Commercial Laundries Cost Estimates

There are always some conflicting figures of the cost estimates for the commercial laundry market place but there are some interesting figures that have been published in the USA relating to the typical cost for laundry in certain business areas. The hotel business is obviously a major influence, particularly in a country where hotels often have 1,000 rooms and in the larger hotels of Las Vegas they can be well in excess of 5,000. The average cost estimate for processing hotel textiles is reckoned to be around 18 to 22 pence per pound in weight of processed textiles. This relates mainly to the bedroom and bathroom laundry. In the case of the food preparation and service area this may rise to around 30 to 44 pence per pound of processed laundry. The wide range of figures is put down to the type of processing, the fabric and degree of cleaning required. These figures whilst relating to a different country give an idea of the base costs expected from a larger laundry operation. The costs will be higher due to the extra costs which invariably affect the UK but which are not present in the USA. Typically labour costs per hour will be more expensive in the USA but the tax and national insurance costs will be lower. Industrial rates will be lower in the USA and water costs will also be lower on most occasions. The operational costs as a percentage differential should be similar although the overall size of the laundries is likely to be much larger in the USA because of the massive size of the market place. The typical life of a hotel sheet is 200 to 600 times this large variation being partly due to the quality of the sheet and also the degree of soiling. The average life of a bath towel is likely to be around 40 to 50 times whilst a hand towel is estimated at 15 to 25 times and a wash cloth at around 10 usages. These figures do have a lot of variation in them but they do allow a business using a large quantity of textiles on a daily basis to consider the costs both of the laundry and also the total costs of the use of textiles. This may well point towards installing their own laundry to reduce costs and gain full control of the textiles they present to their customers. If the sums look good then a request to a good commercial laundry supplier would be able to refine both the costs and the equipment, labour and all operational requirements to confirm or reject the project.