Clients

Contracts to supply clients as prestigious as the Dorchester Hotel on London’s Park Lane don’t come along every day and when they do, you need to go the extra mile to ensure that things go smoothly.

So it was that the UK’s leading supplier of dry cleaning equipment, Renzacci UK, recently completed a satisfactory installation there of a new dry cleaning machine. Now 1.5 tonnes of metal couldn’t exactly pass through the main guest entrance to the hotel – particularly with the Dorchester’s on-premise laundry being situated on the second floor. Renzacci turned to its transport company, Finch’s of Bookham, who handle all the Company’s transport requirements. The solution was spectacular but not unusual, with the machine being lifted through the laundry window by a specialised high lift crane. 

The Dorchester Hotel

The Dorchester Hotel is one of London’s iconic landmarks, which opened its doors for the first time in 1931. It is a luxury hotel of the first order, ranking amongst the finest hotels in the world. With three members of staff for every guest bedroom, it is easy to see just how important service is to hotel management. That philosophy extends to the laundry room, which takes care of all the guest laundry and staff uniforms and where a quality presentation is paramount.

Recently, it became clear that their existing dry cleaning machine was approaching the end of its useful life and needed replacing. Laundry Manager, Paul Walid takes up the story: “I’d seen Renzacci mentioned in Laundry and Cleaning Today and had heard of their reputation for efficiency and reliability, so I checked them out amongst acquaintances in the trade”. But the contract was not handed to Renzacci on a plate, they were amongst several companies invited to tender for the business. Paul selected the Renzacci proposals because they best suited his requirements and represented good value for money. So it came about that a Renzacci Progress 30 Club machine was specified in May 2007 and installed just six weeks later.

The Renzacci Way

Being a customer of Renzacci, however, is not simply about delivering and installing machinery. “Excellent though the Renzacci dry cleaning machines are, the key to a successful installation is as much about analysing our customer’s business preparatory to the installation, followed by staff training and good customer service following the sale” says Renzacci UK’s Managing Director, Jason Alexander. “In the case of the Dorchester, we conducted a site visit and met with Paul. We were able to glean from him the type and volume of dry cleaning the Dorchester regularly deals with. We were also able to see first hand what services were available and their location. From that information, we were able to table proposals which we knew would work and provide Paul with the quality of dry cleaning services The Dorchester and its guests expect.”

Despite the logistics of getting the machine into the laundry through a window by crane, the installation was completed by 3pm the same day. Renzacci engineers then commissioned the equipment and the Company gave laundry room staff comprehensive training on the machine and showed them how simple it was to work using the unique Videotron management and programmer controller.

The model chosen by the Dorchester was Renzacci’s Progress 30 Club. “This is the Rolls Royce of the Dry cleaning world” explains Jason. “When it comes to this sort of equipment, particularly for a service-oriented customer such as The Dorchester, it needs to be fully specified and the Progress range has it all.” Features include a second water separator with active carbon; an inverter controller for the drum, which allows all kinds of processing to be carried out (gentle or aggressive) and also increases bearing and belt life; Ice Care^® refrigerated solvent cooling which is automatically adjusted by the Digiplus^® computer; Air Jet^® automatic air filter cleaning; Global Wash^® back plate washing and Ecowaste^® distillation waste pump. A built-in air compressor is also included as standard.