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// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

Over the course of thirty five years the public face of Apparelmaster has changed many times. However, its core values have always remained unchanged, and these have undoubtedly been the foundation of its success. For generations the business has adopted a policy of caring for customers, caring for its people, and caring for its buildings and assets. All of these values are easy to say, but more difficult to embed into the culture of a business and hence they are very rare to find. Clearly we have been a progressive business that has moved with the times, and this little book endeavours to document our journey. From the bygone days of goods being transported by steam trains to centralised processing plants, to the introduction of workwear rental services in the UK via the Apparelmaster licence and onwards, through vast expansion, to becomingunquestionably today the UK market leader.

This transformation and progression of our business, owes much to the inspired leadership and support of our staff, without whom this story of success would not have been possible. Given the deep rooted values we all genuinely embrace, I am confident the Company will continue to grow and prosper for many years to come. I trust you will enjoy reading “Johnsons Apparelmaster - the first 35 years.” Kind Regards

Chris SanderManaging Director

Foreword

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At that time in Great Britain, a quarter of a Century after the Second World War, drycleaning was a large, plant-based, bulk cleaning business, processing large volumes of work at regionally based factories, servicing remote branch needs. Unit shop cleaning was only just becoming a dangerous competitor through the 1960’s to these traditional factory processing plants operated by Johnsons.

Thus dry cleaning as a business was, in the Johnson Cleaners’ case, operated by several family businesses which had became part of the Johnson Cleaners Group. In the main these businesses still traded under their original family names, for example – Crockatts in Yorkshire, Harris Clean in the West Midlands, Bolloms in Bristol, Pullars in Scotland and several others around the country.

Competition to the central plant business model created by the proliferation of the new unit shop drycleaners mattered enormously to plants which in the main relied on rail transport to move the major part of the dry cleaning work up until the mid 1960’s.

The Johnson Group acquired the exclusive licence to use the Apparelmaster garment rental system in 1973. This apparently straightforward commercial decision changed the history as well as the style and character of uniform and corporate-wear processing and rental service delivery in the United Kingdom. Before we turn to look at Apparelmaster operations in more detail it is necessary to first outline the nature of the garment care industry back in the early years after the war.

Cleaning plants operated around a number of very large, open circuit, ‘baths’, filled with a Benzene-based hydrocarbon fluid which ‘cleaned’ the garments by immersion, coupled with some mechanical agitation. After immersion the suspended rails of dripping garments were transferred, overhead, to the drying area and then to the pressing, finishing and packing departments for inspection and despatch.

In business operational terms the disadvantages and dangers of such a system are obvious and they would not be countenanced by any management or even permitted under Health and Safety laws as they exist today. Then and for the best part of more than eighty or ninety years, that was how the job was done. In 1932, the first inkling that improved technology would make massive changes to the established model arrived on the scene, in the shape of a closed circuit drycleaning machine manufactured by Burtol and capable of cleaning up to 35 pound (15Kg) loads in a hydrocarbon based solvent during each operating cycle.

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The Johnson Companies operated a well-established business model which allowed the managements of the former independent family businesses to operate largely autonomously under what was a ‘light touch’ style of control exercised from the Bootle Head Office. By the end of the 1940’s the family businesses mentioned previously, now including Flinn’s and Harton Clean, continued to develop under their own identity, until and unless, they ran into serious difficulties of one sort or another.

Sales and marketing strategies were largely left to the local managements to implement from broad instructions shaped in Head Office. Until the late 1960’s Johnsons and the various regional family ‘names’ operated a nationwide chain of over 900 High Street unit receiving shops. These retail outlets delivered more than a quarter of the drycleaning processed in the whole country and established a very profitable financial record working under their long established business model.

The arrival of the newly developed solvents Perchloroethylene and Trichloroethylene after the war meant that the concept of a much more compact, totally enclosed, cleaning machine could be placed in a High Street retail unit. This meant that the previous business model which required the transhipment of thousands of garments around the country by rail disappeared almost at a stroke. Machines designed and built to process garments in these new solvents and, with a dry-to-dry operating cycle of less than 90 minutes, also contributed strongly to rendering the open circuit system obsolete.

