by Martin Saxton
Update on Utility Rebate Programs
Top: Tower Cleaners staff, always in uniform. (Back left, Kevin Marois. Right, Richard Reese from Unipress.) Left: Tower Cleaners ‘best break- room’ award. Above: Tower Cleaners employee lockers.
garments from one floor to the other. The hooks are about six feet apart so the orders don’t get tangled up. It’s interesting to watch and it sure beats carrying orders up and down the stairs. Foothills Cleaners in Oko-
toks is one of the cooler plants that we service. They have an overhead door on one side of the plant and a main door on the other side, so there is a nice cross breeze blowing through the plant. A large hatch in the roof opens to let the hot air out. Crowfoot Martinizing in Calgary recently purchased a huge Sprinter van. This is the largest van we have ever put rails in. I could just about put my van inside it. With a wrap on it, it’s a gigantic moving billboard. You can’t miss their message when it drives down the road. It also carries twice as many garments as a regular delivery van. It certainly gets noticed.
The nicest lunchroom award
goes to Tower Cleaners in Calgary. Employees each have a locker, and there are five or six lunch tables. They also have air conditioning, four microwaves and a dishwasher. (Maybe that is why my guys spend so much time there.)
In addition, Tower employees from the boss down are always
in uniform and look sharp. It sets the tone for the whole plant, and gives customers an excellent impression of how their garments will be handled. One of our customers (West- point Cleaners) has us on a monthly maintenance sched- ule. We come every month and service his shirt unit and dry cleaning machine. He wants to stay on top of things and avoid shutdowns. But it’s not just the monthly maintenance that is good. Every July he hands us a list of things to be repaired and goes on a holiday. We inspect his boiler and back-flow valves. We do some maintenance on every machine. When he comes back from his holiday, every- thing is ready to go. We do the work at our convenience. It saves him time and money and we don’t interrupt his work. These are a few of the things that I have seen in my travels. As we share ideas, we can each improve our own operations. The happier our customers and staff are, the more profitable we will be. What are you doing right? Tell us about it, and we’ll share the praise you so richly deserve. █
Kevin Marois is president of Integrity Mechanical Inc. in Calgary, AB.
imi@telus.net.
2015 September/October FABRICARE CANADA 21
When I wrote about business incentive programs 18 months ago, cleaners were already chafing under the burden of steadily increasing costs. The increase in utility prices has many causes, from the need to upgrade aging nuclear plants to the cost of shifting from coal to renewable energy, but altogether the trend is for prices to go steadily higher. Even natural gas prices, which fell as a result of the shale gas revolution, are forecast to rise in the coming year as demand rises to match supply. Adding insult to injury for cleaners, the cost of water in most Canadian cities is skyrocketing as municipal water boards grap- ple with the cost of decades of under-investment. Large business users in Calgary alone are facing an eye-watering 80% increase over the next four years. The only major Canadian city that has, so far, avoided double-digit increases is Montreal; ironically this isn’t because of an abundance of water (it is estimated that 40% of water in the system is lost due to leaks) but because of a corruption scandal involving the contract to install water meters, which was uncovered in 2009 and continues to rumble on. So, that’s the bad news! The silver lining is that, across Canada, more and more utilities are introducing or upgrading programs designed to assist customers reduce their consump- tion. These programs broadly fall into three categories:
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