Business View Magazine | April 2020

162 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2020 processed in its facility do not contain harmful amounts of disease-carrying pathogens; is Clean Green-certified by TRSA, which guarantees that its operations are carried out using best management practices regarding environmental sustainability; and is part of the Laundry Environmental Stewardship Program, a voluntary program that facilities undertake to reduce their carbon footprint by making massive adjustments to operations without jeopardizing quality and hygiene. About three years ago, Medico Healthcare decided to build a brand new, $18-million facility to service its largest healthcare customers. Today, the new plant processes about one million pounds a week for the company’s acute-care clients. “A year and a half ago, it opened in South Gate, California,” Greg recounts. “It’s a 75,000-sq.- ft. laundry that’s only doing hospital work. It has a higher level of hygienically cleanliness and it’s very automated, so we’re able to cut out a lot of the labor touches, which means we’re able to compete on business and get aggressive on pricing because we can produce more efficiently than the competition. In addition, we tell our customers, ‘Here’s the owner’s cell phone number; if you’re not being taken care of, you can call and get an answer right away,’ whereas, our other competitors can’t really make that claim. I would say those are our differentiators.” In addition to the competitive advantages derived from its new state-of-the-art facility, as well as its personalized customer service, Greg’s father, Brad Shames, President of the American Textile Maintenance Company, believes that being the largest family-owned, healthcare- focused laundry in Southern California, is also a plus, as almost all of its local competitors are either owned by private-equity or institutionally- backed companies, or family-owned, if not family-owned. “The fact that we are a family-involved business actively involved in it differentiates us,” he maintains. “I think that message is getting to