included hospitals, nursing homes, country clubs, banquet halls, schools and colleges -- including the drycleaning needs of the dormitory residents. The hotel uniform service was a natural for guest valet service.

My last piece of advice, and I learn from the people I call on, is the ever-growing area of soliciting business from office personnel.

Here you can achieve a steady and instant volume for success. It should come as no surprise that with the two-income family and limited quality time people can have with their families that any chore, such as attending to laundry and drycleaning, that can be made easier or convenient will be certainly appreciated.

If we look into the aspect of "where are the customers?" our search shouldn't go much further than the downtown office or, for that matter, wherever your vehicle van can call and make three or four customers with one stop!

The secret to any successful route is never walking away empty handed. It takes only a little door knocking to post a price list and leave a high-quality nylon bag with your name and an identification luggage tag. Then announce your pick-up day and 48 hour delivery service.

The details, such as credit card charges, eliminates any collection time or billing (and you have your money in three days).

On-the-job customers
Most offices have a cloak room for picking up and delivering. Once the procedure is started, you only have to deal with one individual, such as the office manager.

There can be many inducements to use your service, such discounts if the volume exceeds a certain number, a contribution to the office party, a small magnetic holder for paper clips (give away with your name). The attraction here is volume with one call. All office buildings offer that

Next month, I will be interviewing a firm that can boast of starting routes from scratch, and achieving a volume of $6,000 to $7,000, within nine months, calling on private homes only!

How? I insisted on knowing! It's all through demographics, something we all know, but never take advantage of! Plus there are some other secrets that I will be happy to divulge to those interested

Like all opportunities, you have to knock on its door!

Ray Colucci, an independent consultant to the drycleaning and laundry industry, conducts sales seminars and participates on industry discussion panels. He has been a tailor, professional drycleaner and national sales manager. He can be reached at 410 Warren Ave., Mamaroneck, NY 10543; phone (914) 381-2171.

Dan Eisen: Bleaches, their uses and techniques

Bleaching is a very important concept used when wet cleaning or spotting.

Bleaching expands the drycleaners' scope of removing difficult stains as well as restoring garments yellowed from age and oxidation.

Bleaching entails the use of oxygen to change or make the molecules of staining or yellowing colorless. The two major types of bleaches used are oxidizing and reducing.

Oxidizing bleach

Types of oxidizing bleach

1) Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) Uses

Ink stains: protein -- to whiten.

Dye: Albuminous -- scorch.

Medicine: counteract some reducing bleach.

Procedures

Board method (fast action)

Board method (slow action)

This is good for removing scorch and difficult hard-set stains. The hydrogen peroxide is left on the stained area and hung exposed to light.

The hydrogen peroxide is added to the stained area several times. The use of a 6% 20 volume is effective without ammonia.

BATH METHOD 2) Sodium perborate Uses Procedures

Bath

BOARD METHOD 3) Sodium percarbonate Use Procedure

BATH METHOD

4) Sodium hypochlorite (NAOCL) Uses Procedure

BOARD METHOD

BATH METHOD

Correction of yellowing produced by sodium hypochlorite.
Sometimes chlorine bleach will remain in fabrics. Fabrics that retain chlorine bleach are known as chlorine retentive. Chlorine bleach may accidentally be contacted on wool and or silk and produces yellowing.

BOARD METHOD BATH METHOD 5) Potassium permanganate Uses
1. Hydrogen peroxide and acetic.
2. Oxalic acid.
3. Sodium Hydrosulfate.
4. Sodium bisulphite.
Procedure
1. Hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid. 2. Oxalic acid. 3. Sodium hydrosulfite. 4. Add the lubricant and flush with steam gun thoroughly.
Bath Summary

Reducing Bleach

This type of bleach removes oxygen from fabrics and staining may not be permanent as oxidizing bleach. It is used to remove dye, fugitive dye, ink and some tannin and protein stains.

1) Sodium hydrosulphite (NA2S204)

BOARD METHOD BATH METHOD

Fluorescent dye restoration. Some manufacturers produce sodium hydrosulfate with a fluorescent brightening agent. Examples are Drogo and White-all. Follow manufacturer's directions for use.

This is effective for correction of yellowing on fabrics. This is also effective for whitening wool and silk yellowed from age and oxidation.

2) Sodium bisulphite Use

Procedure

BOARD METHOD

BATH METHOD Titanium sulfate strippers TI2(SO4)3 Use Procedure

BOARD METHOD

Bath (test)

Method 1.

Method 2.
Dan Eisen is chief garment analyst for the Neighborhood Cleaners Association Inter-national. He can be reached at the NCAI office, (212) 967-3002, ext. 243 or via e-mail: ncai@sprynet.com.

