By Lewis Berkover
Over the years, Unisync Group has established itself as a leader in corporate apparel and promotional products in Canada as well as throughout North America, providing more than 3 million employees with their uniforms. The company is headed by Carmin Garofalo, president, and B. James Bottoms, COO, who collectively have more than 50 years of uniform and apparel experience.
“At Unisync, we know our customers’ industries,” says Garofalo. “From our sales professionals to our inside support staff, we are uniquely qualified to implement and execute a wide variety of hassle-free uniform programs.”
Here are highlights of some of these uniform programs.
The Ottawa Hospital
Unisync’s most recent success story is for a program rolled out for The Ottawa Hospital (TOH). The primary objectives were to improve patient care by allowing patients, staff and professional practice groups to readily identify and recognize members of the care team, while also helping patients and visitors differentiate support services from other service providers within the hospital. Additional goals included:
•Raising the image and profile of the Support Services team
•Developing a corporate image for the departments
•Improving morale and productivity with a more comfortable, functional and durable selection of higher-quality uniform apparel styles and colors along with an array of customization options
•Delivering cost efficiencies and containment with a consolidated, standardized and effectively managed program
•Providing distribution, fulfillment process, systems experience and capabilities
The new uniform is a much more tailored look and was designed for the Logistics, Housekeeping and Food & Nutrition departments. Unisync created a custom-designed, distinctive hybrid-scrub uniform. The hybrid top crosses a golf shirt with a regular open-neck scrub top in three different colors. An updated scrub pant features a front leg crease and a more tapered leg, giving the pant a dressier appeal that is less baggy than scrubs typically appear.
With the new program, which debuted in November 2012, the vast majority of The Ottawa Hospital Group’s support service staff in the three key departments began using Unisync’s custom-designed scrub top and scrub pant. Other staff members across the departments were provided with a selection of off-the-shelf standard polo shirts, regular button-down collared shirts and Unisync’s Hammill work pants and shirts. All TOH uniform items are now stocked and managed out of Unisync’s Guelph, Ontario, office and shipped out as required, freeing up valuable warehouse space as well as human resources that the group can now reallocate to other areas of its core business.
Unisync is now uniquely positioned to play the leading role in developing and managing hospital uniform programs across Canada, with the next challenge being to design a new scrub uniform for all of Canada’s 100,000 nurses. The TOH uniform program represents an excellent model for other hospital systems to adopt across their nurses, professionals and support staff. These significantly enhanced programs will provide the support that hospital administrators are seeking to ensure that all participating hospitals can achieve their core business objectives.
“Our success with TOH has created a new focus on healthcare system for Unisync,” says John Wray, director of national accounts. “The goal is to become the whole market and become the leader in this industry.”
The larger objective is that eventually all of TOH Group’s nurses will migrate to the custom scrub uniform, which will allow them to be identified easily by their patients throughout the hospital system. In fact, the approximately 5,000 nurses in Nova Scotia just went into this type of program. The reasons behind this decision were almost completely identical to why TOH is putting its support staff into more professional uniforms: identity, professional image, morale and safety.
Petro-Canada
Petro-Canada is the country’s premier integrated energy company. Unisync provided a uniform program that consisted of a complete redesign of its retail image apparel, including tops, outerwear, aprons, headwear and safety equipment.
Petro-Canada came to Unisync targeting three main areas of its business when creating this new program: branding, line simplification and user enjoyment. Unisync was successful in meeting all objectives by creating a product line that maximizes the essence of the Petro-Canada brand through the uniform program.
Falling in line with the new Petro-Canada company logo, Unisync was able to create styles and use fabrics that are sleek, lean and cutting edge. From the outerwear pieces where they designed a sleek anti-static bonded fleece jacket to the knit polos that also contain anti-static properties, soil-release fabric and stylish reflective piping (also an integrated safety feature), this program truly represents the look and feel of Petro-Canada’s updated logo.
By simplifying the line, Unisync was able to design and create a far more versatile program using fewer pieces through the use of innovative fabrics and cross-functional styling. The updated colors, styles and fabrics have made the end-users enthusiastic about purchasing and wearing the new uniforms, truly embracing the new image.
The Petro-Canada program is utilized everywhere across the country, from select corporate office staff to the petroleum industry environment. The Petro-Canada chain covers more than 2,000 gas and service stations with more than 9,000 employees in the retail division alone. The company includes many branches, including:
• Glide Auto Wash – custom cleaning options that make it easy for customers to wash their vehicle
• Neighbours Coffee – a convenience coffee and sandwich shop
• Petro-Pass – the nation’s largest network of commercial fueling centers.
