Tag: Features

Q2 2022

Members Share Experiences with Wash-Dry-Fold

Carolina Monterrubio Barrera, left, is co-founder of Wash-O in New York City. Her daughter, co-founder Carolina Y. Monterrubio is at right and also appears in a class photo in this issue. (Photo by Brett Deutsch, www.headshotsnyc.com).

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ACCELERATED MANY CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY AND THE WORLD IN GENERAL. SOME CONVENIENCES THAT WERE NICE ADD-ONS QUICKLY BECAME ESSENTIAL. Drycleaners across America and around the globe pivoted into the new reality of a pandemic world. Offering Wash Dry Fold (WDF) is one method garment care professionals use to increase piece counts and make services more convenient for customers. DLI asked a group of member cleaners about their experiences with WDF; some of their helpful and welcome answers to our questions follow.

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Q1 2022

Meet DLI’s 2021-2022 Board of Directors

DLI’s Board of Directors recognizes valued contributions and inducts new volunteer leadership each year. New Directors are sworn in as their predecessors move to an executive position or become DLI Senators, an exclusive title for previous members of the Board. This year DLI welcomes a host of new faces to its governing body. 

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Q1 2022

DLI Membership Pays Significant Savings

New 2022 Package Delivers Gift Certificates from Popular Vendors Worth $470+

Drycleaning & Laundry Institute membership saves members money.  Not intangible money but actual savings in the form of gift certificates from popular industry companies. Members of DLI’s Board of Directors invited Allied Trades Members, industry service providers, suppliers, and manufacturers who support the industry and Institute, to provide direct discounts on products members buy and use regularly. 

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Q4 2021

Time & Change

Reflecting on 2021 & Preparing for 2022

CONGRATULATIONS! You survived the challenges of 2020 and most of 2021. Given the recent turmoil, many of us are wondering what 2022 might hold. We asked a group of DLI leaders and staff members to share their thoughts about the year ahead. These sources have their ears to the ground closer than most in the industry by regularly hosting DLI’s weekly Peer-to-Peer Zoom sessions and participating in DLI’s weekly virtual training sessions. Their positions also put them in direct contact with many members daily. Few people share this perspective.

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Q3 2021

DLI Launches New ‘Marketing Lab’ Program to Help Members Develop Marketing Ideas and Exchange Advice 

Beginning June 16 & 17, members of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI) began tapping into the wealth of experience of their peers DLI’s new Marketing Lab peer review group. In the group, DLI members develop marketing efforts together, or just help each other tweak current efforts. From plans to final pieces and implementation, members will present marketing ideas to a group of their peers for live, immediate feedback. Ideas shared in the group are available to all members of the group, giving members access to a collective idea machine. In-group collaboration will help make marketing pieces stronger.

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Q2 2021

Building Business Beyond Lockdown

Side hustles operators can consider to help shore up their bottom lines as the pandemic’s impact subsides

By Ian P. Murphy

The initial coronavirus lockdowns hit drycleaners hard last year. Business dropped 40% to 50% for most operators as people suddenly retreated into their homes. People who were able to keep their jobs did them at a distance, rarely making the effort to dress professionally for Zoom calls.

Some of that drycleaning business returned as restrictions eased. But the pandemic has made an indelible impact on the way people communicate and work. The casual workplace is now the rule, and dressing for the office is the exception to it.

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Q2 2021

GreenEarth Cleaning Involved in Fight Against COVID-19

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” While the year 2020 will long be remembered for the substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, GreenEarth’s response to it has been much the same as how the company approached the drycleaning industry when it began its business in 1999. At both times, GreenEarth sought to solve a problem by testing solutions.

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Q1 2021

Kenney Slatten Passes Away

Kenney Slatten passed away October 15, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona, after a long battle with cancer. He was a good-humored drycleaning trainer, consultant, columnist, and industry leader whose cowboy lifestyle defined his industry image. His great hats could be easily identified from across a crowded convention floor. 

Slatten, a third-generation drycleaner, started consulting in 1987. He was a certified DLI instructor, served as Executive Director of the Western States Drycleaning & Laundry Association for 15 years, and wrote a column for 32 years in Western Cleaner & Launderer. In addition, he served on DLI’s Board of Directors as an Allied Trades Director, was a member of the Cleaning & Laundry Association Executives (CLAE) group, was a member of the International Drycleaners Congress, and was an instructor for the California Environmental Protection Agency.

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Q1 2021

Al Reiner Died, Cadillac for Sale

Remembering an Industry Champion

By Harry A. Kimmel III, APR PRSA

Alvin Reiner of the Mayflower Laundry and Drycleaning Company in Hartford, Connecticut, passed away in October of 2020. A very active member of the drycleaning community, he served as president of the Institute from 1983-1984, and Board member from 1978-1983. He also served as executive director of the North East Fabricare Association (NEFA), and the Hartford County Laundry Association.

Always quick with a joke, Reiner wrote the headline for his own memorial. One day while reading a obituary in the local paper, he told his daughter, Gail Reiner, obituaries were too expensive because, “They charge by the word.” He said his should read, “Al Reiner Dead, Cadillac for Sale.” With fullest respect, we couldn’t resist using this as a headline.

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