Stan Golomb: You are never too old to be young

Marv Berz works for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago three days a week preparing the archives for this organization. This is a special hospital devoted to aiding seriously disabled people. This is one of several such installations around the country and Marv is a consultant to other clinics.

Recently, while heading down a corridor at the center, he came upon a quadriplegic in a wheelchair with a tube in his mouth to drive his chair.

Marv said, "Hello, my name is Marv. Are you a new patient here?" The man backed his head to the side so he could speak and said, "Hi, Marv. My name is Charlie and I'm not a patient here. I'm a volunteer."

This is one of many touching stories Marv told me and it made me realize that there are some truly outstanding people in this world of ours. Marv is, indeed, one of these outstanding people as you will learn as I continue my story.

I met Marv a few years ago and we became instant friends. We started a conversation as both he and I find it easy to talk to strangers and can always find things to talk about.

He told me he was a consultant and I said that I was a marketing consultant and perhaps I could use his services. I sensed that he was very bright and I told him a little about my company. I also sent him a copy of my book, "How to Find, Capture and Keep Customers," the next day so he would better understand my business.

In the beginning of my book, I listed some people and institutions that helped me along the way. Among the credits, I listed Professor Benjamin Franklin Bills, who gave me a job teaching the workshop portion of his marketing course at the Evening School of Business at Northwestern University's Chicago campus.

When Marv received the book and saw the part about Professor Bills, he was very excited and told me that the same Bills was his professor when he was a student at the Northwestern University Evening School of Business. That was 64 years ago and Marv had taken the same course I had started teaching in 1956.

By now, you realize that Marv is a bit older than I. He just celebrated his 80th birthday. I'm now 73 and was only 10 when Marv was a student at night school.

Marv was 16 at the time my story about him begins. Being very bright as a youngster, he skipped a couple of grades and graduated from high school at 16. That's when he went to work and continued his education.

He got a job as an office boy in a Chicago financial institution and immediately enrolled in night courses at Northwestern University, Chicago downtown campus.

Pearl Harbor Day was December 7, 1941. Marv was 23 at the time. He had received a diploma for his night school classes and was a loan manager at a bank. He didn't receive a degree, but Marv later found that his classes at night school gave him two years of college credit towards a degree.

With our country now at war, Marv enlisted in the Army Air Force, became a Captain and was a test pilot, flying all types of planes as well as troop transportation planes all over the war zones.

Here's a picture of Marv and another pilot. Marv is the tall one on the right.

Up to now, there is nothing exceptional in Marv Berz's life but now, the story takes on a new slant.

After the war, Marv decided he wanted to start his own small business. He and his wife, Elaine, decided to manufacture decorated metal waste baskets.

Since Elaine was an artist, it was a perfect combination. However, at the time, steel was not available for the small manufacturer.

Marv talked his way into a meeting with the President of Inland Steel Co. in the Chicago area. He showed up in his Captain's uniform with all his ribbons and medals and convinced the head of this major steel company to sell him some steel.

From a humble start in a garage, Marv grew the business to a large factory with 550 employees. They made steel cabinets and supplied all the major retailers like Sears and Montgomery Ward with special steel cabinets. He and his partner became very successful and quite wealthy.

Marv and Elaine lived in a suburb of Chicago and raised three children. He was an avid and excellent golfer.

He had it all. But Marv felt that since he had the funds and a tremendous thirst for more knowledge, he decided to get his college degree. He sold his share of the business to his partner and enrolled in Northwestern University. And, with his background in golf, he joined the golf team and was made captain, due to the fact that he was the best golfer on the team.

Marv Berz has the distinction (to his knowledge) of being the oldest person to win a college letter in sports. Here's a picture of Marv on the Northwestern campus. He was about 57 at the time.

Marv graduated with honors. You'd think he would be satisfied but he then went to graduate school at the University of Chicago in the field of Psychology. After graduating from there, he went into the consultant business, training hospital staff in setting up facilities and working with psychiatric clinics.

A few years ago, at an Executive Service Corps luncheon honoring him, the inscription on the silver service presented to him by Robert Brooker, former chairman of Montgomery Ward & Company, and Dean Swift, former president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., best sums up his societal contributions:

"To Marvin J. Berz for Outstanding Service to the People of Chicago."

This was followed by Marv's induction into the Chicago Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. He has a framed certificate signed by Richard M. Daley.

Even today, Marv works three days a week at the Rehabilitation Institute in Chicago. Elaine is a volunteer at the Art Institute and these folks are living life to the hilt, doing their thing and enjoying every day.

Why did I want to tell this story and what purpose does it serve?

