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LSG Laundry, on the crest of the wave for 60 years

LSG – Laundry Spolaore Giuseppe, this is the meaning of the acronym. It all started sixty years ago. The founder, Giuseppe, has entered in the laundry world by working as a driver and thus learning the trade secrets and best practices of this business. Then the opportunity arises: a laundry in Oriago di Mira (VE) whose old owners could not guarantee anymore the business continuity. We’re talking about the 1960s, when the laundry was mainly serving small hotels in Venice, inns, and the “gentlemen” of those times.

LSG, Lavanderia Spolaore Giuseppe

It was a family-run laundry, managed in a completely traditional way with the presence of the founder’s children in a totally family-based dimension. Which were the transport means? Rowboats that carried the linen to Venice to serve the city. Looking through the family album of the owners of this industrial laundry, allows us to recall the years when the work was made at small-scale, traditional, and epic. It was mostly manual, where sacrifice and dedication were evenly distributed throughout the family. Black-and-white photos, worn and yellowed by time, include one image that stands out: the extended sheets drying in the wind. From its beginnings in 1964 to today have passed 60 years, a long path with three generations that have taken turns at the helm of the business. During this period, they have experienced new washing techniques for treating the fabrics so that today the laundry is specialized in offering cutting-edge, increasingly careful and personalized cleaning methods and solutions. High technology and automation play a major role, although the watchful and expert eye of the operator remains essential to ensure high quality service.

We are in Mirano, to one of the LSG laundry locations, the other one being located in Marghera for some years. We meet the cousins Massimiliano (son of Franco) and Cristiano (son of Ferdinando) Spolaore, the sons of two of the three business partners of the laundry. Franco, Ferdinando, and Roberto, of course all named Spolaore. They are just part of the team, which also actively includes Mattia and Marco (Franco’s sons), Matteo (Ferdinando’s son), and Sara (Roberto’s daughter). “Holidays and resting days were a luxury that we couldn’t afford at the beginning of this adventure,” says Cristiano. “Since the early ’90s, we moved to the current location in Mirano, introducing the first industrial washing machines, such as the continuous batch washer”.

From the 1990s to date, in which sector have you particularly focused?

“We have mainly focused on two sectors: the hotel and food service sectors,” tells us Massimiliano. “Our customers are mainly concentrated in the historic centre of Venice and Lido, so much so that we are organized with four boats of our own property for providing our daily service. This is our primary market, but we also serve the provinces of Venice, Treviso, and Padua. We are not intending to go beyond our region. We are mainly focused on long-term tourism and have excluded seasonal tourism, except for the Venice Lido. The season is long as it starts in March and ends in November. Venice is a touristic city all year round. To work in Venice, one needs to be wellorganized and familiar with the area for a long time.”

Which are the particular characteristics of Venice?

“Venice is a unique city in the world. To work in this city, it is necessary to understand the tides and be able to quickly adapt to changing weather conditions,” says Cristiano. “Knowing which canals can be navigated and which cannot, is crucial. It is necessary to understand the characteristics of the tourism in Venice. A vast, but in essence a “hit-and-run” tourism. Venice is a small and very compact city where word of mouth spreads from one side to the other with an extraordinary speed. You must guarantee a high-quality service, as hotels are very close to each other, making a good job makes always the difference in such situations. Many “extra-territorial” laundries have tried to work in Venice but they have never succeeded. Our laundry has its own vehicles and stable employees. Our boats are adequately sized for transportation. In certain areas of the city with narrow and cramped streets, we arrive with the sack on our shoulders because they are not accessible by other means. Meeting delivery times is crucial for us at LSG.”

Which kind of clientele do you have?

“Is not a matter of dimension. Our service covers both large and small hotels. Our operation outreach makes a difference, as we have designed, modelled, and implemented a logistics organization that ensures timely delivery. Moreover, cost assessment and time optimization make a difference.”

Are your two locations differentiated for their type of activity?

“In the location from Mirano, which is the main one, we work with “inventory,” tells us Cristiano, meaning that everything is counted and processed in the same way, stored in the warehouse, ready for delivery. In Marghera, on the other hand, we work with “batches” as we have moved the processing of our larger customers here. Thus, each batch of linen or tablecloths belongs to a specific hotel and customer. Our continuous batch washers are mixed, meaning that with the same machine we process bed sheets, towels, and tablecloths.”

How has the laundry service evolved over time?

“Ferdinando (known as Marino), Cristiano’s father, takes the floor, “In the 1960s, the laundry service didn’t exist. The linen was owned by the customer, such as hotels, restaurants, etc. Then in the 1980s, the first rentals started, especially with table cloth. Today, we only work with the laundry service. We have different textile suppliers, and our practice has always been to rely on Italian weaving factories who guarantee high product quality. And by quality, we mean durability, ease of ironing but also aesthetic beauty.”

How many employees do you have?

“We have about 60 employees summing up both locations. The work organization responds to the market demand, so in addition to the permanent workers, we have several workers with fixed-term contracts that are strictly related to work peaks.”

How much linen and tablecloths do you process daily?

“We process about 200 quintals (20 tonnes) per day. This is our standard, considering that we have two continuous batch washers available”. But let’s get back to the new generation, Cristiano and Massimiliano.

Which are your goals?

“Our goal has always been to organize the two locations differently: one for hotels and the other for the food service sector. By specializing, you are able to enhance quality. Currently, we serve more hotels (65%) than restaurants (35%), this is our workload. The goal is to maintain our current client base while striving to improve quality. We aim to work in an organized manner with a balanced distribution between work and rest times. Technological and digital innovation are the basis of automated processes, even in laundry, reducing the burden of manual labour and enhancing productivity levels. We would like to develop our two laundries, making them two distinguished sites of quality specializing in hotel and restaurant services.”

In the industrial laundry market, there is a critical labour shortage. Are you also facing this problem?

“It is very challenging to find people willing to work in a laundry facility, especially to have continuity. The arrival of the ultimate technology and automation helps us significantly, but it doesn’t eliminate the fundamental difficulty of finding qualified manpower. Of course, it also depends on what we offer as employers, not just in terms of salary but also in terms of creating a positive work environment. Every worker should feel part of a team, part of a family, developing a sense of belonging to the brand. It is complicated, but essential to create conditions where both the staff and ourselves can work as effectively as possible. The work in the laundry is simple, but it requires dynamism, motivation, and attention.”

What can you tell us about the generational transition that is always a critical element?

“We are now to the third generation, and we will have to figure out in the future if our children want to take on this business. So, at the moment, we cannot really give an answer. We spent our childhood and teenage years in the laundry, which was like a home to us. After school we were going to the laundry, and we were spending a substantial part of the summer here. There were years of growth, education, but also of exploration and fun,” concluded Cristiano and Massimiliano.

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