The first recognisably ‘modern’ self-contained and programmable, drycleaning machine was developed by the German firm Böwe and this had been first demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition in 1952. The future retail model for drycleaning was thus given a direct economic impetus and during the next dozen or so years many hundreds of independent retail dry cleaning units appeared on the streets of Britain.

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

// Drycleaning changed forever in 1952 with the introduction

of the first self-contained programmable machine

Johnson Brothers transport before the First World War and opposite, the more familiar Johnsons Brothers vans of 1967

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The Johnson Brothers Head Office and Laundry at Bootle, Liverpool.

(Bottom Left) Shop front of Johnson Brothers Queen Street branch in 1907 Cardiff.

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Capital costs to set up a unit shop were comparatively low and competitive rates of extended credit finance were also low. These conditions, coupled with the new, compact, closed-circuit machines accelerated the development of unit shops and, taken together, were important factors in the demise of the central processing concept. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the scene was set for the complete cultural change in drycleaning in Britain as well as in the rest of the textile after-care world.

The long drawn-out downturn in the economy in the 1960’s and early 1970’s had a serious effect on the Johnson Group financial performance and, as costs of transport and staff grew, simultaneously the volume of work declined. These economic difficulties were a national problem, and affected the Johnson group operations even more savagely than most other businesses.

Additionally, the railway system of Great Britain was completely devastated after 1966 by the effects of Dr Richard Beeching’s plans to reduce the system in size by eliminating

a majority of branch lines - as well as many other services. The Johnsons’ business model depended on rail transport at low carriage rates for the work to be shipped from receiving branches around the country to the processing plants of the various Johnson companies at their regional plants. As a result the volume of work rapidly declined as the costs of transport rapidly increased. It was in order to relieve these pressures that the masterstroke of the acquisition of the Apparelmaster Licence for the UK was

approved by the Johnson Board in 1973 and this came into effect on January 1st 1974.

Apparelmaster as a business model did not arrive by accident or without careful research. For many years Directors and Senior Managers from Johnson Group had made detailed study tours to the United States and it was from these visits that the connection was made with the Varsity International Conference of Cleaners, which the Johnson Group was invited to join in 1967. This group, which was limited to twenty, independent, non-competing

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

1967, Johnsons Warrington Bridge Street branch

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and regionally strong drycleaners, were dispersed across the USA. Membership of the Varsity Conference gave the Johnson Group Board an immensely valuable insight into the business stratagems of the most successful cleaners in America.

Johnsons remained members of the Varsity Conference until 1984 when the company’s own growth

in the United States made it impossible for them not to come into direct competition with fellow Varsity Conference members. The group’s years of membership of Varsity proved invaluable and John Crockatt was the Johnson’s Director who forged the alliance with the Varsity organisation. It was through his friendship with Bill Pulley, a key member of Varsity and the owner of

Apparelmaster in Cincinnati, Ohio, that the idea of bringing the Apparelmaster system to the Johnson Group first occurred.

In the UK the Apparelmaster business was developed to its successful conclusion following Bill Pulley’s original business model. The participating drycleaning plants were given a professional plan by which to

1973

UK Licence granted from Apparelmaster Inc, USA

1974

Apparelmaster Ltd launched operations in Bootle & Birmingham

1978

Zerny’s of Hull and Kneels of Exeter was acquired

(Top Left) Chin Apparelmaster,

Alabama, USA

(Top Right) Al Philips Apparelmaster,

Las Vegas, Nevada

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develop textile rental on a wholesale basis, operating alongside their drycleaning business. Apparelmaster systems were designed to smooth out the uneven nature of the flows of work from their dispersed retail shops which relied on the whims of the passing trade - as is the norm experienced in drycleaning in High Street retailing even today.

Thus the fundamental Apparelmaster principle was established: by giving a high level of service and presenting the processed work in a professional manner, the peaks and troughs of retail business would be ‘ironed out’ and substantially increased turnover and enhanced profits would be achieved.

