Christmas is the time to clean up
CAIRNS laundry workers are starting to see the light at the end of the long linen tunnel after experiencing their busiest week of the year.
Vinh Bui and his hard working team at the South Pacific Laundry at Portsmith have been run off their feet washing hundreds of thousands of sheets, pillow cases and towels for Cairns tourists over the Christmas and New Year’s Eve period.
He said, as Cairns hotels were hit with full occupancy, so was the laundry.
“Last week from Christmas Day we probably packed about 40 tonnes of linen a day to customers,” he said.
“We started at 6am every morning and we have to run until we get all the orders out.
“Then on Sunday we worked until 8.30pm because we had to pack all of the linen ready to go to customers on Tuesday and we did about 55 tonnes.
“We normally we do about 20-30 tonnes a day, but during this time of the year we have to run a bit longer to get done.”
Mr Bui said the laundry had about 60 staff on hand each day to get through the big job.
He said their workload should return to normal within the next two weeks.
“Cairns is booming. I told my boss this should be the biggest site outside of Melbourne and Sydney,” he said.
“I used to run the one on Melbourne and I think its bigger than Gold Coast and Brisbane.”
Mr Bui said he had spent the past six months working to strengthen operations at the Far Northern business for the New Year.
He said changes, such as introducing better quality linen for customers and hiring about 70 per cent local staff members, were now in place. it all
LAST WEEK FROM CHRISTMAS DAY WE PROBABLY PACKED ABOUT 40 TONNES OF LINEN A DAY TO CUSTOMERS