CASE STUDY
WHITE LABEL CLEANERS
Client
White Label Cleaners – a dry cleaning shop and central processing unit in Banbridge, with other branches across Northern Ireland
Background
Married couple and joint owners of White Label Cleaners, Gareth and Susan Hodgen, were keen to implement a series of Metalprogetti systems across their branches in Banbridge and Lisburn, that would enable them to:
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organise the flow of garments more efficiently
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become an operation where customers would have the convenience and ability to drop off and collect their garments 24/7 in their new central processing unit
In addition, they wanted to reinvent what they saw as a ‘traditional’ dry cleaning business. Having witnessed shops in the US take a huge leap towards central processing units and unmanned 24/7 shops with Metalprogetti, White Label Cleaners were keen to follow suit.
Solution
Taking into consideration Gareth and Susan’s requirements for the systems, Jason Alexander, Managing Director at Renzacci UK, begun by firstly addressing the management of garments within the central processing unit.
When garments were returned to the central processing unit from their various receiving shops and agents, it was a manual process of loading, processing, sorting, piecing up and returning the garment to the customer, which as one could imagine, was labour-intensive and sometimes a mistake-prone task.
In light of this, Jason recommended the Metalprogetti Giulietta Automatic Order Assembly and Packing system.
On this particular system, using a barcode which is printed out from the SPOT EPoS system when the garment is booked in; the Metalprogetti Guilietta system allows the cleaned and finished garment to be hung anywhere on a storage conveyor. As the remaining garments from the order are added to the conveyor, the Metalprogetti logic automatically groups up the garments using pre-defined parameters, onto an order collation arm, and then automatically bags them, placing a printed label on the front of the bag to identify the customer and contents of the bag. For Gareth and Susan, they required the labels to show shop ID customer name, order number and contact number, along with the shop logo. The labels are fully customisable in what information is displayed.
The team at White Label Cleaners then dispatch the completed orders to their panel van, to be returned to their various branches. In addition, they provide B2B cleaning for three other dry cleaners in the areas, which this process caters perfectly for.
This system negates the need for a person to manually inspect, load, pick up and bag 800-900 pieces a day and the resultant payback is incredibly quick – both in terms of labour costs, but also the reduction in packing errors and subsequent claims.
Following a successful completion of priority one, plans were developed for the installation of an additional Metalprogetti Battista COMBI 24/7 system at the shopfront of the central processing unit in Banbridge, to complement the existing Metalprogetti 24/7 COMBI system in Gareth and Susan’s Lisburn shop.
In its simplest form, the system performs as a 24/7 self-service kiosk, whereby customers can drop off and collect their dry cleaning, by operating a simple-to-use and intuitive touch screen pad, without the assistance of attendants.
The kiosk requires a minimal amount of floor space and holds a large volume of garments, which was a key selling point for Gareth and Susan. It’s fully customisable in terms of design and interface, giving Gareth and Susan complete control.
Both the Metalprogetti Battista COMBI 24/7 and Metalprogetti Giulietta Automatic Order Assembly and Packing system are fully integrated, giving White Label Cleaners a very streamlined approach to production.
Outcome
"Would have no hesitation in recommending Metalprogetti UK. The quality of the machines they produce is first class and they allow us to use our best resource – our staff – to be as efficient as they can be.
Without the technology of Metalprogetti UK, we would require at least two additional members of staff to be able to assemble and prepare orders for dispatch. Saving this labour cost is essential to maintaining profitability, due to our central processing costs and transportation of customer orders back to the CPU.
Due to the pandemic and the need for many businesses to adapt and adapt quickly, our local government provided some grant assistance for capital expenditure projects, to provide Covid Secure methods in their business. Metalprogetti UK’s 24/7 kiosk system for us was a no brainier! We already had a system installed in our Lisburn store for a number of years with great success, as it’s a larger commuter city and the kiosk there allowed many of our customers to visit the store outside of peak times (parking a major issue at our Lisburn location) and also a time that ideally suited them. This system allows customers to drop off their garments and also pick up their completed work. We have added the same offering now at our main CPU store in Banbridge. This 24/7 kiosk automated our storage rail system and coupled with SPOT EPoS means operator error is hugely reduced, as the system takes control of where orders are placed onto the storage rail, which in turn updates SPOT and then automated SMS messages are sent to notify customers that their order is ready for collection.
Customer feedback has been extremely supportive and they’re very intrigued by it, as we have integrated the machine beautifully into the main shop, which allows customers to see the storage rail automatically move to offloading points, or alternatively out through the kiosk. Customers will now choose to visit the store at a time that is convenient to them, which will mean our counter staff become more productive within the production area.
As we have been adopters of Metalprogetti equipment for over 10 years now, adapting to the new system for us was seamless, as all the staff knew from having the same equipment in our Lisburn store."
Gareth Hodgen, Owner