I think it's an inspiration as to what a person can accomplish with their life. If you met Marv today, you would be amazed at his energy level and what he is able to do at the age of 80. I know very few people in their 60s or even 40s who lead as full a life as Marv and Elaine Berz.

I did hire Marv to consult for my firm. He interviewed me and all our staff privately and guided us to a future that we feel is the right direction.

After all, if you want help, you go to someone who has the background and experience and knowledge, and I feel the money we spent with Marv was an excellent investment because he helped focus us on our goals.

So, thank you, Marvin Berz, for the knowledge and inspiration you provided to my associates and me.

I once asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up and he said he wanted to do exactly what he's doing. That's a happy man and an inspiration to me.

I hope all of you reading this story of this very unusual man will believe that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to.

Stan Golomb is president of The Golomb Group Inc., a firm that designs marketing programs for drycleaners. Contact him at The Golomb Group Inc., 7664 Plaza Ct., Willowbrook, IL 60521; phone (630) 887-7339. His e-mail address is: sgolomb@ix.netcom.com

Frank Lucenta: Conditioner concentrations by color

For suede and leather items containing combinations of light and dark colored panels, with or without cloth, the color of the darkest panel on the item determines the minimum percent concentration of the detergent conditioner that must be used to avoid color loss and bleeding.

For example, a suede or leather made of black, red, beige and yellow panels, with or without fur trim, must be cleaned at a minimum six percent concentration of detergent conditioner because that is the minimum concentration that is required to prevent the black and red colors from bleeding on to the beige and yellow panels.

Although the minimum concentration of two percent required for the light colored suede and leather panels is significantly exceeded, there is no adverse effect.

For combinations of light and dark colored suede or leather panels or fur trim on cloth items, the color of the darkest panel of the suede or leather and/or the type of fur trim on the item determines the minimum percent concentration of the detergent conditioner that must be used to prevent color loss and dye bleed.

For example, if a light colored cloth item was trimmed with black, blue and tan suede or leather, it must be cleaned in a minimum of six percent concentration to prevent the black and blue colors from bleeding onto the tan suede or leather and the light cloth.

The same would be true if the cloth item is trimmed in fur. The fur should be cleaned in a minimum concentration of six percent to prevent the skin from drying out and becoming stiff (except for rabbit fur which requires a two percent concentration).

If the cloth item is trimmed with only a tan or light pastel suede or leather or with rabbit fur, a minimum two percent concentration of detergent conditioner would be required to protect the skins from drying out and the color from fading and becoming chalky looking.

Note that the cloth will not be adversely affected by being cleaned in either a two percent or six percent concentration because the detergent conditioner contains no fatty acid to create swales and redeposition and prevents color bleed.

In fact, the color retention property of the detergent conditioner will also be effective in stabilizing colors in the cloth portions of the item, even if the cloth is red velvet, red corduroy, blue denim, silk, surface prints and sleeping bags, as well as suedes and leathers.

Therefore, there is a color retention bonus provided by the detergent conditioner for troublesome color sensitive cloth items.

Author's Note: Do not attempt to use products that are not specifically formulated for use on suede and leather. Royaltone suede and leather products are specially formulated to process suedes, leathers, furs and trimmed cloth without causing color loss, color bleed, color transfer, stiffening of the skins or matting down the nap. Other brands may not give the same results when used as described in this article.

Frank Lucenta is president of Royaltone Company, Inc., a firm that trains drycleaners and launderers to identify, accept, spot, dryclean, wetclean, press and recolor suedes, leathers and furs. The next training session will be held Sept. 17-18 at the Royaltone Suedemate Academy in Tulsa. For information on training sessions, the subject covered in this article and other information on leather care, a free three-ring binder to hold copies of these articles and for information on Royaltone's Instruction Book and Spotting Charts, call or write to Royaltone, PO Box 25949. Tulsa, OK 74153-0949; phone (800) 331-5506, or (918) 663-9666, or fax (918) 665-6017, or e-mail to royaltone@royaltone.com.

Dennis McCrory: Hire the right ones, then keep them

The road to business failure is paved with untrained, unmotivated and unempowered employees Also keep in mind that the closest an employee ever comes to perfection is on the application form.

Today the link between hard-working, high quality employees and loyal customers is stronger than ever. In fact, good employees are much like customers -- it costs more to replace them than to keep the ones you have. Drycleaning and laundry companies must commit to spending time and money on developing their most valuable asset -- a stable employee base.

With a shrinking employee pool, created by the growing labor shortage, sound business management recognizes employee satisfaction to be as high a priority as customer satisfaction. Employers should feel compelled to prepare strategies for attracting and holding employees from entry level to store managers. Successful cleaners and laundries require a thorough job-screening program to manage and develop people coming into their system.

