VANCOUVER, CANADA (March 9, 2020) — The new Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service (“Ecotex”),  linen processing facility in Kelowna, British Columbia was awarded as one of the “Best Laundry Plants of the Year in North America” by Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), the industry’s international trade association. Annually TRSA awards its Best Plants of the Year award acknowledging laundry environmental sustainability, quality, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Over a span of 12 months, Ecotex built a new, modern healthcare laundry processing facility in Kelowna, B.C., Canada. At 35,000-square-feet, the facility processes 18 million pounds of certified Hygienically Clean^® linens a year, serving more than 80 hospitals, clinics and healthcare clients.  The facility has seen an 80 percent gain in productivity over the past three years, since opening in 2017.

“The plant which we built in Kelowna is a result of things we’ve learned from others in the industry over many years, as well as our own experience operating a number of plants in different markets in the United States and Canada,” observed Bryan Bartsch, company president, adding, “we were able to take the best practices from others, as well as apply things we’ve learned and implement a super-efficient plant.”

The Ecotex facility’s largest investments have been in automated wash systems, energy recovery systems, and control technologies. The company’s proprietary linen transport and distribution cart program allows a new “no fold” handling approach on some textile items that would have previously been folded, increasing productivity, and saving the clients’ money. The plant’s approach to of “pre-building” orders six hours in advance of shipment created a standard work model that has decreased time expressing goods through the plant to fill orders “just in time.” As a result, Ecotex has achieves a 99% order fill rate within a 24-hour process cycle. Ecotex uses a cloud based linen management system, a SaaS system known as ELM^TM software, which supports the delivery of smarter linen solutions for customers including enhanced linen utilization, service standardization and bed makeup programs. Ecotex owns and operates laundries serving healthcare clients in two provinces (British Columbia, Ontario) and eight states (Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, West Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois).

“It’s a real honour to be recognized alongside for the innovations and new levels of plant performance we have each accomplished,” said Ecotex Chief Executive, Randy Bartsch.

The Best Plants accolade, part of TRSA’s Leadership Awards series, will be presented March 25, 2020 at the TRSA 10^th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC.  Other member organizations to be honored that evening include winners of TRSA’s awards for community and customer service, diversity recognition, safety and sustainability. For more about the TRSA 10th Annual Legislative Conference, visit www.trsa.org/legcon.

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ABOUT TRSA

TRSA (www.trsa.org), based in Alexandria, VA, represents the nearly $20-billion linen, uniform and facility services industry by advocating for fair federal and state regulatory and legislative policy and promoting the economic and environmental benefits of reusable textiles. Employing more than 120,000 people at over 1,500 facilities in North America, our industry supplies, launders and maintains linens, uniforms, towels, mats and other products. Most Canadians and Americans benefit at least once per week from the hygiene and safety of products provided to the industry’s customers. TRSA verifies and quantifies our industry’s commitment to sustainability and cleanliness through our Clean Green and Hygienically Clean certification programs. TRSA increases the industry’s productivity, sustainability, safety and professionalism through education, research, benchmarking and information-sharing.

ABOUT ECOTEX

Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service (www.SmarterLinenSolutions.com) is a major regional provider of healthcare laundry and linen services to hospitals, sub-acute and medical facilities across Canada and the western United States.  A private, family owned and operated company, Ecotex is focused on the delivery of Smarter Linen Solutions to its many customers. Committed to service excellence, Ecotex has invested in technology, equipment as well as practices and processes to improve clinical outcomes for our customers. Using the industries best management practices Ecotex helps to create a safe, comfortable environment for patient care.  As a Clean Green^® certified laundry operator Ecotex demonstrates the use of best practices for reusing, reclaiming and recycling resources.

ABBOTSFORD, CANADA (March 5, 2018) – Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service is proud to announce that following a competitive procurement process, it was awarded a new contract to serve the Abbotsford Regional Hospital & Cancer Centre.

“This is great news for Ecotex, and for Abbotsford”, said Randy Bartsch, the CEO of Ecotex adding, “winning this contract allows us to bring new jobs back into our local community”.

Bryan Bartsch, Ecotex Group Vice President, said “Six generations of the Bartsch family have lived here in the Abbotsford community. Our entire family and our employees are proud to bring our companies high quality linen services to our hometown hospital. In fact, both of my daughters were born at ARHCC, so it is special to serve this hospital, the one that our family members use.”

The award was made after a competitive RFP process by AHA Access Health Abbotsford Ltd. and Fraser Health Authority health.

As a result of the award Ecotex will reprocess the laundry in its nearby linen processing plant that is only minutes away from the hospital. Ecotex provides certified Hygienically Clean Linen®, offering third-party validation of quality and Management Practices.

Ecotex is a recognized industry leader for environmental sustainability, and is certified Clean Green® by the TRSA for its environmental laundry practices. By choosing Ecotex the Abbotsford Regional Hospital demonstrated its commitment to reduce the carbon footprint generated by linen usage at the facility.

Ecotex is a leading provider of healthcare laundry and linen services to more than 300 acute care hospitals, sub-acute, long term care and medical facilities in the United States and Canada, and offers a comprehensive range of general linen and operating room linen processing solutions, management and distribution services for its clients.

KELOWNA, B.C. January 04, 2018 — Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service recently opened a new regional healthcare laundry facility designed to support the Interior Health Authority. Built in just seven months, the newest Ecotex plant is located in the City of Kelowna and will serve the region’s 83 Hospitals and Long Term Care Facilities. This new plant was designed to improve redundancy and reliability, brings industry best practices for infection prevention, and increases sustainability.

