Demand for high-care washing is growing

The laundry industry is a circular process 'avant la lettre', says Michel Heerkens, director of Lavans in Helmond, which has existed since 1928. "Ancient and ultramodern. I foresee that our high-care food department will grow considerably".

Last year Lavans took a renovated laundry of 10,000 m2 into use. The high-care area inside with 2,000 m2 is three times larger than before and equipped with the most modern techniques. This allows Lavans to respond optimally to the needs of the food industry. Director Michel Heerkens: "We were already distinctive, partly because of the separate processing of dirty and clean food clothing. With our high-care laundry we have raised the bar even higher. It is a new standard for workwear in the food industry". 

Specialized

Lavans specialises in the management of workwear for the food industry. Like food manufacturers, Lavans complies with the highest standards, including ISO 22000. Heerkens: "Food safety has our full attention. In just a few years we have grown from 800,000 to 1.5 million food items per year. We have three production flows: regular protective clothing, the food line and the hygiene department".

Water reuse

On the input side of the production process the dirty goods enter; clothing of many types and sizes of food companies. This is followed by the unpacking station, sorting and X-ray scanner to sort out any remaining metal tools and pens from hard objects. The screened laundry is then transported to the buffer system at the gigantic washing machine. Dosed, the laundry is transported to the tumble dryers many meters further, completely clean. All this is done fully automatically. Water is reused several times in different production processes of the company. This results in a 70 percent reduction in water consumption.

Detergents 

The detergents meet very high standards, says Michel Heerkens. "Lavans has a special chemistry room from which detergents are dosed. The dosing installation and the detergents come from Christeyns. The entire washing process is automatic and this is an extremely important part of it. We've been working intensively with Christeyns for 25 years, introducing, among other things, a revolutionary washing process for more heavily soiled food industry textiles at lower temperatures. With our hygiene control system we check the microbiological condition of the end products. That always has to be right". 

Discipline

After drying, the garments go to the area where each garment is manually checked, repaired and sealed if necessary. In the high-care laundry this complete process is carried out under special conditions. Heerkens: "Just like the pharmacy, we have a changing room, a lock with filtered air and a separate work area with special air filters. Make-up or jewellery is prohibited and hands are always disinfected upon entry. The washing machines are built into a special separation wall with on one side the entrance for dirty laundry and in the other the exit for clean clothes. The same principle applies to the drying process. We expect the demand for high-care washing to grow rapidly, especially for food safety systems in High-Risk and GMP conditions. For example in the future production of cultured food, but of course also for baby and medical food. We have a clean room for this purpose. In terms of dust particles, this room meets the highest standards, intended to keep out as many microbes and bacteria as possible".

Trust

The uniqueness of Lavans lies in its involvement with both customers and the food industry. Those are two different things, says Heerkens: "Food safety is a discipline, involvement is much more. The most important thing is that you can rely on each other. To do that, you have to be reliable yourself. That's the way it is in our corporate culture. According to Annemarie van Loon, who is responsible for HR and organisational development within Lavans, that trust rests on personal attention for customers, employees and everyone with whom Lavans has to deal, including the many visitors. "We give employees a lot of responsibility and challenge them to be enterprising and social. There is a team of people working around each customer group who work together smoothly, supporting and complementing each other. Within the set control space, they easily and quickly fulfil the customer's wishes as they see fit. Working together like this makes you cheerful. In the end, only enthusiastic employees can provide enthusiastic customers". 

Learning is fun

Building and developing good staff is one of the key objectives of Lavans, which offers an extensive training programme under the heading 'learning is fun'. The programme consists of on- and offline training courses, courses and workshops to support people as much as possible in their personal and team development. Van Loon: "It's not just about what you learn, but above all about the fact that you learn. Learning creates more awareness, mobility and energy. Knowledge makes people valuable. If you take good care of your people, they feel involved and remain eager to learn. By definition, this has an impact on the quality of work. Our people are careful and creative. They often come up with fun new ideas that lead to improvements".

www.lavans.nl
www.christeyns.com/nl

Photos: © Lavans