This industrial structure, with its 35 employees and a-three million annual turnover, was founded twenty years ago in the Brindisi area following the intuition to establish a laundry that would fill-in a gap in Salento. This renowned Italian territory is an extraordinary Made in Italy business card of tourism. Today, the laundry works with 120 clients including some of the most exclusive hotels. In this way, it attracts (and reassures) guests by offering them amazing, “certified” beautiful fabrics and meeting the needs of the more and more demanding visitors, also due to the pandemic.
Everything has its time. It also reflects the celebrations dedicated to the slow recovery of Italy and to everything that restarts after more than one year of the pandemic.
Let us have a look at an industrial laundry called Lindosan based in Mesagne, the province of Brindisi.
It is enough to listen to the harmony of things with the surrounding reality. It is enough to close our eyes to feel the arrival of Italian summer, in our beautiful, revived country. Belpaese, this is how we call it (T.N. Beautiful Country) honoured to follow the footsteps of the inventors of the Belpaese “brand” – Dante himself and his Inferno and Petrarca in his Canzoniere – it is because our peninsula offers treasures like Salento, the land of golden landscapes where the antique numerous masseria do not stop enchanting visitors from all around the world.
Those who will be “lucky” (in every way) to spend their summer holidays in Borgo Egnazia, a splendid rural community in Savelletri di Fasano that has recently become a five-star hotel, will think that the popstar Madonna and other VIPs of the showbiz were right when while visiting this “pearl” of the landscape, they ranked the place as one of the most beautiful ones in the world. Their comfort will be further enhanced by the prestigious Made in Italy textiles used to produce hotel and restaurant linen supplied by Lindosan, a reliable business that services Borgo Egnazia hospitality structures, among others.
“Doing our best to preserve and promote the beauty of Puglia is something very rewarding for us both as workers and citizens” explains Alessandro Fanales, the CEO of Lindosan, a company operating in the territory for the last twenty years. Twenty years ago, a businessman, Luciano Gusmeroli, who came from Valtellina in Lombardy and is still covering the role of the President of the company, had an intuition to transform a production area destined for the fruit and vegetables sector into a textile industry production. Today, the factory’s annual turnover is three million euro. The company hires 35 employees and twice as many during high season.
Fanales speaks about year 2021 that, right before the arrival of summer, witnessed a significant growth in business volumes with a 220% rise in May comparing to May 2020.
“On the one hand” – says the CEO of Lindosan – “we have diversified the production. We surely inform clients beforehand about it. On the other hand, we have extended our certifications making them more adequate to the times we have been living since 2020”.
“Actually, – Alessandro Fanales continues – we felt we were even more involved in the sector we operate in, even more active as far as everyday life situations go. As a matter of fact, we acquired a European certification UNI/EN 14065, relative to the microbiological quality of applied textiles in order to avoid any risks linked to biocontamination. Next, we felt we needed to communicate it to restaurants and hotels through adequate communication channels”. “The solution – says the CEO – was appreciated by final customers, the guests, with a positive effect on our clients, the hotel owners. Consequently, it affected positively our business, too. A perfect circle that gets completed”.
Next, Fanales explains how Lindosan has always been equipped well to face challenges both the predictable and unpredictable ones. “Very simply, – he says – everything here aims at quality including technology, sustainability, automation levels reached, with a particular attention going to towel treatment line, where operators intervene just once during the entre finishing process. Not to mention the 1.9MLN euro invested in a photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the factory: a 600 kilowatt per hour plant designed to replace 6 thousand sq. m. of fiber cement”.
“Obviously, our customers guarantee this quality to themselves by following the contracts thoroughly –clarifies Fanales. – Especially when it comes to the timely payments that match the reliability of linen pick-up and delivery service that Lindosan guarantees from our side thanks to the perfect logistics and vans proudly used by the laundry. Once again, a perfect circle is created as hotels, restaurants and nursing homes do not have to face the periods of linen lack or empty warehouses. At the same time, Lindosan gets its satisfaction form an exemplary income. Not by chance, according to the recent report on industrial laundries by Competitive Data, we ranked as first in terms of flow and availability”.
Finally, the CEO is telling us how the horrible 2020 marked by Covid had obliged the laundry to work on Sundays – the only three Sundays ever since the laundry started its activity – due to the fact that personnel preferred to stay at home taking advantage of the reddito di cittadinanza. Hopefully, the emergency has passed. “We are facing new challenges now – concludes Alessandro Fanales – deriving from the quality standards more and more requested by our clients. We are honored by being able to face them thanks to the excellent level of our services and the extraordinary professionality of suppliers that we consider as our partners”.
This is how Lindosan guarantees the future to the Beauty of Puglia.
By Stefano Ferrio
DETERGO MAGAZINE
JULY/AUGUST 2021