A formal pre-employment screening program will provide the tools and predictability necessary for potential hires. Another element of the employment process is an innovative and regularly updated training program for continued development and growth.

Smart hiring practices flow straight to bottom line profitability. New products and services, marketing genius, and operating brilliance will never replace the customer-based power of a trained, dedicated, and fulfilled staff. If, from the beginning, good employees are selected, placed in the right jobs, and continually improved through updated training, the ultimate benefits are new customers and more satisfied present customers.

Some cleaners feel it costs too much to constantly train people, especially when an employee might leave. But what if you don't train them and they stay?

Every cleaner needs effective employees in order to continue operations and for successful expansion. Managers need to learn how to identify and hire qualified workers. A thorough and legal screening program must be used to avoid hiring job candidates that might have a negative impact on customers. A positive attitude costs no more today than it did yesterday. Sometimes they're just harder to find.

A reduction in turnover, especially at the counter, is absolutely mandatory.

Reduced employee turn-over provides customer service consistency and keeps customers coming back. Just as important, it cuts the cost of constantly searching, hiring, and training. The expense of replacing and training a new employee is at least 1 1/2 times the annual cost of keeping a current person on the payroll. People are truly major business investments.

Consider yourself in trouble if you are continually starting over again with new employees. Find out where they are going and why. You have to learn what programs and enhancements you need to keep employees satisfied.

Give your employees a voice. Make a commitment to involve your staff in all business operations decisions. When everyone has a say, satisfying the customer becomes easy. Don't rob employees of their need for accomplishment by not allowing them to do the jobs they were hired for. The more you spend on employee training, the less you have to spend on marketing and operations repairs.

We all need to rely less on personal feelings and more on objective testing results. Our internal voices should not be the only basis for making hiring decisions.

When checking references, ask questions that will tell you about the individual candidates and their ability to handle certain responsibilities.

Have they done, or can they do, what you want them to do?

Plan for the hiring process. Do not wait until you are desperate for help. Know when you are going to need to employ people Don't be forced to settle for less than the best the market has to offer. Quality candidates are based upon solid, well thought-out job descriptions. Know what you are looking for, so that you will know when you've found the right candidate.

As employers, we must be confident that we can do better than the competition. Take a close look at other businesses' hiring practices. Pick and choose the good points, and incorporate them in your program. Strive to become the dominant employer in your area.

Dennis McCrory writes for several industry publications both here and abroad. He also speaks and does consulting on advertising and marketing. In addition to the phone number above, he can also be reached through The Successful Management Group, 3925 Lake Trail Dr., Kenner, LA 70065.

Al Robson: Calculating worker productivity

Recently, an industry friend asked if I would address the following questions in my column:

1. How might an owner or manager quantify productivity?

2. Once quantified, how can one make comparisons?

3. What actions could be taken to improve productivity?

As I began to compile information on how to quantify or measure productivity, I realized that there are as many different ways to measure productivity as there are drycleaners.

Some of the methods I have seen include:

These examples, or variations thereof, are currently being used by many drycleaners. These methods of measuring productivity can only provide meaningful information to the company using them. All they will tell you is how that company's current performance measures up to its past performance.

The information used in developing these statistics is too general to give it value when trying to compare that company's information to that of other drycleaners.

The goal is to measure your productivity in a way that will provide you with meaningful in-house data that can also be used to compare your performance to the performance of similar drycleaners.

I recommend using one of the following two methods to quantify your productivity:

1. Departmental labor costs as a percentage of departmental sales or as a percentage of total sales. To determine drycleaning labor costs as a departmental percentage cost, divide drycleaning labor by drycleaning sales for the same period. Also divide drycleaning labor by total sales and record that number.

2. Number of pieces processed per hour by each employee or at each work area, i.e.:

The first method of comparing costs as a percentage of sales provides enough specific information to make comparisons between like companies meaningful. It also continues to provide you with the ability to measure your current performance to past performance.

The key to this analysis is dependent on your ability to isolate the hours and dollars spent on specific tasks (drycleaning finishing, marking in, pieces brought in at the counter, etc.).

Inconsistency can occur with this method if there is a large discrepancy between what each company charges its customers and what they pay employees. Normally this is not a big issue because where wages are higher, retail prices are also higher.

The second method, tracking the number of pieces that are being processed, is the most accurate way to measure productivity.

As an owner/manager, it is your responsibility to know how many pieces your employees are actually processing every hour. Production standards might vary slightly between drycleaners but there should not be major differences, especially in areas such as marking in, drycleaning/spotting and taking orders in at the counter.

Extremes in production rates should only occur where unconventional finishing methods are being used. Some drycleaners use a steam tunnel to finish all garments; others turn all pants inside out in order to press the pockets.

