Progress linked to work culture first, then to business. Today, the well-being of a company and its work environment are clearly inseparable. On such basis, the multinational producer of industrial detergents offers “light chemistry” to its artisan and industrial buyers. It can guarantee wide range savings thanks to its highly “bio” products. Christeyns has also created a permanent training center for entrepreneurs and laundry operators
“Christeyns, laundry technology” the sign says. The image published on Detergo cover page reveals that, according to the multinational producer of industrial detergents with its Italian headquarters in Pessano con Bornago, Milan, “laundry technology” does not necessarily take us in this case to a washing machine porthole nor to a “tunnel” in progress, neither to an ironer at its full speed nor to any typical icon of this sector.
Coherently, with the company mission aiming at low environmental impact washing, the program called “Cool Chemistry” and HIGLO, that we can define light chemistry, have got an image of two admirable but different women’s faces: one of them is Nordic looking and calming, the other one looks “afro” type and carefree. As if they were to highlight the sweetness and determination united by the brand core slogan-hymn: “Gentle on fabrics, tough on stains”. Aesthetic synthesis, still before the technology where top models do not have just a cover page looks but express Christeyns’ mindset that is fundamentally important to completely match the main topics connected to laundry business meant as global, industrial or “dry”.
A visit to the new Christeyns Italia headquarters, that came out from the heavy global economical crisis confirms that laundry business is a perfect ground for us to ask crucial questions. For instance, what is a factory today? Is it just a physical site or a virtual one, too? Where are the products being processed and how about the “contents” intended as staff training and growth tools? What is the idea of “profit”: is it purely economical or does it include other values aiming at long-term development? These are fascinating inquiries, and most of all, they are “open” and able to trigger answers passing through various fields of human knowledge and acting. Assimilating them means having a crucial edge over our everyday “competition”.
“It is clear that providing quality detergents today is a necessary base but not enough anymore – Danilo Villa, in charge of Professional Laundries at Christeyns explains. – What we need is to offer clients a long-term partnership on the basis of a precise relation between interests and a common goal. This common goal is called “wash everything in the best possible way”, which means taking account of company benefits and the environment in which it works”.
“All of it is unconceivable – Villa continues – without the cultural growth of the entire laundry sector. Commercia ignolizing a detergent like HiGlo for dry cleaning department means producing a new and revolutionary impact in some way. Christeyns, however is able to endorse it as having its clients’ development in its DNA as well as their active involvement in a winning marketing philosophy”.
Words that proudly accompany year 2016, announced as “HiGlo Year” for Italian market. The results of the first quarter sales prove that, early enough, we will talk about year 2016 as “HiGlo Year” indeed. 400 hydrocarbon laundries operating all over Italian territory can already perceive the attractive power of this product, something emanating from its “modified hydrocarbon” nature whose extreme adaptability to the most various needs guarantees three fundamental results: maximum garments durability, reduced consumptions, constant environment protection. In particular, the high “Bio” quality of HiGlo, as all the Cool Chemistry products, will produce chain benefits starting from the guarantee to maintain all the water standards within the established limits largely, without any fear of legal controls.
An outcome of eighteen-month long tests carried out at Christeyns laboratories, excellent performing levels thanks to which HiGlo introduces itself as an unimpeachable competitor of perc that has held the stage in laundries for years. If we look at the results, fairly enough the first relevant data for the client, Christeyns solvent is totally efficient against those oil-stained garments that have always been perc’s specific prerogative, e.g. in case of the famous “outerwear”. Moreover, HiGlo’s simple hydrocarbons in light stains treatment translate into high competitiveness of the product. To sum up, we are facing an immediately recognizable universal combination of traits, which is the winning formula of HiGlo.
“It has been an honest march that Christeyns staff are able to follow – Daniele Ferrari, in charge of industrial laundries at Christeyns explains – only because our company’s mission is completed by permanent and crucial training to update the market. Just to make an example, with figures in hands, we can demonstrate that Cool Chemistry means that although Christeyns products cost 30% more than the competitors’ on average, at the same time they allow 33% saving because they require very small doses.
This, together with other various advantages, means less water consumption, less energy consumption, a sharp increase in fabrics lifespan and less residual quantity to be then sent to the purifier with a consequent smaller pollution degree in the aquifer”.
“Surely enough – Daniele Ferrari continues – if nowadays some laundry owners keep misunderstanding the properties of high concentration products at low dosage or ignore the main differences between a surfactant, an alkaline product or a softener, they won’t go far. We are aware of that at Christeyns, therefore we have created a free training center for laundry owners and operators”.
Daniele Ferrari talks about the first two years of Cool Chemistry in Italy. “It is a story of progressive and relentless erosion of a market that needed light chemistry desperately and undeniably. I still remember the surprise and enthusiasm of the first test at our client’s two years ago in Brescia. Since then, the Italian decisive phenomenon of a Following the word of mouth efficiency, the good new Cool Chemistry has slowly broken out especially the moment at which Italian market, strongly calibrating food service business (not only hotels and healthcare like abroad), assimilated the crucial manual guide that means bleaching linen during the rinsing stage and not during the washing stage. During the first two years four big businesses chose Christeyns’ light chemistry and at the end of 2016, contracts already in hands, the clients will double.
“It is obvious that this washing system “costs” more in order to obtain a higher global future saving – Ferrari concludes – therefore, clients need to try it personally, and we are going to be there for them”.
Innovation and empathy, apart from the concept of profit that cannot be separated from our common wealth anymore, the Environment. “To use a happy English phrase, I call it People Business – Livio Bassan, the Managing Director of Christeyns Italia comments. – Meaning, that our twenty million yearly turnover is a result of planned work realized through exclusively strict contact with our clients.
Simply because today, in this globalized and interconnected world, growth means growing not alone but in a network with others”.
“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion”, reads Christeyns’ website in quoting the words of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel that speak volumes about the history and mission of the group, a world’s leader in products and services for laundries.
Its huge success makes one wonder how a Belgian, family-run company has managed to survive for over 50 years surrounded by international chemical giants. The two key ingredients in the success story of Christeyns have been creativity and innovation, both driven by passion. Determination, ongoing commitment to investments in critical areas such as research and development, teamed with high-caliber staff, have made it possible for Christeyns to develop from a local company founded in 1946 to a modern European key player in the global market.
Over the years, the company’s objective has remained that of offering added value to its clients.
The objective was met as a result of the passion and focus on even the smallest details in all of the operations of a modern laundry, the quest for the most innovative solutions, an expert and attentive customer service and the capability to deliver flexible and customized services.
CHRISTEYNS ITALIA srl
Via Aldo Moro, 30
20060 Pessano con Bornago (MI)
Tel.Ph. + 39 02 99765200
www.christeyns.com
Detergo Magazine
April 2016
