Not only can Bidvest Laundry clients rely on our diligence in terms of these aforementioned standards, they can also rest assured that we are audited annually by external certification body ISOQAR Africa, to ensure our ongoing compliance.
At the Bidvest Laundry Group, we’re not just about doing the washing and ironing – a science we’ve been mastering for over 35 years – we’re about people.
We also know workwear inside out. We know what kinds of garments and fabrics are best suited to industries where people may be working with hazardous chemicals, or in freezing temperatures, or in places that pose a risk of infection, or where the smallest speck of dust could prove catastrophic in a sterile environment.
Furthermore, we’re fully committed to preventing exposure and minimising the risk of Covid-19 infection to both our people and yours by running a safe and sanitary laundry operation, from collection right through to dispatch.
While there is still some debate over how long the virus may linger on fabric and hard surfaces, we believe it best to take every precaution by considering every item of linen and workwear we launder to be at-risk, as the industries we service include healthcare, hospitality, chemical, food, retail, mining, motoring, engineering, pharmaceutical, industrial and general manufacturing – all of which are vital to the national economy and require a constant flow of clean linen and protective workwear for the people that work in these sectors.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently advocates laundering items using the warmest appropriate water setting and drying items completely. This is essentially where industrial cleaning separates itself from domestic and small commercial cleaning operations, not just in scale but in method. Add to that the mandate to adhere to strict industry-specific standards and you have yourself a solid system of checks and balances in place.
At the Bidvest Laundry Group, we launder to South African National Standards (SANS) 10146 wash-process guidelines, in accordance with procedures set out by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). Our detergents and disinfection methods are all SABS-approved and we retain the necessary technical data sheets and registration certificates as an assurance of our compliance.
We are also ISO-certified, which puts us in a very select group as ISO-9001:2015 is a global standard for quality, administered by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Switzerland. With ISO-certification, the term ‘quality’ denotes not so much that of a product or service but more a conformance to certain set requirements.
Over and above being ISO-9001:2015 certified, we also carry ISO-14001:2015 (environmental) and ISO-45001:2015 (occupational health and safety) certifications. ISO-14001 sets out processes and practices that enable organisations to reduce their impact on the environment and increase operating efficiencies, while ISO-45001 enables organisations to proactively prevent injury and ill-health in the workplace.
Not only can Bidvest Laundry clients rely on our diligence in terms of these aforementioned standards, they can also rest assured that we are audited annually by external certification body ISOQAR Africa, to ensure our ongoing compliance.
While proof of safety and quality compliance is important to communicate to our valued clients, it also offers peace of mind to our own people, as having an ISO Integrated Management System (SHEQMS) in place helps provide clear expectations in terms of quality objectives and procedures, including the necessary process metrics to help us ensure that we’re getting it right.
In light of COVID-19, we are wholly invested in providing a safe workplace for all our employees by, amongst other measures, minimising the physical handling of garments and linen, including the limiting of surface contact of items where at all possible during the laundry process. Most critical is the separation of linen – all soiled linen goes in on one end and comes out the other at our laundry operations; there is no cross contamination between soiled and clean items.
Our teams all wear the required personal protective equipment (PPE) comprising safety clothing and (or both) equipment including goggles, gloves, face masks, overalls and respirators in areas where there is a likelihood of exposure to a variety of hazards. All supplied in-house workwear is laundered onsite; even our collection/delivery vehicle fleet is thoroughly disinfected by means of spraying directly into the truck bodies.
With a laundry volume of between 30-35k garment pieces per day, it’s imperative that we continue to tick all of the prescribed boxes and have the necessary compliance protocols in place to ensure a safe and seamless system from start to finish.
Whatever your laundry requirements, we have the solution for you.
For more information about Bidvest Laundry Group’s processes, including how our wash process and equipment installations help mitigate health and safety risks associated with Covid-19, get in touch