Setting Standards

The only place in your plant where you can process multiple pieces is in your drycleaning machine or your washing machines. At every other work area you must handle the garments one piece at a time. This is why it is so important to know how many pieces each employee processes per hour. This task is not as difficult as it may sound.

Begin with the number of drycleaning pieces and shirts you process each week. Now calculate how many hours your counter people work. If some of your counter people work in more than one area, take your best educated guess as to how many hours they spend on the counter.

Divide the total number of incoming pieces per week (drycleaning and shirts) by the total number of counter hours worked per week. This gives you the average number of pieces that your counter people bring in every hour.

Since every piece that comes in must also go out, multiply this number by two. You will now have the average number of pieces your counter people bring in and hand out every hour. Do this for every department. You know how many drycleaning pieces and how many shirts you do each week. You also know how many hours each employee works in each department.

By calculating the average number of pieces that are processed at each work station, you have quantified your productivity. To make this information more meaningful, you should compare your performance to that of similar drycleaners.

The best way to obtain accurate information for comparison is through membership in a pro-active management group.

My management groups are comprised of progressive drycleaners who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with other non-competing drycleaners. We compare production performance, costs as a percentage of sales, marketing campaigns and training tools. All in all, the groups are a great way to learn.

Once you know how many pieces each employee processes every hour, you can begin to make improvements in production. Here are some industry standards to help you in this task.

Shirt Department. This department should be producing 25 shirts per operator hour. This includes wash, shake, press, inspect, assemble and bag.

Drycleaning Finishing Department. Your finishers should be processing 35 to 38 pairs of pants per hour; 32 to 35 jackets per hour; 18 to 22 silks per hour. Depending on your sales mix, the drycleaning finishing department as a whole should produce 30 to 32 pieces per hour. These rates are for quality work.

If your production is not close to these standards, it is time for you to get your people to produce at a higher level. If you have employees who are not doing what you are paying them to do talk to them; train them; coach them; and if, after all that they don't get up to speed, replace them. Make it very clear to them that they must get up to speed or they will be out of a job.

This is their decision to make -- not yours -- and let them know that.

If you have any questions about setting production standards or reaching your goals, feel free to call me.

Remember, in the game of business the more you know the better you can play the game.

Alan Robson is a private consultant dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry. Readers are encouraged to send him questions he can address in future columns. For more information, contact him by telephone at (508) 753-6619 or e-mail at: agrobson@ma.ultranet.com

Arthur Weiss: Reaping rewards in restoration

Hopefully some of you noticed that I was missing from last month's issue. If anyone was wondering where I was, the answer is working. For those who may not know, I do run a drycleaning business on a daily basis just like many of you.

In response to people who often ask "How do you find time to write a column every month while running a busy business?" the answer is that after so many years it finally caught up to me. But I am back and hope to continue having something important to say.

The reward I receive from doing this column is having people tell me how well they can relate to what I have to say. Many cleaners tell me that I think and write about issues just like the ones they deal with every day. Now the rest of you know that is because I do deal with the same things that you do every day.

This month I will share with you my experiences from a huge growth spurt my business has experienced. After being marginally involved in disaster restoration, we decided to make a major effort to expand this part of our business.

From side line to main line
About two years ago we put a full-time salesman on the street to market this portion of our business. Today it is the biggest part of our overall business by far.

To add to my efforts, I have volunteered to form a group of disaster restoration cleaners. To date I have received responses from about 30 cleaners throughout the country.

I will share with you the problems and suggestions from these colleagues about this diversification, as well as the reasons why many of us have chosen this path to expand our business.

The fire restoration field is one that should not be entered into lightly. Many cleaners today are looking for a way to augment sinking volume. But beware, volume for volume's sake is a large error in judgment.

Any addition to your business carries problems equal to rewards. Bear in mind when looking at expansion that increased dollars do not guarantee increased profits. Everything you do carries a cost. Sometimes those costs can escalate faster than income.

The following downfalls follow any upswing in business and will have consequences without proper planning. There will be a drain on people, equipment and physical plant limitation. Many pitfalls will be impossible to foresee.

Extra pressures will fall first on the management, then on the workforce. People will become stressed and systems will be tested. Even the simplest routines will become challenging when they reach their limits.

In addition, everyone will tend to count your money. Employees will see the increase in sales volume and think a fortune is being made and everyone will expect something from you. People who have marginal interpersonal skills will find it more difficult to get along under the pressure of the increased workload. Your management skills will be tested constantly.

That being said, let's investigate some of the other problems unique to a disaster restoration diversification.

