A story of a challenge that was born during the last economic crisis and aimed at garments identification innovative systems and services for the biggest nursery homes in Lombardy.
A story of the passion for business that never forgets about the importance of relations and solidarity in sharing objectives and hiring employees.
Nine years after Antonio Esposito founded it, its turnover today is six million euros a year and it services seven thousand beds a day
“Listen Antonio, Italy is growing old. The birth rate is going down. With all that paper used in restaurants more and more often, laundries should start focusing on health care structures.
They are the future business”.
Antonio’s surname is Esposito and back then, at the time when he was talking to that businessman, he worked in sales at an industrial laundry that serviced hotels and restaurants.
The businessman’s name was Maurizio Normanni. “He was a real teacher to me, even before he became my responsible” reveals Esposito.
“We should remember that it was 2008, the year in which the longest post war crisis exploded – adds Antonio Esposito. – Yet, those words were like seeds in my mind. I have always had an inclination for innovation.
So, when I ran cross the Rfid garments identification system at Texcare in Frankfurt, I immediately thought it would work perfectly well at every nursing home as it is necessary to deliver clean linen to every single resident. It was intuition that changed my life”.
Today, the consequences are clear to everyone. Three fully operating industrial laundries under Wash-Service brand name are situated in: Cesano Boscone, Segrate and Valbrembo, within the range of 40 kilometres, in the provinces of Milan and Bergamo. Nine years were enough for Maurizio Normanni’s words to “trigger” excellent effects that made Antonio Esposito’s business stand out. He managed to invent the activity from scratch. Today, it makes a six million turnover a year treating linen for seven thousand beds a day and employing 42 permanent workers and a variable number of the seasonal ones. The clients’ names include historical nursing institutes for Lombardy catholic culture: Opera Charitas Sant’Anna in Pavia, Monte Tabor Associations, Don Gnocchi and Sacra Famiglia foundations.
“If I think about how many people would call me crazy back then while I was about to make my big step
and while the Stock Market all over the world was going down, I must say I was aware of the risks I was
facing – Esposito remembers – without giving up on my passion for work and the necessary patience
to try to sell an idea first, then the services”. Certain that a quick and sure linen identification will bring
the laundries into the future of health care institutes, Antonio Esposito after having bought his first
laundry in Bergamo area in 2008, presented his commercial proposal in all the health care institutes over the territory offering quarterly free tests to demonstrate the value of this highly innovative computerized system.
The facts say he was right. In 2009, Wash Service acquires an important laundry service. He starts working with Sacra Famiglia from Cesano Boscone, a historical nonprofit organization of Milan curia.
Here, as in all the Wash Service structures, Antonio Esposito chooses to hire not only highly professional staff but people who agree and follow his ideas. “Human factor has a fundamental role in our business history – explains Esposito. – We believe that a business grows faster and better by developing values such as solidarity, collaboration with other contacts, sharing objectives.
This is why there are African refugees and people affected by autism among our employees”.
At Sacra Famiglia, Wash Service translates the philosophy into work organization where the attention to the needs of guests is thorough and detailed. We can perceive it while observing the rigorous separation of dirty linen from the clean linen in the laundry work areas together with the “treats”, e.g. a washing machine for wheel chairs to the disposal of the disabled, and the attention paid to the preparation of the bags with linen to give back to guests. “We know how the elderly and their families – Antonio Esposito continues – want to trust the laundry that will treat their linen, which is the reason why we give it back to them in the most gentle and warm way so that they feel at home with us”.
The owner of Wash Service talks to us while we are visiting his factory in Segrate, where Wash Service acquired a “historical” structure the Casiraghi laundry. The whole structure has undergone a progressive restyling starting from the entire floor dedicated to no-iron linen that, as it does not need to be ironed, its treatment is lighter and with secure traceability. “It makes part of the new entries of last years – says Antonio Esposito. – We could not miss them as that is our business policy”.
Undoubtedly, this is the natural drive towards the recent news and new entries that together with the
deep union with market changes give Wash Service the necessary thrust to new adventures. “Just
like the new contract signed with a French multinational company, Segesta – reveals Esposito – where
we guarantee the coverage of 1200 beds a day. The agreement immediately started so well that we
are starting our new business in Livorno together”.
Here is the short (for now) yet, glorious story of Wash Service, a slap in the face of the crisis. •
Detergo Magazine – September 2017
by Stefano Ferrio
