Atlantic City laundry’s expansion helps casinos stay squeaky clean

Lori Hinnant

Tuesday, April 24, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- The cycle has been the same for 15 years: sort, wash, dry, iron and fold.

For the owners of Atlantic City Linen Supply Inc., cleaning up after some of the city's biggest casinos has become a 24-hour-a-day job. Up to 125,000 pounds of laundry -- including 25,000 sheets and 30,000 towels -- pass through the laundry each day.

Driven from its former location by road expansion, the laundry operation founded by David Goldberg and Tom D'Onofrio in 1986 recently opened a 63,000-square-foot operation across from the Showboat Casino-Hotel.

At one end of the building, laundry stacks up in dozens of colored plastic bins, each the size of a phone booth. Self-propelled trolleys and conveyer belts travel between washers and dryers, irons and binding machines.

At the center of the room, in a glass enclosure, is the computer system that tracks each 135-pound load from the moment it is lifted toward the ceiling by mechanical arms and deposited into washers until it is automatically ironed, folded and bound into small stacks.

The computer is programmed to track which casino linens came from and where they must go. Turnaround is usually 24 hours, although it can be as fast as four if necessary.

D'Onofrio, who has been in the business since he was in college, got his start as a driver for the laundry company that employed his father. He now works what he calls "the inside."

Goldberg works "the outside," pitching the firm's expanded capabilities to prospective customers.

Both men say their commitment to the business -- and Atlantic City -- is long-term.

"What you have is a very high capital expense, so people who get into the business stay in the business," Goldberg said.

The new laundry -- with its computerized tracking system, a monorail system to transport loads, tunnel washers and automatic irons that also fold to exact specifications -- serves seven Atlantic City casinos' entire wash and does some work for three others.

Tropicana Casino and Resort sends around 100,000 pounds of laundry a week to AC Linen, said Howard Herman, Tropicana's executive director of purchasing.

Herman said the difference between laundry from AC Linen's old location and the new -- open only three weeks -- was immediately noticeable.

"Obviously it's taken some time to ramp up, and they're still getting the bugs out of the new facility, but you can see every day it's getting better and better," he said.

Herman said the laundry's location just blocks from the 1,600-room hotel is a particular advantage.

"We don't have to send it out miles and miles away. And when weather becomes an issue, or when you've got to have something turned around quicker, having something very close becomes important," he said.

Resorts Atlantic City sends up to 15,000 pounds each day to the laundry.

"It's a great benefit to have a new state-of-the-art laundry locally, where you receive the attention you and your guests deserve," said Kim Butler, the hotel's spokeswoman.

Eda Anne Galeno, editor of the national trade publication Laundry Today, said what makes AC Linen's new facility unique is that its computers can program equipment directly for the item being cleaned. Terry cloth, sheets, and food and beverage items are washed and dried separately, using individually formulated detergents and temperatures.

"They've got everything working extremely efficiently," Galeno said.

Goldberg said the new equipment, put into place after the two men traveled as far as London to inspect other companies' technology, is equipped to handle "all the casinos in Atlantic City and all the hotels in Philadelphia."

In the meantime, he said, the facility is ready to handle casino expansion already in the works.

Goldberg said the eventual goal of AC Linen, which had sales of $12 million last year, is to build another location closer to Philadelphia or New York. The company currently employs between 250 and 300 people, all unionized and most local. Its owners hope that number will soon grow to 400.

"One of our commitments was to hire Atlantic City first," Goldberg said.

And the days of laundry employees working in a steamy, lint-filled room are also a thing of the past. The new laundry has an air-changing system and a lint filter which keeps it comfortable.

Neither man would say how much they charge customers -- "it's a very competitive industry," Goldberg said -- but casinos have the option of paying by the piece or by the pound.

Despite the laundry's size, D'Onofrio said it struggles with the same tough stains as washers at home.

"Makeup and lipstick are the hardest," he said. "After that, it's olive oil."