For the most part, it is compatible with your existing business -- it would seem. There must be a way to fit the workflow into your daily routine. Some will look at one part of your business as your main responsibilities, while other aspects take second stage.

In our case the business is in the process of flip-flopping. We now do double in disaster restoration as our conventional business of only two years ago. This takes a change in mind set, not only for me but also our staff.

Other issues are the huge demand for capital. My estimates from talking to other cleaners is that it is common to carry from one fourth to one third of a years sales in receivables.

Next will be a need for capital investment in plant capacity, both physical space and equipment. This will include space to warehouse items while in your possession since many homes will not be in a condition to accept delivery for months.

Finding the market
If you consider venturing into disaster restoration you must consider how you are going to market the service.

Constant communication is needed to locate and develop a relationship with the people who can send the business to you and to keep them happy. A good rapport must be developed with the contractors, insurance companies and homeowners for whom you are working.

Workflow must be considered regarding how you will handle orders larger than you are accustomed to handling. How will you physically process them, deal with the problems unique to smoke odor, soot and sometimes water damage?

You must be prepared to restore items to their previous condition. Many types of items come in that you may not be currently geared to handle, including wash-dry-fold, shoes, stuffed animals, luggage and more.

Paperwork is a critical part of this unusual business. You must get proper authorization from the homeowners to perform the work.

You have to know how to communicate what you can and can not do. If you do not have these issues handled correctly you may find it difficult to get paid.

Even with everything covered getting paid can be a slow and sometimes difficult problem. You have to be ready to deal with situations that are very uncommon to a cash business -- what to do when you have a problem collecting.

Having processed fire work for over 20 years I have seen an evolution in customers' attitudes. Today with replacement value clauses in insurance policies, many people think that they have hit the lottery when they have a claim.

There is an unusual fear that they are going to be taken advantage of by the insurance company.

Demanding customers
More frustrating is that with replacement value promised in their policy, they can feel that they deserve more than what they have received by cleaning old items rather than having everything replaced with brand new. This feeling is carried by many homeowners finding out how much money is being expended by the insurance company, and believing that insurance company money is a bottomless pit.

Never having seen a drycleaning bill in the thousands of dollars, the customers' judgment of you can be effected. Because of this some people will think nothing of complaining about even flawless work that you have performed, since it can be their vehicle to increase the settlement they receive.

If you go in thinking that you are saving people, you may be unpleasantly surprised when they say less than thank you for doing a mammoth job.

These are some of the issues that I have been sharing with the various cleaners whom I have been in contact with.

For many of these problems I have developed systems and would like to hear more from those of you that have input. In response to the cleaners who have written to me about a disaster cleaners' network, consider these remarks part of my response to you.

I would like suggestions for a name we could use for a group of cleaners dedicated to the furthering of our position as disaster restoration specialists, examples of which could be Association of Disaster Restoration Specialists, Textile Restoration Cleaners, or whatever you would like to suggest.

Once again, for those of you who sometimes wonder what I have been busy with, this gives you some idea.

Arthur Weiss owns Betty Brite Cleaners and loves to get mail from readers at 334 Route 33, Mercerville, NJ 08619. He can be reached by phone at (609) 890-8787 or by email at: awclean@aol.com.

Newsmakers

Vandermolen named by Canadian Institute

Vic Vandermolen has been named executive director of the Canadian Laundry and Linen Institute.

He serves in the same capacity for the Canadian Fabricare Association and the Ontario Fabricare Association and is also the current president of the Cleaning and Laundry Associations Executives organization.

Vandermolen has 25 years of experience in association management. In his new position. He said he aims to expand CLLI's educational program to serve more areas across Canada.

Like CFA and OFA, CLLI is based in Kitchener, Ontario. The CFA and CLLI office phone number is (519) 576-4500; OFA is at (519) 576-8696. OFA has a web site at www.ontfabric.com.

Risotto to head HSIA

The Center for Emissions Control and the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, two organizations that have been supported by solvent producers, have been combined into a single entity under the HSIA banner.

Steve Risotto is the new executive director of HSIA He had been executive director of CEC.

The new toll-free phone number for HSIA 888-594-4742.

C&A moves

C&A Parts N Supply has moved and has a new address and phone numbers.

As of February 2, the company is located at 132-10 11th Ave., College Point, NY 11356. The new phone number is (718) 747-2222; the fax number is (718) 747-2636.

Mazza joins M&B

Matt Mazza has joined the sales force of M&B Hangers and will cover the New Jersey, New England and metro New York area.

Mazza managed drycleaning and laundry supply accounts in the New Jersey and New York metro area during nine years with the R.V. Davies co. He also has experience in purchasing and inventory control.

Mazza has a degree in political science from William Patterson College and resides in Wayne, NJ.

