Betty Skoutakis came to dry cleaning from the financial sector. After purchasing Metro Cleaners inToronto, she acquired the big one – the combined business of Sketchley and Cadet, with 80+stores. For someone with only a few years of experience in the industry, she now had the ultimatechallenge.As an immediate solution she farmed out what she couldn’t handle in her former plant, but

started planning a new plant, taking the advice of people she trusted. One of these was RichardKahrs of Attech Equipment, who designed and installed the new plant’s infrastructure. He describes the result as ‘a dreadnaught’ and ‘a really unbeatable plant’.As proof, he points to the vacuum system, which is a key component in the production of con-

sistent high-quality finishing. It has 75 inches of vacuum, which, according to Kahrs, is the best inCanada. The oversized vacuum lines are the strongest he has ever seen. The 50-hp boiler produces2.2 million BTUs. In addition, gas comes in at high pressure at 5 psi and is reduced for use insmaller lines, saving 30% in cost.Another cost-saving device is the largest FreeLoader ever built. It was specially made by Lorne

Tontegode to store the water used in the dry cleaning machines – using the return condensate toheat it and supply the heated water to the washers. If the temperature is not hot enough, it isboosted by steam in the washers. In effect, this means that the dry cleaning machines are using nowater at all, as it is fully consumed by the washers, and all of the heat is reused.

PLANT OPERATIONWith assured utilities, Betty and her team were able to create a truly unique high-production plantthat is two-thirds laundry and wet cleaning and one-third dry cleaning, producing twenty thou-sand garments and fifteen thousand shirts a week. The secret to processing large volumes of wet-cleaned garments starts with the five wet cleaning

machines by Asko and Wascomat. These were modified by George Manakis, who also set up the

Doing it her way

10 FABRICARE CANADA May/June 2011

Above: Betty Skoutakis,dynamic owner ofSketchley/Cadet.

processing with Pariser chemi-cals. They run a 20-minutewash cycle. After drying to aspecified percentage of mois-ture, garments are processedon tens ioning equipmentincluding two suzies, two top-pers, two form finishers and aspecialized air finisher blouseunit by Barbanti Carlo. The spotter starts at 6 a.m.,

working on the backlog of wetcleaning and dry cleaning thatwas processed by a late shiftthe night before. The drycleaning requires more spot-ting than the wet cleaning,according to Betty Skoutakis.

Other finishing equipmentincludes six New Yorker utili-ty presses and five New York-er leggers . These are a l lequipped with FreeLoaderergonomic rests for the touch-up irons. There are four shirtunits, including two YACunits with robot arms, oneUnipress, and the BarbantiCarlo unit, which uses aironly, no buck. This is forblouses and specialty tops.The dry c leaning i s

processed in a 50-lb Italclean,a 35-lb Renzacci and a 45-lbRealstar machine. All unitsuse perc. Shirts are washed intwo 100-lb Unimacs, two 60-lb Unimacs and one 60-lbImage washer. In addition, a40- lb Ipura hydrocarbonmachine by Columbia/ILSAwas recently installed. Man-agement cons iders th ismachine easy to operatebecause i t has no storagetanks and requires no steam.Betty points out that they cancontinue to clean garments in

this machine after the boilerhas been turned off.

WIDESPREAD OPERATIONStores in the Cadet andSketchley chains are not all inToronto. They are located asfar as Kitchener in the west,Barrie in the north and Bow-manville in the east. Becauseof the distances involved, theoutlying stores have theirwork processed locally, unlessthere is a problem. Betty keeps an eagle eye on

the figures coming in fromthese stores. If there is a dip insales, and management sus-

pects it is due to quality, thework i s brought into theToronto plant for processinguntil the problem at the localplant is sorted out.Speaking of quality, Betty

has kept the Three Penguinsystem, which is three levels ofquality that Sketchley offered.Top-priced Three Penguin gar-ments take a special routethrough the big processingplant, as does the slightlylower-priced Two Penguinservice. The plant gives two-day service for the stores,except for Three Penguin,which involves more handwork, and takes three days.

INSPECTION AND SORTINGAll garments are fed into amain conveyor, which bringsthem to the Garment SortingConveyor featured on ourcover. Without this Canadian-made auto-sorter and SRSConveyors’ complete garmentprocessing layout, the largenumber of garments processed

Cover story by Marcia Todd

High-production plant produces 20,000 garments, 15,000 shirts weekly

Top right: 1. Links to the past: Mary Ann Robson from Sketchley and EileenThomas from Cadet.2. Some of the team responsible for building and maintaining the plant. Left to right, Richard Kahrs, Pat Daible, Gilbert Strassguertl, Chris Skoutakisand Taso Skoutakis.3. Lineup of shirt units has plenty of natural light from windows. 4. Lady on the move: Betty Skoutakis crosses wide aisle between shirt and apparel finishing.5. Pant finishers with tensioning for wet-cleaned items.

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Booth #1771 at the Clean Show.

grammed to drop it off at theproper assembly/shipping linefor that store. It also has theexpansion capabilities to autoscan, feed and sort, whichcould eliminate the sorteraltogether. From there ordersfor the store are assembled,bagged and then transferred,on garment trolleys, to theloading area for the drivers.

daily would require muchmore time, plus there would bean opportunity for the usualmistakes of hand sorting. With this system, the sorter

checks the garment tags, andselects the proper assemblyline on the touch screen. Thenshe pushes the garment for-ward onto the sorting convey-or, which has been pro-

When asked how accuratethe system is, Betty declared itwas excellent. The only glitch-es were experienced beforeCanadian Cleaners SupplyCorp. (formerly GBA) wasable to source hangers withlonger necks.

PERSONAL IMPRESSIONSThis large, well-lit plant givesthe impression of a well-oiledpiece of machinery. Everyoneis working steadily, using thetools at his or her disposal(new equipment, sufficientsteam and vacuum, and goodlighting) to keep the garmentsflowing smoothly to the sort-ing conveyor. Not visible from the pro-

duction floor, but vital to thesuccess of the operation, areimmaculate and very adequateareas behind each row ofequipment for maintenance,as well as a major air handlingsystem with large roof fanscontrolling the amount of airgoing through the plant. Betty Skoutakis with her

nephews Chris and Taso, plus

the suppliers on whose adviceshe relied, Richard Kahrs,Lorne Tontegode, GeorgeManikis and Gilbert Strass-guertl, have created a dreamplant. Not only is it efficientwith backup equipment and asupply of basic parts, but it isusing less hydro and waterthen the previous plant. Although Betty Skoutakis is

the spark plug of the organiza-tion, she says emphatically, “Icannot be more thankful forthe people who work withus.”In the opinion of this writer

she has created a truly dreamplant, and in the process hasproved that wet cleaning canbe practical in a productionoperation. �

12 FABRICARE CANADA May/June 2011

Cover story continued

Above: Immaculate area behind drycleaning machines provides room forservicing.Left: Shirt/blouse unit by BarbantiCarlo is entirely air, no bucks.See on page 3: Asko domestic-sizewashers and dryers for customers requesting individual processing.

Pleasant reunion: editor Marcia Toddmeets Mary Ann Robson, an oldfriend from Sketchley.