Interior Health anticipates savings of approximately $35 million over the 20-year partnership with Ecotex. Outsourcing this service will enable IH to focus on patient care as well as complete upgrades and expansion to emergency rooms and operating facilities. Ecotex Vice President, Bryan Bartsch said, “We are pleased with our new long-term partnership with Interior Health. We have built an amazing new plant that will provide reliable laundry services to the region’s hospitals and care home for many years. Ecotex has designed this laundry program with sustainability and innovation in mind.”

Ecotex is an established industry leader in environmental sustainability and is certified Clean Green® for its class leading environmental laundry practices. The Kelowna plant is equipped with the most efficient laundry equipment including advanced heat recovery systems for preheating fresh water and water reuse systems. Our new energy efficient facility is expected reduce the environmental footprint by more than 60%, reducing our demand for electricity, natural gas, and fresh water. Further, we have reduced the use of plastics offering reusable cart covers and innovative new launderable packaging. With our large offsite regional laundry plant, we have both the physical space and the scale to collect and recycle 100% of the plastic soiled linen bags, previously part of the Interior Health’s waste stream. We expect to recycle over 100 semi-truck loads of compressed plastic bags in our new “closed loop bag recycling system.”

Ecotex also brings new high quality reusable linens for surgical, bed protection, and PPE applications. In partnership with Interior Health, we will target the ‘disposable’ product categories, replacing some items with new high-quality reusable alternatives. Our plan is to make a massive positive impact on the system sustainability, which will be a model for other health systems to follow in the future.

Ecotex is a family owned and operated company, we have been providing commercial laundry services since 1959. Over the years our company has developed a strong reputation providing hospitals with high quality services, unmatched reliability, and offering unmatched healthcare laundry expertise. Ecotex operates hygienically clean-certified linen processing facilities in Canada and the United States. Learn more at SmarterLinenSolutions.com

VANCOUVER, BC (August 29, 2017) — Ecotex Team Spin Cycle put on an inspiring display of commitment and endurance by cycling just over 250 kilometres over two days, from Vancouver, Canada to Seattle, Washington, to raise funds for cancer research.

2017 was the third year the Ecotex team participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer.  Over the three years, and thanks to their sponsors and donors, Team Spin Cycle raised $136,743 to support world leading, breakthrough research.

The team, representing Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service, joined 2,000 riders in the Annual Ride to Conquer Cancer fund raising event on August 25 and 26, who collectively raised $8.3 million.

“After miles and miles of training, and hours of preparation, it was an incredible feeling to ride across the finish line knowing we had made a difference,” said team captain, Randy Bartsch, CEO of Ecotex, adding, “As riders, we help each other, and feed off the fantastic support we get from the public and event volunteers. The Ride to Conquer Cancer challenges you on many levels and you see that pride in meeting those challenges on the faces of every rider as they finish.”

Team member Roger Friesen said, “It was absolutely fantastic!” adding, “When I thought of friends, relatives and participants who had beaten cancer, I couldn’t help but be motivated.”

Special thanks to Team Spin Cycle sponsors BMO Harris Bank, Medline Industries, Pellerin-Milnor Corp, Ecolab, and Kannegiesser-eTech, for their financial support, plus the many, many donors and friends who helped power the team to their goal.

TORONTO, CANADA (September 23, 2016) – The Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service Group in partnership with Fengate Capital Management, are pleased to announce today that they have completed the purchase of Booth Centennial Healthcare Linen Services (“Booth”). Booth is the largest single-site healthcare laundry facility in North America, which processes more than 35 million kilograms (78 million pounds) of medical linens annually.  Located in Mississauga, Booth is the market leader for healthcare linen, laundry and surgical sterilization services to hospitals and long-term care facilities in Ontario.

“Our Board of Directors has worked hard to create a partnership with Ecotex and Fengate that delivers long-term value, stability and certainty for our stakeholders,” said Justine Jackson, Board Chair of Booth, adding, “and our hospitals can focus on providing our patients with the best patient care experience.”

On August 30, 2016, the member-owners of Booth approved the sale. Booth was formerly a not-for-profit, shared services organization owned by its 22 member hospitals located in the Greater Toronto Area.

“We are excited to bring a fresh perspective to the Ontario market,” said Randy Bartsch, Chief Executive Officer for Ecotex, adding “Our new and smarter linen solutions will help our customers provide a safe, comfortable environment for patient care while we ensure cost and service quality.”

Lou Serafini Jr., President and CEO of Fengate added, “Together with Ecotex, we are committed to a long-term partnership with our customers and the members of Booth to provide this essential service.”

Now an Ecotex company, Booth Centennial Healthcare Linen Services remains focused on the healthcare market and is the largest provider of linen, laundry and surgical sterilization services to hospitals and long-term care facilities in Ontario. Servicing more than 100 customer sites, Booth is the only healthcare laundry in Ontario to be certified as Hygienically Clean© from the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), and accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Committee©, (HLAC), as well as ISO 13485 certified for Medical Devices both as a Manufacturer and a Distributor.

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Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service is a leading Canadian based provider of healthcare laundry and linen services to hospitals, sub-acute and medical facilities in Canada and the United States. Ecotex is the largest privately owned healthcare linen service company in Canada offering a comprehensive range of general linen and operating room linen processing solutions, management and distribution services to hospitals, medical clinics and other commercial accounts. Ecotex is a privately held corporation.