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The fine art of washing dirty linen
By Smriti Daniel
It's an unusual man whose life's ambition is to be "Mr. Clean", but then again, this comes as no surprise; Francisco Jayalath Perera is unusual and glad to be that way.

He chose to make a living in a field that many consider somehow inferior. "People equate men who work in hotel laundries to dhobis," he says smiling, going on to add that his work is far more complicated and demanding, that it requires the knowledge of machinery, chemicals and fabrics.

Even as a young man, Mr. Perera was very clear about his goals. His career began in 1975, when he joined the staff of the Intercontinental Hotel as a washerman. The following years saw his career take off as he rapidly moved to senior supervisor and finally to laundry manager. He held that position in several hotels in Sri Lanka as well as abroad in places like Tokyo and Saudi Arabia.

He was sent to the Inter continental in Vienna, where he trained under Walter Behr, the director of Laundry and Cleaning Worldwide for Intercontinental. He still considers Mr. Behr his inspiration and guru.

Much of Mr. Perera's expertise is self taught - the result of hours of dedicated study. Over time, he has come to believe that laundry is a science in its own right and should be recognised as such. Unfortunately many professionals in the country are not as well informed. "Laundry takes a back seat for many of the five-star hotels in the island," Mr. Perera says, "they are not willing to spend much money or time in setting up laundries that match international standards."

For instance, many launderers are unaware of how crucial the quality of the water is. "You can have all the equipment and all the machinery and still turn out a low quality product if your water is too hard," he says. To cope with such problems, unremitting professionalism is required. Not only must the staff of the laundry be made aware but in the setting up of the laundry itself, great care must be taken.

Mr. Perera believes it is crucial that the industry be up to the mark. "We need to offer foreign travellers standards of service that are comparable to what they receive at home." That means that hoteliers need to pay more attention to a somewhat neglected facet of their service - the laundry.

Hoteliers have recently switched from aiming for "customer satisfaction" to the aiming at "customer delight", adds Mr. Perera, who believes that even "delight" is not enough. "We need to cater to their hidden desires," he says. He explains that most people who pay good money to live in a hotel room will on the surface expect good linen. But dig a little deeper and you will find that they also want hygienic clean linen and the assurance that the washing processes are environmentally friendly.

Mr. Perera is currently Director Operations at General Chemical Industries, where he continues to work with laundries around the city. He believes a crucial, and so far lacking, element has been the presence of properly trained staff. "So for the first time since its inception, a syllabus has been introduced that teaches laundry operations for the intermediate level students of the Ceylon Hotel School," he says, adding confidently "these graduates will be able to step into posts of assistant laundry managers with ease as they will already know as much as the managers themselves."

These students will also be well equipped to deal with Sri Lankan conditions, which a foreign trained student may have difficulty adjusting to. In fact it is not only the manpower but the machinery and the chemicals themselves that have to be tailored to perform under these conditions. "They don't have our curries and stains to cope with abroad," says Mr. Perera, "even our fabrics are different because they are locally made."

It is clear, therefore, that anyone getting ready to tackle the problem will have to take all these factors into consideration. Thankfully, formidable though it sometimes appears, Mr. Perera and General Chemical are confident that they are more than upto the task.

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