February 17, 2025

Bates Troy Healthcare Linen runs the course of time with LAVATEC equipment

Beacon Falls, CT. – February 17, 2025 – As a family owned company in business for more than 80 years, Bates Troy Healthcare Linen has experienced its share of highs and lows. Leadership has answered challenging economies and changing environments by being innovative, resilient, and resourceful. Today, they are a trusted name and well respected business in their community.

Brian Kradjian represents third generation ownership of the laundry operation based in Binghamton, New York. Many years ago Bates Troy was a hybrid dry cleaning and laundry facility when they had over 15 retail dry-cleaning stores. Times changed but solid adjustments and the right decisions put it on course for a brighter future. One of those decisions was investing in LAVATEC laundry equipment which is still delivering high performance results 30 years later.

"Our LAVATEC continuous batch tunnel washing system has done everything a laundry operator can ever ask of a machine to do," said Kradjian, the company’s president. "That is, to simply run and run and run while putting out clean linen."

After Bates Troy processed 20 million pounds of soiled linen and delivered nearly 18 million pounds of clean linen in 2024, Kradjian says they are poised for growth this year.

"We try to be conservative in our forecasting and have a measured approach to growth.

We look for potential customers that will be a good fit, and who want to cultivate true partnerships and value great quality and service, as opposed to just treating linen as a mere commodity.

"As a company," he continued, "we are small, nimble, and responsive in nature. We are looking at the potential of one million pounds of new business, which we are hopeful to capture a majority of it."

A longstanding pillar of the community

Being hopeful helped Bates Troy rebrand itself to the point where it is flourishing today. The company dates back to the 1800s and the Kradjian family became involved in the dry cleaning business in the late 1920s. Binghamton’s heyday took place later when the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company, IBM and other manufacturers were major drivers for the local economy.

Brian Kradjian became involved in the operation in 1993, not long after the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The local economy soon declined and experienced a corporate downsizing when IBM and other defense and manufacturing companies reduced their size. Despite some devastating historic floods in 2007 and 2011, Binghamton is recovering with help from the high technology, education and healthcare sectors.

"I had just graduated from Boston University with a concentration on economics and philosophy. I split my time between our family’s commercial real estate business and our laundry," he said.

Kradjian has led the pivot of providing services to a growing healthcare industry within a 120-mile radius of Binghamton. Bates Troy currently employs 165 full and part-time employees at its 50,000 square-foot facility on the city’s west side. They are also a member of the New York Industries for the Disabled, providing work for individuals with disabilities both on premise and off-site.

"We service over 40 customers that consist of hospitals, nursing homes, and more than 100 off-site clinics. Most of the clinics and ambulatory centers are associated with the health systems we serve. We also have customers in northeastern Pennsylvania," says Kradjian.

Bates Troy also has a long history of charitable involvement in their community. Last December, the company was honored for their Community Service Excellence at the tenth annual Family Business Awards of CNY, sponsored by the Central New York Business Journal. They were recognized for supporting a wide variety of community- oriented projects, ranging from clothing drives and fundraising events, to supplying towels and linens for emergency shelters and the homeless.

LAVATEC system leads to beneficial results

Kradjian recalled what led to his company’s long-term relationship with LAVATEC that began in the mid-1990’s.

"At the time we were a mixed plant doing work for hospitality, food and beverage, uniforms, some healthcare and drycleaning clients. Our utility costs were high, along with labor and overtime. We visited the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, after they had just installed three LAVATEC tunnel systems for its OPL that served all their hotels.

"We decided then to specialize in healthcare and invested in the LAVATEC continuous batch tunnel washing system," continued Kradjian. "When we installed it in 1995, it was a major leap forward from our previous old, inefficient, and tired conventional washers. It is a productive machine for its size and enabled us to be a low-cost producer at the time. It also lowered our utility and water usage, labor and overtime costs, which made a big difference given the healthcare model is a high volume, low margin business."

The 100-pound capacity tunnel washer is comprised of 12 compartments and is the backbone feeding other LAVATEC equipment. The group includes an open pocket, LX- 425 washer-extractor for rewash, and five gas dryers that were installed in 1997, 1999, and 2005. All are connected by a shuttle system.

Kradjian says besides installing new controls in 2018, the only modification made to the tunnel washer was they reuse some of the press water in the rinse zone to lower water consumption. Doing the math, the machine has operated for more than 130,000 hours the last 30 years. It also has saved them from using millions of gallons of water.

"From the 1970s to when we installed it in 1995, our conventional washers had used a lot of water in the range of 2.5 to 3 gallons per pound of laundry," explained Kradjian.

"The LAVATEC tunnel washer reduced water consumption by half to 1.2 gallons per pound. We later had Gurtler, our chemical supplier, install a water reuse system which further reduced consumption. It went from one gallon per pound to 0.72, and now we run at 0.66 gallons per pound, which is very good considering the age of the machine. We also experienced a similar reduction in natural gas consumption with LAVATEC’s more efficient dryers."

Bates Troy earned its TRSA Hygienically Clean certification in 2022. Kradjian said the key to their success in having their tunnel washer perform at such a high level for so many years is simple.

"Aside from reactive situations, we always performed weekly preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance where, every few years, we go through the entire system and have a factory trained technician rebuild parts of it."

And there are times when it pays to be creative. Kradjian’s ingenuity was tested in late 2024 when the unexpected happen. After years of water infiltration, some wood beams rotted and caused the wash room floor to drop into their soil room.

"We had to remain operational and run goods through the tunnel washer for two shifts during the week, and a half day on Saturday," he recalled. "We worked with a structural engineer and an excellent local contractor to support our water softening and chemical dispensing systems before demolition of the floor and repair began.

"One of the remarkable aspects of all this is the LAVATEC tunnel washer was only supported by the legs on each far end, and not by the middle legs. This made it appear to be floating on air. Due to the well-constructed boxed underframe, we were able to do this without risk to damaging the tunnel and it ran the whole time during the repair process. This speaks to its durability, engineering and dependability."

When needed, Kradjian has learned that LAVATEC knows how to respond.

"Our chief engineer and maintenance technicians have historically worked close with LAVATEC. Over the years they always seem to maintain quality products, technologies and service. My late father, Ara Kradjian, and I had really good energy and chemistry with their team when we bought the tunnel washer. That has continued through the years with president Mark Thrasher and Eric Schori, our sales representative."

About Lavatec Laundry Technology, Inc.
Delivering dependable commercial laundry equipment engineered for higher returns throughout their lifecycles has been the Lavatec Laundry Technology mantra for over three decades. Some LAVATEC manufactured equipment has been on the job for more than a quarter century. A rarity among manufacturers of continuous tunnel washers, LAVATEC offers center transfer, bottom transfer and double-drum construction options, plus a full range of readily integrated, end-to-end laundry system components: washer extractors, extraction presses, centrifuges, dryers, conveyor systems, pickers, feeders, ironers and folders. Simple design, durable construction, user-friendly operation and low maintenance are hallmarks of LAVATEC machines. A global leader with equipment in laundry operations throughout Europe, the Far East, South and North America, more than 8,000 LAVATEC machines have been installed in the United States alone. For more information, visit www.LLTusa.com.