CITY ensures companies have uniforms

Source: https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/oelwein-business-makes-sure-companies-have-clean-uniforms-during-covid-19-outbreak | by Lukas Voss

OELWEIN, Iowa — CITY Laundering Company in Oelwein is making sure their over 800 clients across the Midwest can rely on employees wearing clean cloths cleaned with state of the art technology.

“There is nothing more personal than the stuff that you have on your body,” CITY president Colin Wetlaufer said. “When you have employees coming to work they need to know it’s hygienically clean, what are we doing to clean stuff.”

CITY Laundering has been in business for over 100 years. Family owned and run, Wetlaufer says they have never encountered anything quite like the COVID-19 outbreak. It took several meetings with management staff and an elaborate strategy on how to best reach individual clients to make sure businesses can count on CITY’s service. While they serve other industries, their primary clients come from food processing. Several companies contacted CITY asking if they would stay open, simply because otherwise, food processors would run into problems.

“We are in Iowa, so anything in Iowa and Minnesota, for example, is somehow tied into the food chain,” Wetlaufer said. “Everybody is concerned about what’s going to happen. We ordered an additional month worth of chemicals [from vendor Norchem Corporation] last week for processing just in case we get interrupted because we cannot not process stuff clean.”

CITY adjusted strategies individually to fit the needs of their clients. They also optimized their own operation changing shifts to limit the amount of staff in the same place and putting an extra emphasis on how garments are handled. CITY is one of the few companies that’s Hygienically clean certified by a third party [TRSA]. Their customers have been asking more what they do and how they can protect themselves better. As an essential service, Wetlaufer and his team want to make sure food processors have everything they need to serve the public.

“We have to know we are hitting the right temps, getting the right chemicals in the machine. We have increased our precautions not just personal protective equipment and cleaning but our checks on the machines analysis on the chemistry,” Wetlaufer said. “It’s uncharted water for us.”