• 13/11/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 438 Views

Vítězslav Šopík (Laundry Šopík): We break down the ideas of craft operation of the laundry.Automation also takes place in our country<

Vítězslav Šopík as a teenager spent every free time on the brigade in the laundry, which was founded in Rýmařov in 1992 by his father.At that time a young biker with hair to the waist in the fragrant operation did not fit at all.Nevertheless, after graduation at the Bruntal Automotive Technical School in 1994, he joined the laundry as a driven and thus laid the foundations of the family business together with his parents.Her driving took over as a fresh thirties after the premature death of his father in 2006.

“I started as a driver Avia, but after a few years we got directly into the laundry of the laundry.I made such a wheel by the company, tried to work on maintenance and washing the laundry.In six years I touched the entire traffic and my father invited me to the company's management.Told me I would ride everywhere with him but at all meetings I will just be silent.So I was silent at the meetings and recognized customers, suppliers and customers, ”says Šopík with a smile today.

The company of one trade license and five people has become medium -sized laundry over 26 years, in which 3.5 tonnes of laundry, employ 45 people and earn around 24 million crowns per year.

Laundry has had more than a quarter of a century of existence.What did its operation look like at the time you started in the company and how is it today?

Dad started after a revolution with four employees.They washed the laundry for the Rýmařovská Hospital, which at that time was about 200 pounds of laundry a day.Today it is three tons, because we have added mountain hotels, guest houses, restaurants, but also engineering and other companies that keep working clothing and uniforms in our country..We were only focused on health care for a while, then only to the hotel sphere, but I have been trying to build business on four legs for the last six years to avoid crisis.

Did any crisis come?And which business pillars do you mean?

Jeseníky is a beautiful mountain area, tourists are very visited, but only in the summer and winter season.Mons in between are on the edge of survival for us, so we keep the segment cleaning and washing of work clothes and those medical facilities.

The hotel sphere makes us about a third of the turnover.The second third falls on work garments and orders for hospitals are about twenty percent.The rest belongs to fabric washing services for large textiles and even cleaning filter inserts for air conditioning.With the exception of the Rýmařov headquarters we still have a branch in Ostrava, where we wash another half tons of linen every day.We used to run more laundries, but as the efficiency of work and transport grew, we closed the small branches, built collection points and simply dragged the orders to the headquarters in Rýmařov.

Does operation and technologically transforming?Are sophisticated machines and laundries gradually depopulate?

Rather than workers disappearing from operation, simplifying their work.They no longer pull tons of laundry in their hands, with which different laundry equipment such as deposers, components and other.In every minute such a machine can save you two seconds.Therefore, in two years, its acquisition will be easily paid.The number of employees stabilized to 45 and we work with their work efficiency.What previously did five women do, today thanks to technology can handle two.

Every medium -sized laundry already has to have linen marking with barcodes or chips.Photo: Jan Brychta

Smart technology belongs to businesses of all sizes

Laundry does not pay for a lucrative field.How do modern technologies pass into such a traditionally craft industry?

Every medium -sized laundry already has to have linen marking with barcodes or chips a patřičný software.I am at the cheaper variant of barcodes so far.The digitization and use of sophisticated technologies in large laundry companies have been taking place for ten years.There are also smaller operations now.It starts with automatic dosage, records of the amount of washed and cleaned laundry and continues to control energy flow - delectrics via water and gas.Many people still imagine the laundry as a space with a pile of small washing machines and a few ironing boards.It is still a craft activity, but automation in our field and size also takes place.

And is there a time when there will be no laundry manipulators thanks to automation in operation?

Yes, but it will only concern megaprozenen, those who are already able to do our monthly volumes of laundry today.Automation and with it hand in hand, but requires uniformity.All clients of these laundries will have to have the same laundry - sheets, towels, coatings and uniforms for staff will be the same.This is the difference between a large and medium laundry.We are able to serve a hotel that even has every room in a different color of bed and other laundry, which is absolutely unthinkable for big players.

Laundry Šopík in a pilot project tests a number of Eco Eco ecological means for FOSFA, as it will stand up to industrial washing conditions.Photo: Jan Brychta

So you are not afraid of your future?

No, those who want to distinguish will continue to use our services, even if the price per unit of laundry will be in those large uniform laundries on half of what we charge.I am not afraid of our future.As long as they are small customers, there will be small and medium laundry.This is a segment that large laundering companies will never be interested in because they would be very fallen on productivity.Czech households are not yet used to using small laundry services, but the time when they realize how unnecessary it is to waste time will come soon.

Wives are not maids

Does this mean that, besides corporate customers, you will also focus on the end ones?In Prague there are social start-ups services that wash and iron households very popular.In these specials, they turn to 100 million crowns annually.

