Trying to understand how customers’ needs change and, consequently, buying the right machines to meet the needs: by doing so, since 1987 this artisan shop has developed their business to the point that they actually needed to open two more local shops. This is how buying a shirt-finisher at the right moment guaranteed an increase in work volumes and in services offered to the clients of numerous hotels situated on the nearby Adriatic Coast
Few shops can tell a story on the changes happening in our country over the last fifty years better than a laundry.
Maria Luisa Cerri and Fabrizio Tardini who, after getting married, opened a laundry called Poker based in Sant’Andrea in Casale, a densely inhabited part of San Clemente town in the Rimini province, can confirm it. “It was 1987 when my wife, after having worked at an ironing factory for some time, decided to open her first shop – says Mr. Fabrizio Tardini. – Back then, she did everything by herself. She hired only one employee and I was working at anther factory at that time”.
“In hindsight, – continues the co-owner of Poker – I must admit that only a convinced artisan with a strong passion and dedication to the cause such as Maria Luisa’s could have created the basis for a business of this kind. When she first opened, the customers coming to the store would bring their important garments to clean only: those that you would not wash nor iron at home for many different reasons: suits, Sunday clothes, clothes with wine or grease stains. Back then, garments worn by Italians were much different from what we wear today. People used to come to the dry-cleaner’s continuously but they limited its function to some of the dry-cleaning aspects only. Today, everything has changed. A shop like ours needs to take care of any garment including cotton T-shirts or old shoes, and shirts. We treat even up to ten shirts per customer because an iron has become an unknown object for many households today”.
Truth be told, going back to the origins, Mrs. Cerri got it right back in 1987. To the point that eight years later, her husband joined the business. “It needs to be underlined that, for each step taken by our company – Fabrizio Tardini reveals – we have always had the support of the winning combination thanks to the Bandini family from Forlì selling laundry goods and products. It was Franco Bandini who sold the first machine to us, the glorious Donini, just like today it is his son Rudy who provides us with good advice about every investment we make, the most recent one being an ozone sanitizing machine that we purchased less than a year ago”.
Between the two machines, so different one from another, but similar in terms of the same high efficiency and functionality standards, there are 33 years of a company history that has led the Poker laundry to expanding significantly: the headquarters moved to a bigger place but remained in Sant’Andrea in Casale, and there are two other pick-up and delivery points operating in San Giovanni Marignano since 1998, and in Morciano di Romagna since 2016 respectively. Consequently, the number of employees increased. Today, six employees manage two dry-cleaning machines and four washers, two dryers, one shirt-finisher, one topper, one outerwear finisher and, as mentioned earlier, an ozone sanitizing machine. “The latter one has turned out crucial – says Mr. Tardini – because people are used to bringing here everything that needs to be cleaned from pushchairs for babies to motorcycle helmets. It was not acceptable to have them wait for one week for the delivery. The wait was due to the fact that we needed to turn to third parties for the garments sanitizing. Whereas now, if customers need us to, we can give the sanitized goods back actually on the same day. Currently, we are only outsourcing the cleaning of carpets and leather garments to specialized labs”.
A laundry following the pace of the town where the cultural and economic changes were reflected by the choices and trends dictated by customers. This is how we can sum up the development of the Poker enterprise whose presence in the territory has become more and more significant. “Today, we usually also service customers from other nearby towns – explains Mr. Tardini – while in summer, we wash and iron garments belonging to the clients of about forty hotels based in Riccione and around given the closeness to the coast”.
No particular secrets in the story of Poker, assures the co-owner.
“Apart from the professionality of the service – he clarifies – what matters the most here is the ability to timely understand how the customers’ priorities and trends will change”.
“The best example – explains Fabrizio Tardini – is the shirt-finisher that has truly changed the story of our company. We bought it right after we realized that families no longer had the skill nor the time to iron shirts at home. At that point, the high productivity guaranteed by the automation of the machine allowed us to iron more and more shirts at more accessible prices than before, that is two euros and fifty cents per shirt”.
During the current year of the pandemic, the machine has inevitably worked less. “Too many offices have been closed and too many activities reduced – confirms the entrepreneur. – Consequently, people have been wearing fewer business garments. We are now hoping for the laundry to start working at its full speed again as this would mean we are looking at the light out of the tunnel”.
With these words, Mr. Fabrizio Tardini wants to say that we are “all” going out of that tunnel: we, Italians and his customers. Because, luckily, the story of the Poker Laundry will continue developing together with the story of our country. •
by Stefano Ferrio
Detergo Magazine January 2021