In addition, there is a marketing and wholesaler division that sells and distributes petroleum business-to-business that also utilizes the product line.
Ornge
A vital part of Ontario’s medical system, Ornge provides sophisticated medical transport for very ill and critically injured patients, both in the air and on the ground. Ornge’s helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and land vehicles have the capabilities of a mobile hospital, handling approximately 20,000 transportations every year.
Building off of previous successes from working together, Unisync created a distinctive look for Ornge that provides maximum safety for many of the 400 employees. This encompasses one of the largest and most intricate medicine transport organizations in North America. The program consists of custom designed and manufactured flame-resistant flight suits, that provide comfort and safety to paramedics and pilots that perform life-saving missions on a daily basis.
By working closely with Ornge’s internal design team, Unisync created men’s and women’s flame-resistant flight suits that exceeded the customers’ product expectations for fit, function and distinction. The extended design phase included a variety of fittings to ensure that the product size range provided the best fit for the wide array of Ornge employees.
The flight suit is a “mobile tool kit” with numerous, specially sized pockets designed to hold the lifesaving tools that paramedics carry with them on the job. The pockets are placed accordingly on the garments for easy access to the tools. The unique fit and prominent logo placement certify that the Ornge employees are easily recognized while in uniform.
Garda and Securitas
Garda is a global provider of security solutions, cash logistics and global risk consulting. Unisync supplies its dedicated professionals with a full uniform program, including tactical shirts, pants and sweaters, dress pants and shirts, blazers and outerwear such as parkas, spring jackets, bomber jackets, caps, toques and ties. Additionally, Unisync also provides Garda with tactical accessories such as duty belts, handcuffs, flashlights, rubber gloves, notepads and baton sticks/covers.
Securitas is a global leader in security, customizing offerings that are suited to the individual customer’s needs in order to deliver the most effective solutions. For more than 13 years, Unisync has supplied Securitas with a full uniform program that includes cargo pants, tactical shirts and sweaters, dress pants, oxford dress shirts, blazers and outerwear such as parkas, spring jackets, bomber jackets, caps, toques and ties.
For both the Garda and Securitas programs, Unisync was the successful recipient of the tender that they issued. In instances where logos and cresting are applied to items, or when garments are monogrammed, Unisync has been able to accommodate the various legislations between each province while still maintaining the company’s corporate image. Throughout the tenure of both relationships, Unisync continues to use the highest quality fabrics and most up-to-date designs.
About Unisync
Unisync Group Ltd. is a privately held Canadian-owned company with significant experience in large-scope national and international uniform and promotional fulfillment programs. Its wide range of services include creative design, technical specification development, global sourcing, manufacturing, online ordering, bilingual customer service, strategic services and inventory planning as well as state-of-the-art distribution and program management.
Its customization capabilities have been recognized for numerous award-winning design and technological breakthroughs, including six design awards in the past three years from the North American Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors. The company will be entering a number of new designs for the 2013 awards.
Unisync is comprised of three brands: York, Hammill, and Showroom One.
York is Unisync’s corporate apparel brand that specializes in designing, manufacturing and distributing uniforms across a number of industries including retail, transportation, restaurants, supermarkets and health services. For over 32 years, York has also been the Canadian market leader of image-enhancing products and services.
Hammill is Unisync’s professional workwear and servicewear brand, specializing in high-visibility, flame-resistant and safety clothing. Hammill offers a wide range of high-quality and rugged workwear, outerwear and rainwear designed to meet the demands of today’s working men and women including shirts, pants, coveralls, parkas, fleece pullovers and 100 percent waterproof clothing.
Showroom One sources and develops customized branded apparel and items that support brand integrity and corporate marketing initiatives. It also supplies promotional products such as employee recognition awards, grand opening items, T-shirts, water bottles and other custom items.
Unisync has cemented itself as a leader both nationally and globally in providing unique solutions to a multitude of companies spanning numerous industries. Its design team, distribution capabilities, inventory and management teams have allowed the company to pave the way in setting the benchmark for uniform programs like these and others. As technologies advance and its capabilities expand further, there’s no telling what Unisync has in store for the future.
Unisync Group Limited
1660 Tech Ave., Suite 5
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5S7
905-361-8989
www.unisyncgroup.com
