by Becca Anderson
performed, upgrading the rest of the laundry room with Uni- Mac equipment was not too difficult,” he said.
QUICK INSTALLATION, GREAT RESULTS
A Beautiful Laundry
If you think it’s hard keeping up with local, provincial and national regulations for your business, imagine put- ting that business in a National Park, and the concerns are multiplied. But Banff Park Lodge (Banff, AB) is not only meeting the guidelines, but exceeding them. The property is designated a ‘4 Green Key’ property by the Hotel Association of Canada and ‘4 Green Leaf’ prop- erty by Audubon International. The latter means the management are not only highly concerned about the environment and sustainability, but maintain that desig- nation through efficiency and hard work. Laundry is not exactly the first thing to come to the mind of a general manager of a busy hotel, but it is essential. Steve Schultz, director of rooms for the lodge, was determined to bring this operation to its peak of effi- ciency. “We were faced with aging machines that were due for replacement,” he said. “The existing machines, though old, had lasted a substantial lifespan, and in their replacements we wanted to source equipment that was equally robust, and also significantly more efficient with both resources and time.”
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF
Coronet Equipment (Edmonton, AB) was chosen for the job because of their array of products and also the service commitment that is their way of doing busi- ness. “Service and support is very important to us,” said Schultz, “and Coronet provided sales, service and ongoing maintenance support.”
Schultz didn’t just pick Coronet’s name out of a hat. “I make regular calls on prospective customers to see if they are having any problems with their equipment or service company,” said Jim Calverley, sales manager for Coronet. “After many years of calling on Banff Park Lodge, they told me they were having a lot of trouble with one of their washers, which was very old, and they were thinking of upgrading.”
Calverley met with Schultz and Laura Cline, laundry manager, to discuss their needs. “Whenever a customer tells me they are interested in a new machine, I start to ask questions to determine what exactly they want,” he said. “Most people just think of a washer or dryer as a washer or dryer – they don’t know of the many
12 FABRICARE CANADA November/December 2017
MAKING THE CHOICE The UniLinc system monitors cycles, provides maintenance schedules and gives very detailed operational reports. “The other important factor for the washers was a high G-force to cut down on drying time and for the dryers it was the OPTidry feature.” The laundry had a mix of different manufacturers’ machines. Calverley described the benefits of the UniLinc controls on the UniMac wash- ers, and provided references to other hotels in the area that were using the system. That sealed the deal. “Once they had one washer and saw how it
options that are available. Many assume all manufactur- ers are the same and the only difference is price. In the case of Banff Park Lodge, I quickly determined this was a customer who not only cared about the quality of the equipment, but also the bottom line, and was prepared to analyze their oper- ation and make the necessary changes on an ongoing basis.” Because of its experience
with hundreds of other hotel laundries, Coronet was able to provide the Lodge manage- ment with baseline ‘average’ operations numbers, helping them gauge their laundry’s effi- ciency and see where it could be improved with different equipment.
Three washers were replaced in three separate installations, each taking less than a day. The dryers took two days and were installed all at once, the old dryers were removed. It’s a team effort to make an installa- tion go smoothly, and Calver- ley is proactive in helping out. “I take pictures of the exist- ing laundry room prior to the installation and point out to the team any potential obstacles I see that may cause problems. Once they are on-site, they are experts in this area.” The crew, headed by Jay Young, did ‘a fantastic job’ in keeping down- time to a minimum.
“The best features on the new equipment are the mul- tiple load settings, the adjust- able spin force on the wash- ers to minimize drying time, and the moisture settings on the dryers,” said Schultz. “We
Below: Steve Schultz, director of rooms, Banff Park Lodge.
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