M&B Hangers, a family-owned business founded in 1943, has locations in Leeds, AL, and South Hill, VA and provides the drycleaning, laundering and uniform rental markets with wire hangers and paper hanger covers.

Bartlett managing City Wide

Jeff Bartlett is the new manager at City Wide Cleaners in Cedar Rapids, IA. The new company purchased City Cleaners and combined with Alberts Cleaners and Prince Albert Formalwear. John Albert, president, announced the arrangement in August, 1997.

The plant will be totally re-equipped. An open house for Iowa drycleaners is planned for late spring.

Weiser resigns at Ecomat

Diane Weiser resigned as president and chief executive officer of Ecomat on Jan. 22. She held those positions since December 1995, previously acting in the same capacities for Diaber Laundromat Inc., a New York-based corporation that was a predecessor of Ecomat.

Ecomat's company-owned facilities and franchises, located primarily in the New York area, offer wetcleaning and laundry-based garment care services and advertise themselves as a non-toxic alternative to drycleaning.

The company's board of directors has appointed a special committee to make recommendations concerning the appointment of new executive officers, management of the company's business and continued development of the company's business plan.

Ecomat's web site can be found at www.ecomat.com

Girbau plans new facility in Wisconsin

Girbau S.A. has announced plans to expand its plant operations at its company headquarters in Barcelona, Spain and at its North American subsidiary, Continental Girbau Inc. in Oshkosh, WI.

An estimated $5 million has been appropriated by the manufacturer of industrial and commercial laundry equipment for the project which includes immediate facility expansion in Barcelona, Spain, with a 34,000-sq.-ft. addition to the existing 263,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing plant.

The addition will house new presses and other production equipment for increased production and efficiency.

Plans for the North American branch include a new facility for which more than four acres of land in have been purchased in Oshkosh. The ground could support a 128,000-sq.-ft. facility to headquarter Continental's operations in the United States and Canada. Construction will begin once details are finalized.

Anthony Girbau, a major shareholder in both Girbau S.A. and Continental Girbau Inc., said several new products are planned for the next 24 months and the timing is right for an expansion.

"The decision to expand production capacity is the direct result of higher than anticipated sales from our U.S. subsidiary, Continental Girbau Inc., as well as significant growth in various markets around the world, said Pere Girbau, who is also a major shareholder in the company.

Girbau S.A. markets products in more than 70 countries and has factory-owned branch operation in Spain, France, England, Brazil and the United States.

The company also announced that Andrew Batzner is the new controller for Continental Girbau's North American operation. He will be responsible for all finance and accounting functions for the company, directing the management information systems and designing, implementing and managing custom finance programs.

Most recently Batzner was the credit supervisor for a laundry equipment manufacturer where he also developed captive financing programs for the coin and on-premise laundry markets. He has also worked as a credit analysis for a financial institution and was director of finance and administration for a publishing company. Batzner has a bachelor of business administration degree in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Milnor adds 50,000-sq.-ft. building

Pellerin Milnor Corp. has expanded its manufacturing operations by adding a new off-site industrial building with 55,000 square feet, increasing the company' s total office and factory space to about 455,000 square feet.

President James W. Pellerin said the new facility relieves pressure on existing factory areas, increases efficiency and provides space to expand production on new machine models.

A recent multi-million dollar program upgraded the company's computer system, integrating all operational data and streamlining operations across the company.

Milnor employs more than 900 people at its manufacturing facility in suburban New Orleans, LA. The company's product range includes washer-extractors in capacities of 35 to 750 pounds, automated tunnel washing systems, apparel processing machinery, dryers, materials handling systems and laundry computer networks.

The company has a web site at www.milnor.com.

Information Central

Solvent Recovery Dryers

WESTPORT, MA -- Petro-Miser petroleum solvent recovery dryers are now available with programmable controllers and refrigeration from Hoyt Corp.

The company said that the tumblers provide recovery of up to 95 percent of the solvent from washed and extract garments, noting that transfer units provide up to twice the output of dry-to-dry systems.

Productivity is further increased with the reduced cycle times offered by the new high efficiency refrigerated condenser reduces cycle times. This saves energy, too, the company noted.

The closed loop design requires no venting and eliminates time consuming and costly permitting in many jurisdictions. A refrigerated condenser also can eliminate the need for a separate chiller and water feed to the unit. Pre-charged line sets of 25 and 50 feet with self-sealing, quick connect fittings simplify the hookup of the unit's refrigeration system to a remote condenser.

The operator control panel with the new controller is located on the front of the unit to eliminate the expense of having an electrician wire a remote panel and reducing the amount of walking required to operate the unit. A self-cleaning condenser coil allows higher efficiency and faster solvent reclamation and a patented lint filter cleaning system keeps the filter bag functioning longer, the company noted.

