Bates Troy Enjoys Years of Success with Tunnel Washer

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — As a family-owned company in business for more than 80 years, Bates Troy Healthcare Linen has experienced its share of highs and lows.

Leadership has answered challenging economies and changing environments by being innovative, resilient and resourceful. Today, it is a trusted name and a well-respected business in the community.

Brian Kradjian represents the third generation of ownership of the laundry operation based here in Binghamton. Many years ago, Bates Troy was a hybrid drycleaning and laundry facility, when they had more than 15 retail drycleaning stores.

Times changed but solid adjustments and the right decisions put it on course for a brighter future. One of those decisions, according to the company, was investing in LAVATEC laundry equipment, which is still delivering high-performance results 30 years later.

“Our LAVATEC continuous batch tunnel washing system has done everything a laundry operator can ever ask of a machine to do,” says Kradjian, Bates Troy’s president. “That is, to simply run and run and run while putting out clean linen.”

After processing 20 million pounds of soiled linen and delivering nearly 18 million pounds of clean linen in 2024, Kradjian says the company is poised for growth this year.

“We try to be conservative in our forecasting and have a measured approach to growth,” he shares. “We look for potential customers that will be a good fit, and who want to cultivate true partnerships and value great quality and service, as opposed to just treating linen as a mere commodity.

“As a company, we are small, nimble and responsive in nature. We are looking at the potential of 1 million pounds of new business, which we are hopeful to capture a majority of.”

PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY

Being hopeful helped Bates Troy rebrand itself to the point where it is flourishing today. The company dates back to the 1800s, and the Kradjian family became involved in the drycleaning business in the late 1920s.

Binghamton’s heyday took place later when the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company, IBM and other manufacturers were major drivers for the local economy.

Brian Kradjian became involved in the operation in 1993, not long after the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The local economy soon declined and experienced a corporate downsizing when IBM and other defense and manufacturing companies reduced their sizes. Despite some devastating historic floods in 2007 and 2011, Binghamton is recovering with help from the high technology, education and healthcare sectors.

“I had just graduated from Boston University with a concentration in economics and philosophy. I split my time between our family’s commercial real estate business and our laundry,” he says.

Kradjian has led the pivot of providing services to a growing healthcare industry within a 120-mile radius of Binghamton. Bates Troy currently employs 165 full- and part-time employees at its 50,000-square-foot facility on the city’s west side. It is also a member of the New York Industries for the Disabled, providing work for individuals with disabilities both on-premises and off-site.

“We service over 40 customers that consist of hospitals, nursing homes and more than 100 off-site clinics. Most of the clinics and ambulatory centers are associated with the health systems we serve. We also have customers in northeastern Pennsylvania,” says Kradjian.

Bates Troy also has a long history of charitable involvement in their community. In December, the company was honored for its Community Service Excellence at the 10th annual Family Business Awards of CNY, sponsored by the Central New York Business Journal. It was recognized for supporting a wide variety of community-oriented projects, ranging from clothing drives and fundraising events to supplying towels and linens for emergency shelters and the homeless.

SYSTEM LEADS TO GOOD RESULTS

Kradjian recalls what led to his company’s long-term relationship with LAVATEC, which began in the mid-1990s.

“At the time, we were a mixed plant doing work for hospitality, food and beverage, uniforms, some healthcare, and drycleaning clients,” he says. “Our utility costs were high, along with labor and overtime. We visited the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida after they had just installed three LAVATEC tunnel systems for its OPL (on-premises laundry) that served all their hotels.

“We decided then to specialize in healthcare and invested in the LAVATEC continuous batch tunnel washing system. When we installed it in 1995, it was a major leap forward from our old, inefficient and tired conventional washers. It is a productive machine for its size and enabled us to be a low-cost producer at the time.

“It also lowered our utility and water usage, labor, and overtime costs, which made a big difference given the healthcare model is a high-volume, low margin business.”

The 100-pound-capacity tunnel washer is comprised of 12 compartments and is the backbone feeding other LAVATEC equipment. The group includes an open-pocket, LX-425 washer-extractor for rewash, and five gas dryers that were installed in 1997, 1999, and 2005. All are connected by a shuttle system.

Kradjian says besides installing new controls in 2018, the only modification made to the tunnel washer was reusing some of the press water in the rinse zone to lower water consumption. Doing the math, the machine has operated for more than 130,000 hours in the last 30 years. It also has saved Bates Troy from using millions of gallons of water.

“From the 1970s to when we installed it in 1995, our conventional washers had used a lot of water in the range of 2.5 to 3 gallons per pound of laundry,” explains Kradjian.

“The LAVATEC tunnel washer reduced water consumption by half to 1.2 gallons per pound. We later had Gurtler, our chemical supplier, install a water reuse system, which further reduced consumption. It went from 1 gallon per pound to 0.72, and now we run at 0.66 gallons per pound, which is very good considering the age of the machine. We also experienced a similar reduction in natural gas consumption with LAVATEC’s more efficient dryers.”

Bates Troy earned its TRSA Hygienically Clean certification in 2022. Kradjian says the key to the company’s success in having its tunnel washer perform at such a high level for so many years is simple.

“Aside from reactive situations, we always performed weekly preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance where, every few years, we go through the entire system and have a factory-trained technician rebuild parts of it,” he points out.

And there are times when it pays to be creative. Kradjian’s ingenuity was tested in late 2024 when the unexpected happened. After years of water infiltration, some wood beams rotted and caused the washroom floor to drop into the soil room.

“We had to remain operational and run goods through the tunnel washer for two shifts during the week and a half day on Saturday,” he recalls. “We worked with a structural engineer and an excellent local contractor to support our water softening and chemical dispensing systems before demolition of the floor and repair began.

“One of the remarkable aspects of all this is the LAVATEC tunnel washer was only supported by the legs on each far end, and not by the middle legs. This made it appear to be floating on air. Due to the well-constructed boxed underframe, we were able to do this without risk of damaging the tunnel and it ran the whole time during the repair process. This speaks to its durability, engineering and dependability.”

When needed, Kradjian has learned that LAVATEC knows how to respond.

“Our chief engineer and maintenance technicians have historically worked closely with LAVATEC,” he shares. “Over the years, they always seem to maintain quality products, technologies and service. My late father, Ara Kradjian, and I had really good energy and chemistry with their team when we bought the tunnel washer. That has continued through the years with President Mark Thrasher and Eric Schori, our sales representative.”