The contract to adopt the Apparelmaster system was signed in 1973 and the implementation of the system by the

James Hayes & Sons (London) acquired

Launch of “All Systems Go” initiative

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

1979 1984

Introduced AS400 Textile Rental computer system

Clifton Cleaning, Bristol was acquired

1986 1988

// The introduction of the Apparelmaster licence

reversed the pre-existing financial results of the GroupThe first Apparelmaster delivery out of Bootle, Liverpool

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Imperial & Queen (Uttoxeter) was acquired

1989(Left to Right)

Alan Crockatt, Tom Johnson, Bill Pulley and John Crockatt, signing the Apparelmaster licence in 1973

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Johnson Group companies began in earnest in 1974 when Johnson Cleaners, in Bootle, and Birmingham based, Harris Clean, commenced operations under the leadership of the first Apparelmaster Sales Director, Dennis Hargreaves.

From that moment the textile rental operations of Johnson Group members delivered improved performance and profitability and completely reversed the pre-existing financial results of the Group. The Apparelmaster System also gave new life to the large processing sites of the plants within the Group as they converted from the open-top systems to processing with

First “Gold” standard food garment processing facility opened at Uttoxeter

Accredited with the BSI quality standard BS 5750 (now ISO 9001)

First computer telemarketing system “Uncle SAM” launched

1989 1990 1990

Imperial was acquired in 1989

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

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washer-extraction industrial laundry machines, as well as with more powerful dryers and high productivity calendar ironing machines.

Hitherto, textile rental of towels and heavy industrial workwear had not been a sparkling success at Johnsons and the objective of creating bulk business for the factories in the Group had not been achieved. The implementation of the Apparelmaster system through all 10 of the Group operating companies was achieved in less than five years, culminating in a swarm of brightly liveried trucks and vans delivering the textile rental service needs of the nation - as well as a much needed reversal of financial fortune for the Group as a whole.

Having come late to the garment rental business, Johnsons new ‘Total Care’ approach, as delivered by the Apparelmaster system,

raised the public profile of textile rental as a whole. The personalised Apparelmaster offering differed significantly from ‘standard’ laundry rental operations by imposing strict quality control on the processed work and by the introduction of such novelties as delivery either on hanger, or folded - to locker, on time and to contract.

The other key item which differentiated the Apparelmaster service from that of its competitors was the fact that the Apparelmaster sales and marketing programmes were focused on a large number of quite small customers – in direct and opposing contrast to the sales pattern of Johnsons’ major competitors. Indeed it was the general policy of those others who were serving the rental market of the time who tended to concentrate on high volume account customers with large staff numbers available for a garment or workwear rental service.

Customers such as Banks, Insurance Companies, Retail Chain Stores and of course the then nationalised heavy industries employing many thousands of uniform wearers.

The specialised service offered by Apparelmaster to a large number of smaller customers, delivered very acceptable financial results to the Group. The years of John Crockatt’s chairmanship created a strong platform for the growth in the Group profit performance through the 1980’s and the early 1990’s. So successful was the Apparelmaster business under Johnson’s management that in 1981, the Group Board approved the purchase of the equity in Apparelmaster Inc. and the brand became a wholly-owned Johnson Group company.

Changes name to Apparelmaster UK Ltd and creates the first national branding for Apparelmaster

Cheshire Workwear Rentals, Crewe was acquired

Introduced unique Customer Commitment with guaranteed service levels

1993 1994 1995

// The ‘Total Care’ approach raised the public profile of the textile rental

as a whole and differentiated the Apparelmaster offering

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During the 1980’s and 1990’s under successive Group chairmen, profits grew, market share grew and the incursion into America by several purchases of regional drycleaners soon created a company which could lay claim to the title of the ‘largest cleaner in the world’. This period also saw a continuous expansion of the Apparelmaster business in the UK. Textile rental grew in volume and in financial performance, rapidly overhauled drycleaning in profit terms. With a national market share in the UK of approximately 12% by the end of the nineties, Apparelmaster was a truly national brand but was still considerably outgunned in market share and volume processing terms by the competition, which at that time still held the majority of the ‘national’ accounts. Thus it was that the mid 1990’s saw Apparelmaster change its corporate operating structure and make a very significant break with the

systems of a business model which had served the Johnson Group well for over one hundred years of growth and success. In 1996 the operating structure of the Group was changed by the separation of drycleaning and textile rental into two divisions, operating in five regional groupings.

