Abu Dhabi is not only a home to a myriad of interesting event, but also an ideal place to begin a business in a big way. Banking on the business potential of the UAE capital, Laundristic LLC, a part of Abu Dhabi-based Al Otaiba Enterprises, is placing new business strategies to make its mark on the industrial cleaning sector.

The company has set up a major washing unit comprising two tunnels with a capacity of 40,000 kilograms per day. The facility is located at Labotel Workers Residential City in Al Mafraq F2-C3/6, which is a facility that is capable of housing up to 18,000 workers, is scheduled for inauguration in February this year. In addition to this, the place is surrounded by a good population running over 130,000 in the entire F2 area of the Workers Residential City in Al Mafraq. The vision of MrOtaiba bin Saeed Al Otaiba, Chairman of Laundristic, is to make the company a major player in the country and the largest in Abu Dhabi.

The company provides laundry services to construction workers, security persons, the hospitality sector, etc. “We have opted for the washing tunnel of the Spanish Carbonell brand, firstly due to its low consumption of water (2-3 litres per kilogram of clothes) and second its system of full drum rotation (360 degrees), because with this system the mechanical action is very effective to wash very dirty clothes of the industrial workers “said Mr Al Otaiba.

Conscientious approach

Despite having all the advantages, Jose Maria Bagan Cruz, Plant Manager at Laundristic, is still cautious in his approach as the company is analysing the impact of small and medium sized players on the pricing front.“Though the market around is big and full of potential, it is not easy to penetrate as there is competition emerging. Taking all the factors into consideration, we have developed a comprehensive system to face the competition in the market. Our system is different. We provide guaranteed services at competitive pricing to the customers. Ours is a different laundry all together. Laundristic LLC is an industrialised laundry with modern equipment and uses a scientific process in it,” Jose Maria said. Most importantly, the ongoing operational savings with this modern facility will add value to the bottom-line of the company. By using at least 50 per cent less water, energy to heat water and the chemicals used in the water, the new facility offers a true return on investment (ROI) for Laundristic LLC.

Considering the demand-supply gap as far as the skilled manpower is concerned, Laundristic is providing training to the newly-recruited staff. “Moreover, human beings are of essence. We provide professional training to those who are new to this segment. The skilled manpower coupled with latest technology applications enables the company to provide affordable and quality laundry services. We’ll go for ISO quality certification in the near future,” adds Mr Otaiba Al Otaiba. 

Spreading awareness

The UAE government is keen on enhancing the quality standards in the health and hygiene segment and are working with different organisations towards this. Laundristic LLC is keen on participating in such awareness campaigns with the government and other corporate bodies.

“Awareness campaign programmes are very important as these are targeted to educate people on hygiene and cleanliness factors. Workers need to be educated on cleanliness and how to maintain their uniforms and other dresses,” opines Mr Otaiba.

Laundristic LLC is not bothered about the market share and competition as its’ immediate task is to reach full capacity utilisation of the facility. If the plant works on two shifts, it will reach 40,000 kilograms of clothes per day. On the other hand, smaller and medium sized firms in particular are internalising certain cleaning requirements of their staff rather than outsourcing. This is going to have an impact on laundry companies. However, it doesn’t seem to be a bothering factor for major players like Laundristic LLC as they operate on huge volumes.

Upbeat on the domestic potential for the laundry business, Mr Otaiba said: “Our aim is to have work at full capacity. We are commencing our operations with 60 per cent capacity utilisation. Once we reach total capacity utilisation, then only we will think of and embark on expansion. We’re not serving even five per cent of the local habitation. So, there’s no need of going to other parts of the city at the present time. As of now, our concentration is totally on Al Mafraq zone only.”

Pricing pressure

The prevailing business dynamics in the market are fueling price competition in the sector where volume-based demand is now declining. Ruling out any threat of competition in this segment, Mr Otaiba said, “we are the largest facility in Abu Dhabi. Though there are small and mid-sized players in the market and many more are entering, we’re not bothered about the competition. We rely on our unmatched quality services and affordability. No player here can match our services. Moreover, we have a good number of customers from hospitality, construction and other sectors.”

