ALEXANDRIA, Va. — February 14, 2020 — Attendees of TRSA’s Second Annual Hospitality Conference received a detailed overview of shifts in the hotel trade from keynote speaker John Burns on February 4 at the Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas. Burns, president of Hospitality Technology Consulting, shared with the approximately 100 attendees how hotel chains and independents, like the rest of the economy have grown steadily over the 11-year expansion that followed the Great Recession of 2008-’09. Of course, hotels, like all businesses that require massive amounts of manpower to provide expected services for guests and other aspects of their operations, are finding labor pools elusive. Whether this issue will encourage hotels to move toward outsourcing their laundry needs or whether hotels will simply expect their vendors/partners to do more with less remains to be seen.

Additional hotel industry disruptions include the rise of Airbnb and other similar vacation rentals and alternatives that compete with conventional hotels. The decentralized nature of Airbnb makes it a challenge for laundries to service their linens on an outsourced basis, but new opportunities in that area could arise as the business grows, advised keynoter Burns. To succeed in this era, hospitality laundry operators must be nimble and quick to show such vendors they’ll meet their requirements.

Other market shifts that Burns emphasized included the millennial and Gen Z attitudes towards business travel, which has fueled the rise of new hotel concepts that focus on issues such as “wellness,” “adventure,” “micro” and other niches associated with their hotel stays. To meet these demands, hoteliers are having to leave behind some longstanding traditions of the past in order to survive. Laundry operators will find themselves working with larger, more sophisticated clients with broader, more specific and more stylized requirements.

Burns closed on a somber yet thought-provoking note. While the economy continues to show strength, inevitably the market will experience a downturn, probably sometime in the next two years. There will be a shakeout that will impact the hotel industry in ways that are hard to predict. One aspect that’s unlikely to shift even if the economy stalls badly is the hotel industry’s commitment to sustainability. This trend is driven in part by the international movement toward the “circular economy,” particularly in Europe. Again, as recyclers of linen, environmentalism could and should play to laundry operators’ strengths – provided they’re aware enough to demonstrate their commitment to conservation.

Other education programs during the full day Hospitality Conference on Feb. 5 included:

• An overview of growth statistics and trends from consultant Ali Hoyt, senior director of consulting and analytics for STR, a hospitality research firm.
• A series of facilitated roundtables in which operators discussed issues such as outsourcing, customer relations, recruitment/retention and similar issues of common concern.
• A review of legislative and regulatory issues from TRSA Vice President of Government Relations Kevin Schwalb.
• A presentation by consultant Larry Wilhelm and TRSA’s Ken Koepper on a new benchmarking effort designed to encourage outsourcing by assembling financial information on a confidential basis from hotels.
• A presentation by Steve Miller, vice president of Victor Kramer Co., on linen-loss prevention methods and strategies.
• Information on customer attitudes in a panel discussion dubbed “What Customers Really Want.” The panelists included Chris Breed, vice president of resort operations, Soleil Management, Eric Eisenberg, director of Hotel Operations, Boyd Gaming, and Diane Gandy, president of the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association. Terry Satchwell, executive vice president, PureStar Linen Group, moderated the discussion.

At the conclusion of the educational sessions, attendees enjoyed a networking reception and on the following day, traveled with attendees of the inaugural TRSA Food & Beverage Conference (hosted at the same location) to visit two high-profile laundries, Alsco Linen & Uniform Rental Services in North Las Vegas and Boyd Gaming Linen and Uniform Service in nearby Henderson, NV.

On Feb. 3 a pre-Hospitality conference roundtable gathering of 16 hotel laundry operators gathered at the Westin to discuss a wide range of issues affecting their businesses.

Facilitated by TRSA President & CEO Joseph Ricci, operators cited strong growth in the hotel market, coupled with concerns over challenges ranging from labor shortages to determining a model for providing services to “market disruptors,” in the hospitality trade, such as Airbnb and a range of comparable vacation and business rental-service programs.

The tight labor market, affecting the availability of hourly and skilled tradespeople such as maintenance engineers, is a complicating factor. The rise of the minimum wage in many states, plus compliance costs such as “living wage” rules in certain communities such as Santa Monica, CA; and St. Louis, make it hard for laundries to meet hotels’ demand to hold down the costs of outsourced laundry services.

Operators discussed a range of creative options to increase their recruiting and retention possibilities, such as recruiting prison labor through work-release programs in various areas of the U.S. TRSA Vice President of Government Relations Kevin Schwalb told the attendees that TRSA is developing a program with the prison system in California that would educate prison laundry employees to qualify for the Certified Professional Laundry Manager (CPLM) status. Gaining this credential would, in turn, make it easier for them to find a full-time job in the linen, uniform and facility services industry upon release. A similar program is in the works to train prison laundry managers in order to hone their skills and enhance their knowledge of laundry best practices.