Drycleaning throughout the country was operated behind the same shop fascias as Johnsons Cleaners in all branches; Johnsons Apparelmaster, however, became available as a service from one or other of the ‘old’ founder members of the Johnson Group, in order to retain a semblance of continuity as well as giving a nationwide identity. Thus ‘Apparelmaster by Kneels’, ‘Apparelmaster by Crockatt’, and so on, became the trading style for the rental service operators in the group.

Stalbridge Linen Services was acquired

Johnsons Apparelmaster awarded Investors in People accreditation

“Gold” standard processing for food industry customers introduced.

1995 1996 1996

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

The official opening of a new era for Apparelmaster and Stalbridge Linen Services

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Meanwhile the steady onward progress of the sales growth was given a sharp upwards push by the acquisition of Stalbridge Linen in 1996, giving the Group a market-leading share of the quality chef’s wear business in contract catering, and an increasing presence in the upmarket hotel business in the south of England. This set the trend for the succeeding decades and further significant acquisitions soon followed.

In 2001 Sketchley was bought and this, at a stroke, transformed the Johnson Group textile rental performance overnight into a £100 million a year business with a very large presence servicing major companies on a national basis. However, the acquisition of Sketchley and Stalbridge also brought Apparelmaster ownership of a very different business model involving

hotel and hospitality ‘flatwork’ processing - a business model with distinct operational processing requirements.

Transforming the sales pattern and learning the required management skill sets to efficiently control the newly acquired flatwork plants was one thing, but the effect of injecting the revenues from nationally based accounts was equally dramatic on the profitability of Apparelmaster. A severe reduction in delivered profits was immediately experienced, brought about directly by the much narrower operating margins that the purchasing pressure from large ‘national’ accounts had inflicted on the Sketchley model and which were now thrust upon Apparelmaster after Sketchley was taken-over.

Textile Rental Services (TRS) Glasgow was acquired

Changes name to Johnsons Apparelmaster with new corporate identity

Accredited with ISO 14001 Environmental Management standard

1997 1998 2001

// The acquisition of Sketchley set a trend in the garment

rental industry that has continued throughout the 21st Century

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At the same time the UK economy was again suffering a major economic recession exacerbated by the effects of the dramatic shift of UK based businesses to offshore manufacturing. This offshore removal resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and, as a direct consequence, to a serious reduction in demand for garment rental. Pressures on the Johnson Group were acute just as they were for other competing companies and from the mid-1990’s an increasingly aggressive stance by large companies contracting for garment rental services resulted in ever-increasing downwards pressure on prices and margins.

The same period saw the arrival, in some strength, at the majority of the largest employers, of a new breed of trained, professional buyers. This was a new departure for some large customers and was a result of their reaction to the same pressures which were being felt in every sector of business in the developed world. These ‘new’ arrivals caused great confusion

in some parts of the textile rental market where the disciplines which were the normally accepted rigours of life at the production or processing end of industry, were a completely new experience to some providers of textile rental services, whether they were family owned and managed, or publicly owned companies.

In many ways the old methods and systems employed and enjoyed by the commercial laundry businesses were not robust enough to withstand the pressures of any newly enforced cost reductions. The period of consolidation which began with the Sketchley acquisition by Johnsons set a trend in the garment rental industry which continued with increasing ferocity through the final years of the 20th Century and which still prevailed through the early years of the 21st Century. The squalls and storms of those years both in terms of financial and operational performance at Stalbridge combined to create serious difficulties for the whole

Sketchley industrial laundering division was acquired, creating a £100 million business

Hirelin laundry was acquired in the North East

Introduction of Customer Online Reporting

2001 2002 2004

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS // Customers see complete

transparency of IT services

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of the Johnson Service Group. Stalbridge had built up an enduring reputation for customer service in its role as a dominant, quality linen and napery supplier to some of the most demanding banqueting and hospitality business customers. There is little doubt that in the pressured and complex world of servicing major sporting events like the Cheltenham Festival and the Wimbledon Championships, without any written contract for services delivered – the name of Stalbridge stood supreme.

