The COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of uncertainties and instabilities, also for textile service providers like "Sacramento Laundry Company“. The new circumstances make committing to new projects especially difficult. Against all doubts the owner and president of „Sacramento Laundry Company“ Keith Pooler and his wife Julia decided to start a project, including new ironer lines and a complete automation of the finishing area. Therefore they teamed up with Kannegiesser-ETECH. Keith Pooler proudly announces: “We have seen a 35% increase in productivity across the board!” Keith Pooler proudly announces. The project was a major success and helped Sacramento Laundry Company in overcoming the difficulties caused by the pandemic.
Sacramento Laundry Company is a family-owned and operated textile service provider for over 35 hotels in Northern California. The company started out as a local coin-operated laundry in downtown Sacramento over a decade ago. Today, Keith Pooler and his team of over 350 employees serve a customer range from boutique hotels in San Francisco to military base hotels, luxury ski resort hotels around Lake Tahoe, and 1,000+ room convention center hotels.
Clean side automation
The initial idea behind the new project was to automate the clean side operation. The key to success was the installation of two components: The XFM Speedline folding machines for drywork with the automatic sorting function and the Vectura stack sorting and transport system. Keith Pooler acknowledges, “The improvements in the terry department had the biggest impact on our 35% increase in productivity”. Before, 1 or 2 employees were needed behind every folding machine to receive the laundry stacks. The Vectura provides a central discharge position for the laundry stacks which makes it possible to receive the stacks of 6 folding machines by only 2 employees.
Small piece ironer line
Sacramento Laundry Company also received a new small piece ironing line including the EMV feeding machine. For the owner Keith Pooler keeping the employees motivated and productive while feeding small pieces has always been challenging. An efficient workflow is especially important for small piece feeding, as it is a fast pace job with a high volume of pieces. Kannegiesser ETECH Sales Manager Derek Hanson affirms, “Savings of just a split second on each piece add up”. The EMV greatly improved the workplace quality and thus the productivity. Keith Pooler says, “Our employees love that piece of equipment!” Additionally, the ironer line has a central discharge point that requires only half the amount of employees to collect the stacks.
Keith Pooler sumps up the project: “Overall the installation was A+. Because of COVID it was challenging, but the Kannegiesser-ETECH team really stepped up and made that challenge minimal.” Despite restrictions on travel because of the pandemic, the team was still able to get the job done as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
If you like to find out more about the success story of the Sacramento Laundry Company, take a look at the whole interview of Derek Hanson (Kannegiesser ETECH Sales Manager) and Casey Lott (Kannegiesser Technical Marketing Manager) with Keith Pooler, the owner and president of Sacramento Laundry Company.