The notion of laundry outsourcing is making headway in the U.S. but it lags behind progress in this area made in Europe. Hotels there have largely phased out in-house, on-premise laundries (OPLs) in favor of outsourcing. Part of the challenge of educating hotel managers is a rapid turnover of hotel management staff, which complicates efforts to build effective partnerships with hotel counterparts who are in charge of managing linens for their facilities. Other concerns discussed included the reluctance of hotels that own their own linens to maintain sufficient PAR levels (number of days’ worth of linens available when the hotel is at full capacity) in order to avoid shortages and premature wear due to overuse of linens.

Roundtable attendees included:

Cory Acton, Vice President of Operations, Magic Laundry Service Inc., Montebello, CA
Brian Beere, Owner, President and CEO, Single Source Plus, Bellmawr, NJ
Michael Benik, President, People’s Laundry, Keene, NH
Ann Berry, Chairman, PureStar Group, New York
Eric Brady, Chief Strategy Officer, PureStar Group, Las Vegas
Bob Brill, Vice President of Operations, American Textile Maintenance, Los Angeles
Vicky Cayetano, President, United Laundry Services Inc., Honolulu
Ray Hayes, CEO, South Pacific Laundry, Bundoora, Australia,
Harry Kertenian, Owner and CFO, Magic Laundry Service Inc., Montebello, CA
Richard Marzo, Vice President, Lace House Linen Supply Inc., Petaluma, CA
Steve Miller, Vice President and General Manager, Victor Kramer Co., Seaside Heights, NJ
Julia Pooler, President, Sacramento Laundry Co., Sacramento, CA
Keith Pooler, Vice President, Sacramento Laundry Co., Sacramento, CA
Lee Stotts, Edina Laundry Co., Owner, Minneapolis, MN
Tim Williams, President and CEO, Crown Linen Services, Mexico, MO
Les Williams, CEO, Starr Textile Services, Foley, AL

Posted February 14, 2020

Source: TRSA

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — February 11, 2020 — Draganfly Inc. — an award-winning manufacturer within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), and unmanned vehicle sectors — today announced it has opened a new U.S. office on North Carolina State University’s (NC State) Centennial Campus.

Centennial Campus, in the heart of North Carolina’s research capital, is a unique part of NC State dedicated to the convergence of industry, research and academia. The campus works with more than 70 corporate, government and non-profit partners, in addition to housing more than 75 NC State research centers, institutes, laboratories and department units.

Draganfly, through its opening of its U.S. office on Centennial Campus, joins other prestigious industry and government collaborators who see the value in housing operations at NC State including Eastman, Merck, LexisNexis, IBM, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

From “bookBot”, a giant robotic book delivery system at the futuristic Hunt Library that can store up to 2 million items and deliver any of them within minutes of an online catalog request, to CASSI (Connected Autonomous Shuttle Supporting Innovation), a Level-4 autonomous driverless vehicle that uses cameras, radar, global positioning systems and electronic sensors to transport up to 12 people along its one-mile loop, the pioneering spirit at Centennial Campus can be seen everywhere.

Draganfly, the longest running manufacturer of multi-rotor helicopters in the world, is itself a pioneer and respected leader in the unmanned aerial systems industry. Draganfly has created an impressive portfolio of intellectual property and know-how over 21 years, enabling it to continually solve difficult problems for enterprise, government, and consumer clients around the world.

Draganfly’s innovative technological firsts include being the first company to commercialize a quadcopter, the first to create six and eight bladed drones, and the first to add commercial sensors to drones. In addition to its multi-rotor solutions the company offers ground robots, secure controllers, fixed wing aerial vehicles capable of beyond visual line of sight operations and delivery, and hybrid vertical take off and landing systems well suited for large area data collection and austere environments.

Draganfly’s pioneering achievements are not only commercial. A Draganflyer X-4 ES, the first unmanned aerial helicopter responsible for saving a human life, is on display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. This special honor reflects the deep commitment the company has to supporting public safety and emergency response worldwide.

“Expanding our operations to NC State’s Centennial Campus gives us an incredible strategic advantage over our competitors,” said Patrick Imbasciani, Draganfly COO. “As we scale our secure government and public safety offerings alongside our commercial solutions for agriculture, environment, energy, telecommunications, insurance and other sectors, access to the latest research and development in the application of emerging technologies such as 5G, edge computing, and new composites, shortens our learning curve and accelerates our delivery cycles to market. Incorporating talented student innovators into our operations through internships and co-op, as we programmatically engage leading faculty through research agreements and technology transfer, should be a win-win for Draganfly and NC State University.”

“NC State is excited to welcome Draganfly, Inc. to the campus community. Draganfly’s commitment to innovation is well-aligned with the university’s mission to “think and do”. We look forward to the opportunities that this engagement will bring,” said Dennis Kekas, associate vice chancellor – Office of Partnerships and Economic Development.

Draganfly officially opened its U.S. office at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina on February 1, 2020. Situated on NC STATE’s Wolfline bus line yet hidden in plain sight among the collaborative professional community of HQ Raleigh, the location in the Partners I building on Centennial Campus affords equal proximity to the United States Federal Aviation Administration approved test fields and NC STATE’s historic main campus. Draganfly anticipates the space will meet its commercial and operational needs as it grows and scales its business and operations.

Posted February 13, 2020

Source: Draganfly Inc.