However, propelled by a misguided effort to widen the Stalbridge service into ‘new’ markets in the early years of the 21st Century, serious difficulties

were encountered. The Stalbridge processing and management infrastructure proved less than capable of coping with these ‘new’ markets and the financial performance at Stalbridge saw a profit in excess of £2.5 million in 2004 become a loss in excess of £6 million in 2006.

These results combined with the savage costs of a failed attempt to install a new and complex software system across the Group companies, cost Johnson Service Group Plc dearly. The software contract cancellation cost was recorded in the Group accounts as being £16 million; the emotional shock waves were equally significant in their effects on corporate morale. From that low

point in the Johnson Group performance in the middle of the first decade of the century, Apparelmaster today has become a rejuvenated company under Managing Director, Chris Sander’s inspired leadership. Now returned to excellent profits and with expanding volumes of processing work each year, Apparelmaster has survived and prospered

through the turbulent years of change. It has also become recognised as one of the leading managed businesses in rental laundry processing and, perhaps equally importantly, one of the best in any service sector where customer support and delivery performance are critical requirements for profitable growth.

Acquired Albany Textile Rental Services, Wintex Laundry, Berkhamsted Laundry and Bentley’s laundry

New Contact Management System introduced for sales & telemarketing teams

First customer satisfaction survey completed

2004 2005 2005

Head office building and national distribution centre in Fulwood, Preston

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In every management area of the company today, the Apparelmaster method has produced exceptional competitive advantages which have given customers unequalled support systems, comprehensive service delivery information and enhanced satisfaction levels. The company excels in being excellent. Beginning with an exceptionally detailed Customer Contact Management system allied to marketing systems developed in-house and driven by software which actually does help the internal staff and – most importantly – the Apparelmaster customer. Internal departmental support staff, the Apparelmaster sales team and real customers at their desks, are all included in data distribution at every level, giving a

totally transparent service ability to satisfy every need. Customers of Apparelmaster - whether they be a low volume user of two or three textile rental items per week, or a major user with a requirement for garments numbering more than 15,000 items to be serviced every week, they are all able to ‘look’ into the

Apparelmaster computer system and ‘follow’ their order on its journey to and from the service delivery plant.

As late as 2001 there were no sophisticated systems available to staff in Head Office, or in the plants, whereby all relevant data was available to staff in customer

support roles in the sales department, or in response roles in the marketing section. This situation had to change and a root and branch reorganisation of the computer system was implemented. The results speak for themselves, at Apparelmaster the IT Department is key in the planning, for growth and for service delivery.

Having interviewed all participants who had a definite requirement for information from the new system, the IT Department delivered a comprehensive Customer Contact Management system. To enable total participation and maximum effect, the entire sales force country-wide was issued with laptop computers. Even more radical in effect, two-way communication was enabled

Texicare Laundry in Lancaster, Lancashire was acquired

Won a National Training Award for customer service training

Apparelmaster Head Office re locates from Bootle to new purpose built offices at Fulwood, Preston

2006 2007 2007

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS Garment barcode tracking system

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High Care Production Area at Logix Park, Hinckley

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which allowed customers to interrogate their own data relevant to their own orders or deliveries in real time. All this without any personal contact with the in-house customer service team at plant or Head Office level and all available from the computer or laptop on the customer’s desk.

The Apparelmaster system allows the complete exposure of the customer to the internal details of textile rental management the Apparelmaster way. Nothing is concealed and once a customer has made use of this information system, even better understanding and trust is generated between customer and service provider.

For customers the real benefits delivered by the Apparelmaster IT Department are seen in the complete transparency which is offered to them on demand. Every detail of their contract and of work-in-progress through the system is open to all customers on entering their own unique ‘PIN code’ into their laptop or computer terminal on their desk.

In a computer driven corporate world the Apparelmaster IT performance gives the customer ever more options for direct involvement in the system. During recent major upgrades, Apparelmaster customers were invited to use the corporate ‘Extranet’ which has been developed in-house and which

enables ‘paperless’ transactions to take place between the customer and Apparelmaster and Apparelmaster and customer. Such levels of data sharing are a vivid example of the transparency which Apparelmaster offers its customers. A level of commercial ‘trust’ which few other companies can equal.

