Outstanding Production Facility: CRDN of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev.
Located in an industrial park eight miles from Glitter Gulch, CRDN’s 8,300-square-foot plant is built to handle restoration work throughout the region quickly and efficiently. And the spotless new plant does just that, with room to grow.
Insurance adjusters see mostly the spacious new executive offices. But it’s the production layout — performed by operators Ryan and Stucky Szczotka, also of Michigan-based Eagle Star Equipment — that’s the key to handling massive restoration orders.
The plant features an ozone room to remove odors, 85 pounds of Continental Girbau wetcleaning capacity, a 50-pound Union perc unit, and a Colmac steam tunnel that helps prefinish garments en masse. Everything is positioned to keep employee movement to a minimum, while FluidAire swamp coolers help them keep cool in the blistering desert heat.Outstanding New Build: MW Cleaners, Kingwood, Texas
MW Cleaners’ latest outlet is outfitted to handle up to $2 million annually using GreenEarth’s silicon-based solvent. The chain — a division of Men’s Warehouse — prides itself on following environmentally friendly practices — recycling, using biodegradable poly, and more.
Designed by former Best Plant Design winner Michael Nesbit (Nesbit’s Cleaners, 2003), the Kingwood plant’s double drive-thru faces the street as customers’ main point of entry. The interior reiterates the plant’s black-and-white “tuxedo” brand with checkered tile, should customers choose walk-in service instead.
The production floor features a streamlined layout to speed production, including tensioning and traditional finishing equipment from Ajax, Unipress and Forenta, Union drycleaning machines, and White conveyors. The plant also features full alterations services.Outstanding Plant-on-Premises: Parkway Cleaners, Edmond, Okla.
Celebrating its 50th year in business, Parkway Cleaners moved into a new, 11,000-square-foot headquarters plant. The corner location anchors an upscale plaza and spares no expense on the latest drycleaning technology available.
Entering the call office, customers first notice its coffered ceilings and industrial-chic counters. But the real “elephant in the room,” operators Mark and Brian Neighbors say, is the 8,000-slot array of MetalProgetti storage conveyors that drop down from the mezzanine above.
The production floor features a MetalProgetti sorting conveyor and a Polypak bagger, while CompassMax interfaces to bring order-retrieval times down to less than 60 seconds and makes lost garments a thing of the past. In Edmond, “You have a better chance of being hit by a tornado than Parkway losing your clothes,” jokes marketing director Jason Gilliam.Outstanding Production Facility: Wedding Gown Preservation Co., Endicott, N.Y.
Operated by Sue and Michael Schapiro, Wedding Gown Preservation Co.’s (WGPC) single plant is an 18,890-square-foot behemoth that’s designed to do one thing — gown preservation — do it in bulk, and do it very well.
Designed by longtime drycleaning consultants John Barry & Associates and laid out by “Cowboy Cleaner” Kenney Slatten, the plant is a model of industrial production efficiency. It features a 90-pound unit from Union, 135 pounds of Washex wash capacity, and tons of Hoffman/New Yorker pressing equipment.
The plant offers lots of space for packaging, shrink-wrapping, storage and shipping of huge wholesale orders, with three loading docks equipped for semitrailers. The plant also features a bank of comfortable offices for customer-service personnel, and 20-foot ceilings to help draw heat away from the production floor.
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