News & Innovations

Hospitality moves - sweet spot - South Carolina startup targets Coastal Hotels

Andy Thorson, managing partner and founder of Carolina Textile Care LLC, never worked a day in his life in a hospitality laundry before his startup operation began clearing ground at a wooded site in Early Branch, SC, in December 2018. 

Nonetheless, he’s convinced that he can succeed in this sector because washing, drying and finishing linens isn’t all that different from other “process” businesses that he’s worked in, ranging from assembling radiation oncology equipment to manufacturing cement. “I was in a process industry before,” he says. “This (laundry) is a process industry. I was in the cement industry. You may find this odd, but there are a lot of similarities between doing the laundry and manufacturing cement. You start with raw materials; you process them in a linear fashion. At the end you have a finished good. Here, your raw materials are soiled linen, you process them and at the end you have a finished good.”

When we visited Thorson late in 2019, he’d just signed up his first hotel customer—a new hotel that had no on-premise laundry (OPL); he was about to sign a second. Beyond the colorful analogies, Thorson identified three keys that he believes will ensure success for Carolina Textile Care.  First, he’s lined up a team of seasoned laundry professionals to help him. Second, he’s designed a plant that can deliver the quality, throughput and efficiency he needs to satisfy hotel clients and earn ROI. Third, he’s scoped out opportunities for outsourced hotel laundry work in an area stretching from Charlotte, NC, to Charleston and Jacksonville, FL. We’ll explore each of these issues below.   

Strategic niche  

Thorson says he toured 11 independent plants in the course of preparing his business plan, along with the Disney World laundry in Orlando, FL. He also studied the market for outsourced hotel laundry services in the triangle region of North/South Carolina/Georgia/Northeast Florida. He found the area ripe with opportunity. With this diverse base of potential visitors, the area’s registering significant hospitality growth, especially in the coastal areas. And while Thorson estimates that two-thirds of the existing hotels still have OPLs, developers in charge of most new properties tend to forgo them. This creates opportunities for Carolina Textile Care. 

As for established hotels, Thorson cites national statistics showing that three-quarters of U.S. luxury hotels do their laundry on-site. They resist outsourcing due to quality concerns, he says. “The anecdotal evidence I gathered was I called up a bunch of these four and five-star hotels, and most of them—at least around here—do that,” he says, noting the use of OPLs.

However, cost pressures, labor shortages and the need to convert OPLs to spas and other revenue-generating activities have created opportunities for Thorson to pitch hotels on the idea of outsourcing. He feels well positioned to succeed because the competition, while robust, isn’t overwhelming. Thorson believes there’s room for a niche operator like himself to become established and grow.

Plant tour  

An alarm blared as Thorson discussed his strategy for a gradual ramp up of production. The noise quickly stopped, but it prompted him to comment on “the trials and tribulations of building a new building during a building boom.” Not all construction-related tasks were completed at the time of our visit. But aside from these minor distractions, the plant was impressive. Thorson and his team designed this 25,000-square-foot (2,322-square-meter) facility in a horseshoe configuration for a U-shaped process. At one end of the horseshoe the soil comes in. At the other end of the horseshoe, the clean comes out.

The plant is capable of processing up to 10 million lbs. (4,535 tons) per year for high-end hospitality customers. Located in a rural area, the facility’s so new that finishing touches, such as exterior landscaping and signage weren’t completed when we visited. But the wash aisle, including ALPHA equipment made in China by JENSEN-GROUP, was ready for action. In fact, the entire soil sort and monorail system, wash aisle and finishing areas have JENSEN equipment. Thorson said the decision to go with JENSEN followed a rigorous review. “It was a very competitive process,” Thorson says. “We looked at JENSEN and two other (vendors).” He said he picked JENSEN because they were able to provide everything he needed, plus he liked their quality and efficiency with major energy and water savings. 

Our tour began near the soil area, where we saw a JENSEN Futurail sorting deck with eight Trans-Sort bins, each equipped with video monitors to tell employees where to drop various items. From there, sorted textiles drop onto a conveyor when they reach a set weight before moving up to a sling that moves via a Futurail overhead rail system to a storage zone in the ceiling. This area includes safety netting to protect employees from falling textiles. Rail Explorer, a computer-tracking system from JENSEN, dispatches the slings when ready to an ALPHA by JENSEN tunnel washer with twelve, 130 lb. (60 kg.) compartments. At the time we visited, an employee was testing the system in advance of the start of regular operations that began in December 2019. David Netusil, manager-sales support and marketing for JENSEN USA confirmed that the tunnel washer and four 260 lb. (120 kg.) batch dryers is the first ALPHA batch system placed in a U.S. plant. Other equipment includes JENSEN JWE series washer/extractors along with gas-heated JENSEN JTD series tumbler/dryers.

You can see a video of the plant in action by clicking bit.ly/carolinatxcare.

Moving to the finishing side of the plant, we see two complete JENSEN ironer lines, and a group of ALPHA T5 small-piece folders. The idea with this new line is to provide stand-alone versions of JENSEN machines with fewer options than those produced in Europe or the U.S., but the same quality specifications. The other machines are standard JENSEN equipment, Netusil says.

Hampton County advantage

Stepping outside, we see lots of open land that Carolina Textile Care could one day use to add onto its plant. On the plant floor as well there is room for a second tunnel, more ironers and finishing equipment before the building would need an extension. That’s a concern for the future. Right now, Thorson, Highsmith and their team are focused on establishing the business and making sure the various systems work as expected. Thorson is pleased with the plant’s performance to date, Netusil says. 

The final puzzle piece that has inspired Thorson’s confidence is the fact that he has assembled an experienced management team who understand not only laundry, but also the special needs of the high-end hospitality sector. Highsmith is a 30-year laundry industry veteran who’s run numerous plants. He worked closely with Thorson in designing the plant for maximum efficiency, safety and throughput. Thorson’s plant manager, Robert Leamon; and chief engineer Donald Ramsumair, also have extensive backgrounds in their respective roles. “Robert spent the last 15 years in a luxury hotel and the last six years as their head of housekeeping and the previous nine running their OPL… and Ramsumair came from Atlanta, where he previously was chief engineer at a much larger plant, and he’s familiar with all kinds of machinery,” Thorson continues, “If we experience success, it will be largely due to this team.”

We admire Thorson’s chutzpah in pursuing a self-funded startup with no experience in hospitality laundering. That said, he’s maximized his odds of success by managing risks. Now with the business established, the opportunities for signing up luxury hotels, especially new facilities, and seeking to provide outsource services for their laundries looks promising.

Article written by Jack Morgan  and originally appeared in Textile Services magazine pre-COVID-19

Jack Morgan is senior editor of Textile Services. Contact him at 877.770.9274 or jmorgan@trsa.org