For extreme corporate security the entire IT system has comprehensive ‘disaster recovery’ plans which enables Johnsons Apparelmaster systems to be operational should some really major disaster strike at the Fulwood Head Office. The complete Apparelmaster hardware system is installed, in working, replica, mirror-image

form, at a site more than twenty miles away from Fulwood. Regular testing of this emergency back-up service has shown that the replicated ‘shadow’ systems can be operational within a few minutes of ‘the plug being pulled’.

The support systems outlined here are the outcome of an investment policy by the Board of Johnsons Apparelmaster which saw that, at some stage in the future, managing data and systems would become the lifeblood of any company which sought to lead the field in business success. In commercial laundry businesses and in garment rental laundries in particular, this approach has been more or less completely

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

Victory Workwear (Aldershot) was acquired

First laundry in the UK to be accredited with the EN 14065 RABC Laundry Processing Bio Contamination Control standard

First laundry in the UK to have employees achieve a Level 2 Laundry Operators NVQ

2008 2008 2009

// Customer satisfaction is key with a strong sales and services

team investing in customer care and support

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Introduced On-Line Billing for customers

Apparelmaster achieve their highest ever customer satisfaction score of 84.9%

2010 2010 £6m state-of-the-art laundry facility in Logix Park, Hinckley

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disregarded by the majority of the companies engaged in the business. Most competitors instead, seem to focus firmly on achieving high volume throughput from their sales efforts backed up by their acceptance of minimal prices for their service which give no room for reinvestment in new plant or any other capital equipment.

At Apparelmaster the entire business is organised around the quite remarkable sophistication of the IT Department. For several years now this pro-active group has taken customer information systems up to a different level from most others, not just in the rental laundry business, but

across the whole of service businesses in the UK.

The IT team have been involved with the evolution of online training methods for the entire staff, as well as field reporting systems, customer appointment creation and a host of additional systems. The IT Department makes database management an effective tool for sales development, rather than an expensive dump for costly, buried data. Without the Customer Contact and Customer Relationship Management systems which were developed in-house to fit the exact requirements of the company, the field sales force could not have delivered the increasing numbers

of contracts over the last decade. These were the essential sales contracts which enabled profoundly positive changes to the financial performance of Johnsons Apparelmaster, and of the Johnson Service Group.

The IT Department ‘uses technology to improve performance’ and the developments in the IT and Communications marketplace are always being researched for relevance to enhanced individual or departmental performance and improved economies of operations. The driving force in the Apparelmaster IT Department, is to be constantly ahead. For all new developments proposed, improvements are ‘scoped’ in

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

// Apparelmaster has given hundreds of employees access to vocational qualifications

thus recognising their invaluable contribution to the business

An example of continuous plant investment, Basingstoke High Care Production Area.

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detail with the appropriate departmental staff and the final implementation of the new system is always achieved in phased segments so that thorough operational knowledge is achieved as the system upgrades are implemented through the company. What the IT Department has achieved is a major change in the cultural mind set of the company, which has focused the attention of all involved on the customer’s needs and satisfaction. The implementation of the Apparelmaster IT policy demonstrated that customers appreciated this level of investment in systems and the benefits which were available to them as individual managers of an

Apparelmaster client customer. Business reality everywhere dictates that overheads and excessive, or non-productive expenditure costs, drag down business performance. Customer servicing and sales force face-to-face meetings are extremely costly and time consuming. Therefore all inefficiencies coming between the Apparelmaster Sales Executive and a pre-qualified potential customer must, as far as possible, be eliminated. That is why the IT Department in Apparelmaster Head Office, designs customer contact and marketing systems to deliver this efficiency, by eliminating as far as possible all unnecessary wasted steps between identifying

// THE FIRST 35 YEARS

// Customer surveys are a critical part of Apparelmaster

continuous improvement measures and benchmarking

The successful Bristol team receiving their Level 2 Laundry Operators NVQ certificates, the first candidates in the UK to do so

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potential customers and making the appointment to secure the contract for services to be delivered.

Working from upwards of 120,000 identified potential ‘prospects’ on the several inter-related databases, is the prime target of the customer management and contact management systems. From this mountain of data, appointments are made and the field sales force notified of the relevant time and date. Over 60% of all Apparelmasters new business comes from appointments generated by the call centre, much of the remainder comes from more traditional sources such as direct mail campaigns and sales calls made during the regular activity in the field.