Petro-Miser solvent recovery dryers are available in capacities of 50 and 105 pounds and in three different versions: water cooled with remote control panel; water cooled with integral programmable controller; and refrigerated with integral programmable controller.

Dye stain remover

NAPERVILLE, IL -- R. R. Street & Co. Inc. has introduced Ready-Strip dye stain remover, a titanium stripper for removal of fugitive dye and residual dye commonly present in difficult stains.

The new stain remover destroys the chromophores contained in the dye, which is what gives dyes its color. Fugitive dye can be safely removed from all kinds of non-metallic fabrics and may even be used on colored garments.

Ready-Strip will not cause areas worked on to become whiter than the original white base color not does it emit an unpleasant odor during use, Street's said.

The product comes ready to use so no dilution is necessary and is available in a 16-oz. applicator bottle designed for spotting board use or a one gallon container for use in laundry washers or soaking tubs.

Odor remover

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Jinx Odor from Neuhaus Chemical Products removes perspiration and urine odors from garments, drapes and other materials by chemically emulsifying the odor-causing deposits. The emulsified deposits are flushed out of materials in either the dry or wet side machine. The result is no odor while pressing pants or other garments that had contained urine. Perspiration odors are eliminated, too, not merely covered up with perfume.

Neuhaus Chemical Products Inc. also produces Jinx Ink , Jinx Ink-DF and Jinx Scale. The products are available through distributors.

Lint remover

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Stay Sharp's new Lint Stick is a washable lint remover designed for counter sales and promotional give-aways.

The adhesive surface can be washed clean with water and reused many times. The compact Lint Stick can be folded up to fit in a pocket, purse or travel bag. A promotional display four counter sales and promotions is available.

Compliance assistance

CHICAGO, IL -- Safety & Environmental Compliance Consultants Inc. (S&ECC) is sending training materials to clients who are willing to complete their own audit of chemicals in their businesses and supply other information to the company.

The program materials are the same as those provided to cleaners that the company has visited to establish compliance needs. S&ECC clients requested the service to help meet compliance needs in the absence of other sources that cover the drycleaning industry, the company said.

Slick rail covers

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA -- Iowa Techniques now offers bright orange slip-on plastic protective covers for slick rail pipes. The end caps are easily installed and can prevent head injuries. They fit 1/2", 3/4", and 1" pipe.

Waste water disposal

SANTA MONICA, CA -- Air Quality Laboratories new Mist Mark II machine was designed through collaboration of several state enforcement agencies that want a machine that prevent accidental release of perc vapor into the atmosphere when drycleaners don't change filters on time. This takes the "guess work" out of filter maintenance, the company said.

The Mist It machine, developed by Air Quality Labs, sense the presence of perc after passing the first of two filters. It also detects a consumed first filter by back pressure build-up.

If either condition occurs, the filter element has reached the end of its operating life and the machine stops, a light signaling "Change Filter" glows and an audio alarm sounds.

Air Quality Labs said it has tested the machine in the field over the past nine months and is now releasing it to the drycleaning industry.

The Mark II is priced slightly higher than the company's Mist-It SS machine.

Anti-static detergent

COLD SPRING, KY -- The Stamford Chemical Division of Fabritec International has incorporated an improved anti-static agent into its Brite-Life drycleaning detergent formulation.

The new anti-stat has never previously been used in drycleaning chemicals Fabritec said. It is an anhydrous detergent that can be used in a charge process at 1 percent concentration or injected at a rate of one ounce per 10 pounds of garments.

Brite-Life is packaged in 1 x 6 gallon cases, five-gallon pails and 15- or 55-gallon drums and is available through distributors.

Five-year machine warranty

MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- Omega Cleaning Systems has announced an exclusive five-year parts warranty on its line of perc drycleaning machine.

All parts are 100 percent guaranteed under the "no exceptions" warranty.

The warranty applies to the company's entire line of perc drycleaning machines.

To keep the warranty in effect, the owner needs to follow the manufacturer's preventive maintenance schedule.

Medical wear franchise

NEW CASTLE, DE -- Image First Medical Wear offers a franchise opportunity for drycleaners in the medical laundry field.

The company, a supplier of products to the medical and dental field, offers designated and protected territories for franchisees to provide health care and rental laundry services.

Dye fixer for leather

TULSA, OK -- Leather Fix is a leather prewash and dye fixer from Royaltone for wetcleaning suede and leather. Added as an auxiliary to the prewash cycle of the wetcleaning process, it sets dyes and loosens surface soils. Four ounces per garment are used, with water temperature of 100 degrees F or less.