The Textile Services Association (TSA) has wholeheartedly celebrated the bounce back of the hospitality industry, saying that commercial laundries have seen a dramatic increase in demand.
However, it has warned that while the recovery is welcomed, it is bringing supply issues. Consequently, it has partnered with UKHospitality to issue advice for hospitality operators covering some temporary actions they can consider to alleviate the pressure on their laundry provider.
David Stevens, CEO of the TSA, said: “The problem is that we’ve been asked to jump from dead slow to full speed overnight. To be fair, we’ve been warning that there could be issues for several months. The total lack of government support for the laundry industry means some of our members are really struggling with staffing, the shortage of drivers, supply chain issues, capacity issues due to operating COVID-secure factories, and so on.”
Here is the TSA’s advice on temporary actions hospitality operators can take to support their laundry providers:
- Talk to your laundry provider to consider how to manage the situation and temporarily reduce your linen requirements. For example, by encouraging multi-night stays, review bed change policy, and reducing linen required for room make up.
- Sell up to the occupancy levels your laundry supplier can deliver linen at.
- Send back any unused stock.
- Keep the laundry informed of upstream occupancy levels.
- Give plenty of notice for events and F&B requirements, such as weddings.
- Understand some laundries may have cash flow issues; prompt payment may really help.
- If possible, give the laundry time to adapt to the increase in demand.
The TSA says that the laundry supply issues are not being felt throughout the UK – some regions have been able to get up to speed more quickly than others.
Stevens continued: “Where supply issues do exist, we expect the situation to improve rapidly over the coming weeks. With good communication and cooperation, we expect laundries to recover quickly. We are incredibly grateful for the hospitality industry’s understanding during this difficult time.”
In common with many other sectors, especially the hospitality industry, laundries are struggling with staffing issues – a combination of problems created by both the pandemic and Brexit. The TSA is working with the CBI to lobby government to get laundry operatives to be added to the Shortage Occupations List.