The call centre in Fulwood is normally staffed by eighteen

trained call centre operatives who are responsible for generating new appointments, pure market research and validating existing databases. Externally there are 36 Sales Executives covering four geographic regions. Behind the sales force are more than 80 service implementation staff charged with the responsibility of installing the garments required for each new contract and for delivering on-demand customer service. Apparelmaster undoubtedly invests heavily in customer care and support, as well as in the systems to make every task less stressful as well as more effective. Beyond the marketing and sales teams is another department which stands without comparison in the UK Textile Rental industry: this is the Apparelmaster Training Department which has

been established since the early 1990’s in Bootle in the days when hand-drawn acetate slides for overhead projectors were state of the art presentation aids. The Apparelmaster Training Manager joined the department from Harris-Clean in Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1990, after extensive on-the-road experience as a front line sales executive. Together with his Head Office team of a Generalist Trainer, an IT/Systems Trainer and an Administrator, this small but highly competent team has made a very significant impact on the performance of the company.

Over the past decade the in-house training team have delivered comprehensive training programmes covering all levels of employee from senior management through sales and service to production and transport. These training

programmes, ranging from Health & Safety, management and supervisory, products and services, have resulted - in one recent year - in the recording of over 4,000 new entries on the Company’s state-of-the-art training records system. This example is not an exception; it serves to illustrate the commitment of the Apparelmaster Directors and the Training Department Management to the challenging task of constant staff improvement.

Training is delivered through a wide range of methods all of which enable the training team to impact on as many people as possible whilst causing as little disruption to the daily operation of the business. Where access to individuals is difficult, an on-line interactive suite of training modules is available which can be accessed at any

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time and from any computer in the company. In order to comply with EU legislation for commercial drivers, Saturday mornings are also utilised for learning.

Much of the training is contained within the suite of programmes entitled Project Pride. Themes such as: Pride in our Customers – Pride in Our Employees - Pride in our Workplace, and Pride in our Performance; all of which were designed to inject enthusiastic purpose into the workplace environment at an individual level. Pride in our Customers, the first of the suite of modules, resulted in the training of over 600 customer facing employees and contributed to improved results in the following year’s Customer Satisfaction Survey. As a result of this very clear impact on the Company’s performance, the Apparelmaster training team

received a National Training Award, which recognised the contribution the programme had made both to the individuals involved and to the Company itself.

To further illustrate the Apparelmaster commitment to training and development the company has been a consistent recipient of Investor in People accreditation for over fifteen years. After the most recent review the Investor in People assessor was quoted in the review report saying: ‘Overall this has been a strong review in which Johnson’s Apparelmaster have demonstrated resilience in overcoming the challenges of a complex and competitive market place and shown a commitment to invest in the training and development of personnel to achieve business objectives.

Training is provided to meet the Company’s targets and objectives, and to give individual employees the opportunity to grow their own skills and personal confidence. In supporting the Government’s Skills Pledge, Apparelmaster has given hundreds of employees direct access to vocational qualifications, thus recognising their invaluable contribution to the organisation.

Because of the high regard in which Apparelmaster training is held within the industry as a whole, the Training Department is regularly invited to become a key stakeholder and quite often, the driving force behind industry initiatives involving training and development.

The Apparelmaster Training Department works very closely with the Textile Services Association, the industry

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Sector Skills Council and a number of other organisations including colleges, and external technical support organisations. The Apparelmaster Training Department was instrumental in the creation and launch, in 2007, of the Level 2 Laundry Operator NVQ. In partnership with Bridgwater College, Apparelmaster in Bristol put a pilot group of candidates through the qualification programme. This resulted in Apparelmaster having the very first Level 2 Laundry Operator NVQ recipients in the UK and since that date over a hundred other successful candidates have followed in their path. With a change in emphasis from subsequent Governments the focus and funding now falls on apprenticeships and the Training Department continue in its involvement with the Textile Services Association and the Sector Skills Council in helping to create an Apprenticeship Scheme

which will provide the entire textile rental industry with a secure and solid skill base well into the future.

