Hawke's Bay's Diamond Laundry Group investing in sustainable future

Bruce Davidson inspects Diamond Group's multi-million investment at its Whakatu plant to help reduce commercial laundry water usage by a third. Photo / Supplied

Diamond Laundry Group's multi-million investment at its Whakatu plant in Hawke's Bay will reduce the amount of water needed to wash commercial laundry by two-thirds.

Managing director Bruce Davidson says Diamond Laundry Group's further investment this year, will also its double capacity as the business looks to grow and expand market reach.

The state-of-the-art plant and technology out of Germany will shortly be installed improving environmental impacts and drive efficiencies Davidson said.

"Advancements like these make a real difference, we're being smarter for our future and everyone is getting onboard. It's good for our staff, our customers, our community and the business – we all benefit."

Other sustainable features include recycling water through continuous batches of water further reducing its usage by two thirds down to 7 litres per kilo of washing, compared to 21-25 litres.

They will be re-using the first prewash cycle water for linen to then pre-wash industrial laundry and all wastewater will go through a heat exchanger to pre-heat all incoming water for processing. On the energy side, all of industrial dryers have infrared sensors so not over drying linen and towels, using less energy and improving the quality of product.

Davidson gives real appreciation for the effort goes into washing, drying, folding and pressing the laundry that's helping keep hundreds of other businesses in business.

"The laundry service industry is fast-paced and highly competitive. One, where you must continually deliver high quality results day in and day out," he said.

He first started on the factory floor as an 8-year-old, working in the school holidays in his father Dave's Diamond Dry Cleaning business making plastic suit bags and helping in the press room.

At 15 he began working in the business with older brother Ian. Just over 12 months later, their father passed away, leaving the brothers to run the business

Today, the Diamond Laundry Group, which employees over 110 staff, still includes the original business along with ApparelMaster, for work wear laundry and rental, and Central Linen Service for professional linen hire, cleaning and supply.

Over the past decade, Central Linen has grown in size to 70 employees based at its Whakatu site, which opened in 2013.

"When we started, no one could have anticipated how fast the international and domestic visitor market would grow and the positive impact it's had on the economy and jobs. It's enabled us to expand, diversify and employ more people."

Central Linen covers Hawke's Bay and the lower and central North Island including Wellington, Palmerston North and Taupō. All orders are delivered, and collected, directly to and from accommodation providers, large and small, from bed and breakfasts to five-star hotels, through its driver fleet from Whakatu with depots also in Taupō, Dannevirke and Wellington.

The busy team sort, wash, dry, press and fold approximately 150 tonnes of laundry a week.

"Our investment will create another eight full-time jobs. Unlike many other businesses where automation is replacing jobs, in the laundry industry we still require significant human resource to operate the production lines."