In 1996 over 25 years ago, (Damn!) I Meet Bill Crotty at a basketball stadium, this is how I got my opportunity in laundry, starting as a sheet feeder, before moving into washroom, Washroom supervisor, Truck driver, customer service to Monash hospital in Melbourne, then on to Warragul Linen service (WLS). My early experience certainly gave me a good foundation in the laundry industry.
In 2003 & 2005 I was successful in the Victorian Filterfab award, where I was fortunate to meet Anthony Kingsley (A rep a Filterfab at the time). This award gave me a profile outside of WLS.
I then found my way to Cleantec, in my opinion the best idea that never happened blending Machinery / textile hygiene company that was ultimately purchased by Ecolab. While at Cleantec, I meet a number of quality people, Scott Hartley (Hartmons), Kevin Moore (Spencer Systems), Elliot Goodall (Ezy wire Sydney), Rod Atkins (Kannaagieser), and Wayne Jolley (Now retired). Cleantec sold to Ecolab (or at least in part) a while back, I was lucky enough to spend 3 years at Ecolab working with some quality people. Before having the opportunity at SPL Epping. This was a great learning curve in the importance of quality people in your business.
I then moved onto Laundry Software Solutions (LSS) which is now Bundle. This was where I got my first overseas work trip (What an eye opener). I had been in the industry around 15 years by this time. I could not believe how little I knew. I worked on the Gurtler Industries Stand in Atlanta for LSS and was ultimately offered a position with Gurtler Australia to manage and grow the Australian business.
Upon commencement at Gurtler, I spent 4 weeks in Chicago learning from North American Soap Legends, Doug Story (Now at UNX) and Happy Gilmore (President of UNX), Kevin McClaren, David Proudman and Greg Gurtler, whom are all still at Gurtler. I landed back in Australia feeling a little over my head, where I ran into Warwick Brown. I still remember him telling me “Have a go it will work out” and it did or at least in my opinion.
7 years later prior to leaving, Gurtler had grown into a 3 million dollar business with 30+ Customers from Mildura to Guam. I’m thankful for my time at Gurtler and everywhere before that ultimately landed me at Knights laundry as the General Manager. The previous 20+ years had set me up well for success.
There was temptation to recruit additional talent into our building however, I remember the opportunities that people had given me along my journey. It was then clear “grow your own team” was the best option for me. Partnering with Hartmons, Pragmatic, Image, spencer systems, Filterfab, Gurtler and Lavatec has made the world of difference. Also coupling with the now veterans Scott Hartley, Kevin Moore, and Elliott Goodall, to upskill my internal talent in areas. Chad (Plant and Procurement manager) and Peta (Operations Manager), both work strongly with Bundle in both Production and back-office software, which has allowed us to reduce labour to revenue by half, as they now are equipped with all the required tools to complete orders on time in full.
While laundry industry is the only industry, I have worked in. For a guy that was an “okay basketballer” to be able to work from the ground level up and see people in my business striving to be better every day, without a fear of failure is by far the most rewarding part of this amazing opportunity Knights laundry owners gave me some 18 months ago.
As an industry we need to promote from within different people with different back grounds, all the staff within Knights Laundry are amazing and the transformation of our business is in line with there want to do well.
Sandro Santo
General Manager
0409178742
Sandro.santo@knightslaundry.com.au
