KENT, Wash. — Linen and uniform rental services company Alsco Inc. has moved its Tacoma operations to a brand-new, 70,000-square-foot laundry processing plant here, the company reports.
From the newly constructed plant, Alsco will provide linen and garment cleaning and processing for 1,400 customers in Seattle, Tacoma, Kent and surrounding areas. Alsco says the facility can accommodate an increase in production of more than 150%. The company, founded in 1889 in Lincoln, Neb., has been operating in western Washington since 1952.
Alsco’s Oct. 15 grand opening event was attended by company executives, local management and staff, and representatives from the Kent Chamber of Commerce and Kent City Council, as well as the mayor, Suzette Cooke.
“It’s not easy to move a production facility of over 80 employees from one city to another,” Steve Bivens, general manager of the Kent plant, said at the grand opening. “Trust me; I learned this the hard way.”
The company says local employees pitched in to make the transition in a single weekend.
“We needed more room, first and foremost,” Bivens tells American Laundry News about why the company made the move. “We had nowhere to grow in the property we were on.”
New equipment purchased for the facility includes a soiled-linen sorting and counting system by Automation Dynamics; two 450-pound washers and three 450-pound dryers by Jensen; and a steam tunnel by Colmac Industries. The plant is also using five refurbished ironers, all Super Sylons by American Laundry Machinery.
Alsco says the new plant will use 10% less water and 10% less chemicals than used in the Tacoma plant.
In terms of expanding the business and adding new employees, Bivens says that’s in the works.
“We absolutely built a facility that gives us room for growth,” he says.
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