Out of the Box Thinking

Recently I enjoyed attending New Service Concepts’ “Relocation Celebration” in Zanesville, Ohio. Owners, Bob Carpenter and Tim Andrews celebrated moving to a larger facility with an open house for customers and prospects. With the help of Universal Unilink suppliers, all services including distribution of facilities services, apparel, promotional products and more were showcased. Bob reported, “Quite a few people commented that they had no idea we provide all the various products that were displayed.” Congratulations to Bob and Tim on your growth.

Our cover story features Member Bill Darah of Superior Uniform Sales. Although Bill is a distributor, the family business has its roots in rental since 1938! Then in the 80s, Superior Uniform Sales was founded to expand into markets that the laundry was not reaching. Once again, out of the box thinking results in profitability. Read more about Superior Uniform Sales and their award-winning team.

The lessons learned from Members like Bob, Tim and Bill is this: the market changes and only those that change with it will remain profitable. In fact, “Differentiate or Go Home” was first in our Summer Webinar Series with marketing expert, Cliff Quicksell. Check out his topics and register for the upcoming sessions. If you missed the first one you can catch a replay—see details on the Member site. Watch for more titles specifically for rental and uniform Members

It’s a fast-changing world we live in and we make every effort to keep Members up-to-date with programs and information that will save time and dollars. This issue is filled with information on marketing in today’s competitive marketplace, employee turnover and new opportunities/new products. If you’re shipping products to California, don’t miss the article on new Prop 65 requirements. Processing healthcare linen? Check out Greg Gicewicz’s article on accreditation.

You’ll notice that many new Preferred Suppliers are introduced in this issue. Sources like Blue Generation and Tri-Mountain will interest laundry and distributor Members alike. Promotional Products Members should take special note of the insert including even more new suppliers from Backpackers’ upscale outdoor apparel to Suntex’s socks used by clinics and hospitals. These new suppliers offer an amazing selection of products, including high tech, elegant awards, popular labels and “budget” sensitive products with the latest branding techniques.

Members have been especially busy this Spring. You’ve called to share plans for expansion or to discuss succession and challenges. We’ve assisted with sourcing, bids, selling and more. Give us a call to let us know how we’re doing and how we can improve services