Multi-site Laundry Upgrades for Parklands Care Homes

Thain Commercial are Approved Partners with industry leaders Miele Professional and Electrolux Professional and have over 25 years experience of supplying laundry and dishwashing machines to businesses across Scotland.

Parklands Group is one of the largest independent care home providers in the north of Scotland, with a total of nine care homes across Moray and the Highlands and several new facilities planned in the coming years as part of its multi-million-pound investment plan. Offering a range of residential, respite, nursing, personal and palliative care, the group employs around 650 staff.

Raising The Bar

Eilean Dubh in Fortrose is the group’s newest site, having opened early in 2021. Offering 40 en-suite rooms, the state-of-the-art facility aims to ‘raise the bar’ on care home living in the Highlands. As the new home was being equipped, the laundry agreements at Parklands’ other homes had expired and were ready to be renewed or revised

Commercial Miele washing machines and tumble dryers have been crucial in delivering these high standards for Parklands Group since 2000. Over the last seven years, Parklands has worked with Thain Commercial, the largest independent Miele-approved sales and service provider in Scotland, to provide the Miele machines on a fully maintained fixed cost agreement.

Understanding The Clients Needs

As the existing rental agreements with Thain were reaching the end of their term, Elaine and the team decided to take out a new fully maintained agreement for Miele equipment across all nine of their homes, including the newly built Eilean Dubh.

“We chose to group our rentals together so all of our equipment at each home would be of a similar age and standard at any one time,” said Elaine. “It was an easy decision to replace our existing Miele with new Miele, as we know they’re reliable and fit for 24 hour a day usage.”

Parklands leased 41 new Miele machines through Thain, ranging from 'Little Giants' up to large Benchmark washers and dryers. The machines are on a fully maintained agreement on a fixed cost for five years. “The rental model means we can benefit from the latest laundry technology and rest assured that all parts, labour and maintenance are included for one fixed cost throughout the term, making it easy to budget around our laundry operations across all nine of our homes,” said Elaine.

Thain Commercial worked with Elaine and the Parklands team to design a laundry facility to optimise infection prevention and control at the new home, with an ‘in’ door for the soiled laundry, through to the ironing and sorting area, and an ‘out’ door for clean items to enter back into the care home.

Elaine said, “Kevin and his team were very knowledgeable of the Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines we were following at the time of the installations and were great at complying with our individual site protocols. They took it all in their stride and completed two to three installations each week so that all nine of our sites were kitted out quickly.”

Realising The Benefits

With all the installations completed, Elaine and the Parklands team quickly began to realise the benefits of the new Miele equipment, specifically the variety of specialist washing programmes and the auto-dosing system, which ensures that only the required amount of detergent is used for each cycle to minimise wastage and costs.

Elaine said, “Miele offer a great choice of machines with a variety of cycles that suit the needs of a care home. They are not only high quality but also very energy efficient and sustainable.”

The residual moisture function in the dryers is also proving popular amongst the team. Elaine says, “The tumble dryers can be set according to the fabric type to leave in a certain amount of moisture, which makes clothes and sheets easier to iron and results in a significant time saving for the laundry teams. Our Miele equipment and partnership with Thain are invaluable in the continued delivery of high standards across our nine homes, and for our future growth.”

Customer Feedback

Having high-quality and reliable laundry equipment is hugely important to delivering the standard of care we pride ourselves on. Not only does it enable us to take good care of residents' clothing, bedding and towels, and turn fresh, clean laundry around quickly, but it's also crucial in ensuring best practice infection control. At Parklands, we base our business relationships on trust. I've worked with Kevin Thain and his team for many years and it's great to work with likeminded suppliers. I can always rely on excellent service from Thain Commercial and they're always happy to help, whether it be for advice on new products or repair of existing appliances.

Elaine Taylor, Operations Director at the Parklands Group

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