For Mr Otaiba, it is innovation and customised services are what bring success to any organisation regardless of the nature of business. “The construction sector may require different clothes washing systems, because the clothes (coveralls) of the workers of this sector, for example, become more dirty due to the nature of their work, than that of personal clothing. So both the washing process, as delivery of clean clothes, varies. We tailor our services to the different needs of each client, depending on the type of activity in the industry. Thanks to our double washing line and a skilled workforce that enable us to deliver twice daily, if and when required,” he said. 

Market potential

Laundristic LLC sees prospective growth potential in Abu Dhabi as the capital is burgeoning with hectic economic activity and tourist destinations. “The laundry business has good growth prospects in the country as Dubai is a major tourist destination with strong presence of the hospitality sector, whereas, Abu Dhabi is booming with construction activity and many more new projects in progress. Mecca city has potential. Comparatively, Qatar is a major tourist destination,” feels Mr Otaiba. 

Both washing tunnels, cycling with a continuous rotation (360 degrees), this system ensures excellent mechanical action, totally different to the system used in the traditional washing tunnels, whose rotation is not complete, whereby they only use the full rotation to move the load of laundry to the next stage. In our system, the independent modules make it possible to shift the load to the next module. A studied water recovery system, tested in several laundry facilities, allows for the adjustment of water consumption to reach exceptionally low levels (2-3 litresper kilogram of clothes), therefore both energy consumption (for heating water), and quantities of detergents and other cleaning products, are reduced proportionally.

Spiralling raw material costs have started posing a major challenge to the cleaning sector. Manpower, chemicals and water account for a major chunk of total cost of operation.

Mr Jose Maria said: “We have two tunnel-washing equipment and this consumes just two-three litres per kilogram of clothes, as opposedto the normal industry average of five litres per kg and even more in some instances. In this system, less quantity of detergents and chemicals are used in the process. Energy for steam is also less by using the latest technology. All these advantages put together provide the company a reasonable cost of operations.”

Cost controlling

“One washing tunnel capacity is 1,400 kg per hour and another tunnel has a capacity is 960 kg giving us total washing capacity of roughly 2500 kg per hour. This huge capacity enables us to cater to the requirements of major customers in the city,” said Mr Jose Maria “Our main commitment is to support our environmental conservation acts, so that at points where the Laundry can have an environmental impact, such as water discharges and the use of solvents for dry cleaning, we plan to install a water recovery system and the use of products for dry cleaning without solvents”,said Mr Otaiba

Despite its expansion and the top priority being extended by the UAE government, the cleaning sector is far off from raising a common voice for the benefit of the industry. There were efforts made to bring all the companies involved in the cleaning and hygiene sectors, however little progress is made and still the industry doesn’t have a common body or forum to represent them.

“There’s some effort towards bringing all the industry players together. May be the reasons such as stiff competition and numerous small and mid-sized players are slowing down the effort. It’ll take some more time to evolve a full-fledged industry body for the cleaning segment,” opines Mr Otaiba.

Epilogue

Laundristic LLC began to develop in the mind of Mr Otaiba bin Saeed Al Otaiba Chairman Laundristic LLC, some years ago. To start this project he had the wisdom to personally tour Europe to visit the maximum possible number of laundries to capture ideas and to choose the best equipment for his laundry project. Upon completion of his tour and with very clear ideas, ended up in Barcelona (Spain), to once again visit the company Carbonell Cia Anma and made his selection. This decision was taken because he had visited laundries in Switzerland and France and realised the difference between the washing tunnel products where, as mentioned earlier the only one with a complete 360 degrees rotation was that of Carbonell which was different than other washing tunnels from other brands of which their rotation did not exceed 200 degrees, and which do not provide much mechanical action on clothing.

During that same visit, to Barcelona he met and hired José María Bagan (with over 30 years of experience in the laundry business) for the assembly, installation and management of the laundry operation at Laundristic.

 By Sreenivasa Dasari