At Apparelmaster the pursuit of excellence is one of continuous application at every level and training is how the performance of the future is being planned and prepared for by the Apparelmaster Board. Very few other textile rental companies, anywhere, invest so much time, effort and money in training, which is all too often seen by Apparelmaster’s competitors as an unnecessary expense. This successful and continuous pursuit of improved performance through effective staff training, yet again demonstrates the absolutely fundamental role in the company of the Training Department.

Customer surveys play a critical part in Apparelmaster’s

continuous performance improvement measures. Under this system researchers from an independent organisation, interview approximately 500 customers on an annual basis.This cycle of direct personal contact research has been repeated every year since 2001. The questions are searching and revealing and are studied closely by Senior Management in Head Office.

For example, the results of the first survey of customers’ opinions in 2004 led to the immediate establishment of a working group which recommended 30 significant changes for improvement in operational systems which were rapidly integrated into Apparelmaster’s standard corporate procedures and systems for dealing with customers.

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These customer driven changes had immediate and dramatic effects on customers’ perceptions of the company. The resulting improvements in customer service and customer contact raised the satisfaction level in 2010 to 84.9%. This is certainly a highly commendable level of customer approval for the company’s services and puts Apparelmaster well within the top quartile for customer satisfaction for any industry in the whole of the UK. The research results from the questionnaires are reported by plant, type of comment and level of service, so there is no hiding place for sub-standard performances in any location.

Investment however is the real key to Apparelmaster success in all areas of the company’s activity. Annually more than £3 million is budgeted for capital investment in the business. This figure is used to update laundry processing systems at the different plants as well as invest in upgrades to office systems and facilities. For example, new garment processing systems for food industry customers were installed at the plant in Basingstoke, as well as in several others, to enhance productivity AND deliver significant operational cost savings for the company. Capital investment also allows every enhancement of the

central IT Computer system to be duplicated at the remote disaster recovery site, thus delivering the best corporate insurance package available. This insurance package guarantees continuous operation at all plants, to all customers and to all departments in Head Office; with a virtually break-free transition should the disaster occur.

Apparelmaster also invest in the best in every aspect of their service offering to the many thousands of their customers from Land’s End to John O’Groats, giving commitments to the customer which stands in enviable comparison to all other competing, competitive claims in

the United Kingdom. From a flash of entrepreneurial inspiration by a wise and very successful Chairman almost half a century ago the Apparelmaster concept was secured for the Johnson Company. Giving due regard to the vagaries of chance and fortune along the way, the Johnsons Apparelmaster story, has been one of almost unbroken increases in levels of performance by a committed team now totalling more than 2,100 staff countrywide...

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Individuals and sources who assisted in providing essential historical and biographical information which

made this short monograph possible include:

Mr John Crockatt, Mr Dennis Hargreaves, Mr Chris Sander, Mr Gary Collis, Mr David Kinson, Mr Paul Stoddart,

Mr William Davidson, Mr Robert Halliwell, Mr Irving Scott.

And with thanks also to:

‘Branching Out’…The story of Philip Bollom and the Johnson Group

Published by Johnson Group Cleaners© 1989.

But perhaps very many sincere thanks should go to Mr Bill Pulley, who, in 1971 together with

colleagues in the United States first brought the Apparelmaster ideas in embryo to a worldwide

circle of Textile Rental Launderers.

Thank you to all employees past and present without whom the business would not be where it is today.

© 2011 Johnsons Apparelmaster Ltd. Every effort has been made to ensure the information contained within this publication is correct at time of printing. A Johnson Service Group company.

The Apparelmaster licence brought a professionally managed approach to garment rental which gave it a highly personalised service function. Garment rental had been a part of the service offering from laundry companies for many years. The difference was and still remains that the Apparelmaster promise is a genuine promise of a guaranteed service delivered with a highly personalised flavour.

A promise which in essence means: ‘your own staff uniforms or workwear sets, delivered to a specific locker, in a specific department, at a specific location and at a specific time on an agreed day’. This promise made it possible for all Apparelmaster employees to say, to their customers, from the earliest days of the company’s activities in the United Kingdom:

‘It’s Right, It’s Ready, It’s Guaranteed’