We considered a segment of households, but it is very demanding for us so far.This is the same as when you combine a wholesale with a retail.They are apples and pears, although utilization can be similar.We are used to B2B and we are not far from this segment, there are many unchanged opportunities.Moreover, we would probably not be interested in end customers with regard to their small volumes that we should add.So it is not our priority yet, we are now doing something else.

Specifically what?

In the near future we would like to start the service shirt, which targets corporate customers and their managers, which we offer washing and ironing shirts.These are such a typical working clothing of directors and their ironing, in turn.In the pilot program this service today we offer for the Mercedes Motor Show, where there are about twenty "shirts".

From Rýmařov and indeed from Ostrava it is relatively a short distance to the Polish border.Do you have customers from Poland?

We have about ten customers in Poland today.We are a local company that offers its services in the perimeter of eighty kilometers from Rýmařov and eighty kilometers from Ostrava in all directions, so we have some overlaps into the border area.Our services are used by Polish hotels and hospitals.

Previously, Šopík operated more laundries, but as the efficiency of work and transport grew, the small branches closed and opened only collection points and pulled the orders to the headquarters in Rýmařov.Photo: Jan Brychta

The efficiency of the work can be increased by you mentioned by involving technology and better traffic logistics.Is there another way that allows you to be more productive?

Yes, you can have your own and uniforms and only rent it.So you do not write customers' linen but your.On the rental of laundry, however, Jesenice hotels still do not hear much, even though we are 300 percent of what we started with.

How much do you earn annually for laundry services?

Turnover for 2017 was around 24 million crowns.Last year we had 25 million crowns and this year I am also expecting an increase of units of percent.

Are you planning any major investment?

We went to modernize two years ago when we bought ironing machines and three big washing machines.Now we will be replaced by two oldest washing machines, but I am on the dragonfly whether to buy new ones in the same size, or go to four with half the dose.

The worker from the laundry operations will not just disappear.But their work is simplified, they no longer pull such tons of laundry in their hands.Different laundries such as deposers, components and other.Photo: Jan Brychta

Something between David and Goliath

I would expect the exact opposite if you would rather make hotels and restaurants renting your laundry and you are not interested in smaller orders of different types of laundry…

For the big clients, the price and thus the margin simply low.We balance on the edge of the market segment, when our customers do not progress a small garage laundry and large is not interested in it because they are not in volume interesting.We are able to serve Rýmařovská hospital, which will give us 200 to 300 pounds of laundry per day, but we are no longer enough at the University Hospital in Ostrava, which has two tons of laundry a day.It works the same for work clothes.We serve the company up to 150 employees, but wash uniforms for Hyundai Nosovice with several thousand employees.We are no longer able to clearly or organize capacity or organize.But we still have a lot of opportunities to grow in our segment.

Do you actively address potential corporate clients or come to you on recommendation?

We have the advantage of a family business and long traditions.So companies rather address us.We have a demand form on the website, through which we only prepared about 200 offers this year.So we don't really have need for new customers.

Are you dealing with environmental protection projects where it is not just an economic impulse, how to consume less water or detergents?

Yes.For example, we are testing a number of FOSSE ECO ECOs for FOSFA.Meanwhile, we are in normal operation with funds from Procter and Gamble, but in the pilot project we observe how ecological means in the industrial washing environment.And as far as energy is concerned, we try to use as many natural gas machines as possible.All the waste heat that comes from the laundry is to use the recovery back to the heating.These are investments in the order of millions of crowns.

Business with a small margin

What are you working on now?What would you like to improve?

The shirt now takes a lot of time to me.I hope we can run it soon.And also manage the fight for employees, because at a time of low unemployment and strong competition from the Automotive sector, where there are very interesting earnings for operators, it is increasingly harder to keep employees.We also address mothers on parental leave, which we allow for part -time jobs and in an hour when it best suits them.We go to one shift, but in the high season we pay overtime and add the states of the temporary workers.

Automation and with it hand in hand going efficiency require the uniformity of laundry.Photo: Jan Brychta

Last year, a documentary of journalist Saša carbon boundary was published, in which she plunged into the labyrinth of low -income jobs, among other things she tried to work in the laundry room.Is there a really real reason why the wages of laundry employees are at the limit of the minimum?

Our services are simply paid little and there is no will of customers to pay more.We do not have large margins and therefore no means to pay employees to pay higher wages.When I take 48 % of the costs make wages, there is really a lot of space for the increase is not.However, we try to reduce other cost items.We are doing the best we do on electricity and gas.But yes, we still try to convince customers that our services are needed and it is necessary to pay adequately for them.Take the disproportion when the hotel rents a bed for 500 crowns per night and argues if we pay 30 or 35 crowns for the loading linen and towels for one person.

Minimum wage in the last two years has grown jump.How will it be reflected in your company's economy?

Wage costs will increase, but we are still looking for ways to work clever and efficiently, how to reduce energy costs, unnecessary manipulations and the like.So far we are simply going to take away.