The large-scale laundry Fliegel Textilservice is investing eight million in new technology. The automation should guarantee more hygienic safety and make the work of the employees easier. Why the investment has nothing to do with Corona and what the company says about a headline about 250 deleted jobs.
David Ruszkiewicz, Authorized Signatory & Operations Manager at Fliegel Nord Textile Service in Grimmen, is pleased about the new technology. – Image: Fliegel Textilservice
The laundry now comes to the employee – not the other way around. “That increases our productivity”, says Jörg Müller, authorized representative of Fliegel Textilservice . In order to make processes more effective and hygienically even safer, the holding has now invested eight million euros in the various locations.
Investing despite the deleted positions?
The news from the industrial laundry is astonishing. As recently as December 11, 2020, the Berliner Morgenpost headlined ” Fliegel laundry will cut almost 250 jobs in Poland “. The interviewed Fliegel authorized representative, Regina Werler, felt misunderstood at the time, she explained in an interview with R + WTextilservice after the article was published. According to her, only seasonal workers could not be hired. Instead of the usual 80 t per day, the company reckoned that due to the closed hotels, only 270 t per month will pass through the production in Nowe Czarnowo. In order to be able to cope with the consequences of the pandemic with all employees at the site, the report continues, the company has put part of the workforce to a standstill.
When asked, the company confirms today: employees have not been laid off. “We are currently holding on to 80 percent of the team,” emphasizes Daniel Tarczyński, Managing Director of the Fliegel Group. Their short-time allowance has been increased to 80 percent.
But: Of the regular 1,000 jobs at all locations, a good 20 percent of the permanent positions are not filled – temporarily, emphasizes Tarczyński. According to him, the vacancies were as follows: Fixed-term contracts expired and could not be extended. In addition, the company is suspending the use of marginally employed or temporary workers for the time being. And, a few employees would have retired or left the company at their own request. With the current workforce, however, the Fliegel Group sees itself as ideally equipped. “When the laundry volume rises to the pre-Corona level again, the positions will be filled again,” assures the managing director.
This is how Fliegel Textilservice is converting its locations
The company, which is part of the Servitex Association, planned the conversions and renovations not as a reaction to Corona, but as early as 2019. The aim is, among other things, to use less energy and process laundry more gently.
In Leipzig , the large laundry expanded the automatic feed systems and developed a neighboring property in order to increase the storage capacity . According to Fliegel Textilservice, the focus at the site in Saxony is primarily on one aspect: improving internal logistics . The renovation began last year, and the renovation work should be completed in 2021.
As in East Germany, the company also expanded the automatic feed systems in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The Fliegel site in Grimmen hopes to refine its process logistics through this . In addition, the warehouse was expanded, the ironer line was modernized, an electronic system was introduced that automatically detects and tracks laundry, and scissor lift tables were installed that enable ergonomic loading and unloading in the loading zones of the trucks.According to operations manager and authorized signatory David Ruszkiewicz, the use of the new technology in production not only enables a reduced consumption of resources, but also ensures clean laundry and meets the highest hygienic requirements of hoteliers. “We also now have the opportunity to offer our textile services to smaller customers on attractive terms.”
The largest Fliegel location in Berlin has also invested in its production facility in Nowe Czarnowo , Poland – near the German border: In the “NC1” plant, feed systems bring the laundry to the employees, the individual textiles can be tracked electronically and terry towels are produced using the latest technology folded . With the help of the expanded capacities of the warehouse and the loading area in the second plant, logistics processes are to be made more efficient . In addition, there is now a department for work clothing in both plants.
