Midwest laundry promotes professional service with a personal touch
For 85 years, the name Mickey’s Linen has been synonymous with quality and service in the textile rental industry. “‘Through Service We Grow’ was my father’s motto,” says Chris Brown, great-nephew to the original founder and one of the current owners along with his brother, Greg.
During the Great Depression, the company that Chris “Mickey” Georgeadis worked for laid him off. When he came home to tell his mother the news, she simply replied, “Start your own,” and that’s exactly what he did.
“I was actually named after my great uncle, who passed away just a few months before I was born,” mentions Chris Brown, who came to work for Mickey’s full time after graduating from college in 1989.
“Mickey started washing massage towels for many local barbershops out of the basement of his mother’s home, and the business took off from there,” explains Brown. Mickey’s Linen was founded in 1929 or 1930, and soon after, Mickey’s nephew, Peter, began working for the company. Peter later relocated the company and eventually settled in to a new processing facility at 4601 W. Addison St., Chicago, where the company continued to expand. Peter had four children that all came into the business: Greg, Cynthia, Nick and Chris. Peter was so proud to watch his children all work together and grow the business. Nick passed away in 2013, and Cynthia has since retired. Today, Chris and his older brother, Greg, own and operate the company, along with Greg’s oldest son, Peter, marking the fourth generation of family to enter the business. And 4601 is still a thriving production facility for Mickey’s.
“We now have operating facilities in three states, employ over 350 team members and serve several thousand customers,” Brown says. The new tagline is “Professional Service, Personal Touch.”
Mickey’s Linen and Towel Supply, a CareTex company, carries as a wide range of textile rental products for the hospitality industry including tablecloths, napkins, towels, aprons and uniforms. MedClean, another CareTex company, supplies an equally broad range of textiles for the medical industry including scrubs, lab coats, various towels and sheets. All CareTex companies provide dust control products, such as mops and floor mats, and full restroom services, such as toilet paper, hand towels, air fresheners and hands-free soap dispensers.
As one of the leading textile rental companies in the Midwest, Mickey’s has adapted to the changing business environment, while also taking on key initiatives to help the environment.
“We have always been environmentally friendly and we were ‘green’ long before there was a green movement,” Brown says. The basic principle of a textile laundering and rental business is environmentally friendly by nature, but Mickey’s Linen truly takes its environmental focus to the next level. The company’s dedication to the environment has recently earned it the Clean Green Certification from the Textile Rental and Service Association.
Brown says, “Throughout the years, we have taken tremendous steps to minimize pollution in the air and water, along with decreasing electrical and chemical requirements.”
There is an outrageous volume of paper napkins that, when disposed of, take up space in a landfills, and these disposable products bear greater costs for the customer, provider and society. Cloth napkins do so much to address this ongoing concern. Mickey’s Linen helps promote this line of its business as both an Earth-friendly step but also a money-saving choice for restaurant owners.
All detergents used by Mickey’s Linen are nonylphenol ethoxylate free, and the amount of detergent necessary has been decreased through exploration of more efficient water filtration and reuse systems.
In conjunction with decreased detergent necessary, Mickey’s has also been able to reduce the amount of water used to one gallon per pound. This is over 50 percent less used than in years past.
Mickey’s did not stop there. Looking beyond its plant, it also enlisted the use of sophisticated routing software to more efficiently route their trucks, thus decreasing the amount of miles driven and gas consumed by each truck.
Competing against larger, nationwide companies, Mickey’s has succeeded and grown by providing something that the nationwide companies just cannot: a personal touch.
“Aside from providing the highest-quality textiles, we have grown and succeeded through the relationships with our customers. We have been serving many of our customers for multiple decades – some even over 50 years!” boasts Brown.
Even as Mickey’s continues to grow, it still maintains the ideals of a family-operated company. Team members are very close to one another, and that builds a very unique, warm environment. Although Mickey’s is owned by the Brown family, many team members working in the facilities feel as though they are part of the family too.
“Our Team Members are great people who work very hard, and we feel it is important to acknowledge and show our appreciation for their dedication. We also feel it is important to continue to improve the company’s impact on the environment,” Brown says.
Extending this family and team atmosphere, Mickey’s gives back to its people. To acknowledge the achievements of the families of its hard-working team members, the Peter G. Brown Educational Scholarship was founded, and two recipients are awarded each year. This scholarship, an acknowledgement of quality of both character and work, is also reflected within the workforce. Mickey’s offers its team members excellent benefits as well as regular opportunities for vertical movement within the company. This ongoing recognition of a job done well was a keystone belief that was held near and dear to Peter G. Brown.
Mickey’s looks forward to the next generation of family members to continue on with the tradition that has been put in place for the last 85 years.
Mickey’s Linen
4601 W. Addison St.
Chicago, IL 60641
(800) 545-7511
www.mickeyslinen.com
