The thought of being exposed to the diseases and germs present in a public restroom causes more than a little discomfort for patrons, but as society changes in the wake of anthrax fears (not to mention cold and flu season), people are at a heightened state of awareness when it comes to what they come in contact with. Therefore, not only is it more important than ever for building managers to keep their restrooms clean and fresh-smelling, but they must also provide hand-washing and drying systems that allow patrons to walk away feeling safe and germ-free.

A recent survey conducted by Kimberly-Clark, Roswell, Ga., reflects these common concerns. Of 1,007 adults surveyed, 66 percent said that most often “unclean conditions” led to a bad impression of a public restroom. “No toilet paper” came in second with 13 percent, and odors got 11 percent of the vote.

Part of a distributor’s role in this whole mess is to help customers sort through the products that are available — including soap and paper dispensers — and devise a system that will be reliable, sanitary, attractive and cost efficient.

Of course, each customer comes with an individual set of desires and conditions, but distributors have the opportunity — and the knowledge — to look at that customer’s guidelines and provide him or her with the information to make a decision that fits the facility’s needs.

“We position ourselves as a company that says, ‘What do you want?’” says Marty LaBarbera, sales manager for All-Brite Sales Co., Jacksonville, Fla. “We focus on finding the right system that delivers what they want, and we like the paper and plastic to be part of that.” The dispensers are part of the equation; however, the quality and type of paper a facility is looking for is generally what drives the dispenser choice for his customers, LaBarbera adds.

Many customers are also prepared to wheel and deal when it comes to their soap and paper systems. There are two major choices for systems, says LaBarbera: proprietary or generic. There are advantages and disadvantages that come with each, but when a distributor sells proprietary dispensers and paper, they often take a hit on the price of the dispenser, and hope to make that up with repeat paper sales. With generic products, the customer owns the dispenser. Their paper is cheaper, but the customer is not tied to a single paper supplier — there’s the potential for a competitor to steal the business with a lower price.

“The down side is that anyone’s towel will go in it because the customer owns the [generic] dispenser,” he says. “But that doesn’t happen as much anymore if you do it right,” he says. Part of doing it right is maintaining a strong relationship with the customer, and being ready to help when they have questions or problems.

Touch-free For Me
Economics aside, there is a definite trend toward touch-free restrooms, says Paul Passanise, president of Royal Papers Inc., St. Louis. The offerings in that area are becoming increasingly sophisticated as well, he adds. Still, like LaBarbera, he feels someone ends up bearing the brunt of the higher cost of hands-free and high-tech dispensers, and often it’s not the customer.

“One of the issues that comes with the hands-free systems is there’s a significantly higher cost involved in the dispenser. It’s hard for the distributor to make the investment, and the customer wants the dispenser at no charge.”

No distributor likes to give product away, and David Berman, corporate manager, sales and marketing, of Pollock Paper, a distributor headquartered in Dallas, makes a point not to.

“Our way of doing business is not to incite business with a customer with a giveaway,” he says. Though there are often incentives to do so, Berman tries to preserve the value of the product.

“If it’s free, you devalue it,” he says. Still, “freebies” are at times unavoidable.

“When you retrofit a building, the expense could be $10,000, $20,000, $30,000,” he explains. Because a customer has a hard time absorbing the up-front cost, the distributor will often foot the bill, and make up for it with repeat paper and soap sales, according to Berman.

“But it has to be in place for a fairly decent amount of time for it to do that.” That time can range from two to five years before a distributor sees a profit with that customer.

“When we do an initial call and the exploratory questioning, we want to go in there with a total solution for them. We want to be able to give them the most sanitary environment,” Berman says.

Passanise agrees. “There’s quite a bit of upsell potential if you can talk about selling a system rather than selling paper by the linear foot. You can do better for the customer and make a higher profit.”

Cleaner Days Ahead
The trend toward touch-free indicates the importance people are placing on cleanliness in today’s society — and not just those in the cleaning industry.

So it’s interesting to note that many of a facility’s towel and tissue decisions are made before a building is even constructed. Architects often dictate the restroom layout, and distributors are stuck dealing with the cabinets that were chosen by the designer.

“They specify whatever types of cabinets, so you don’t have a lot of ability to work around that,” says Passanise.

And architects are tending toward touch-free in other aspects of building design. “Architects are designing buildings where you don’t have to touch a door handle,” says Berman. Instead, users walk around corners to enter the restroom, which opens up the market for superior air management systems as well.

There are other trends in restroom care and design today, many of them related to keeping facilities more sanitary than they have ever been. For example, many facilities are now installing wall-mounted sanitizer dispensers, especially in the health care field. A hospital Passanise serves has them mounted by each door. There’s also a supermarket he supplies that has them at each check-out station.

Despite the decided trend toward hands-free, there is always the list of factors that distributors must consider when they work with a customer to determine what system will fit their needs. Budget, aesthetics, preference, volume and cost-savings are key. So distributors agree, finding a system accounts for all of these is of benefit to both the facility and the distributor.

People are much more aware of what they’re touching, and the trend is not only apparent in restroom fixtures; the designers of new buildings are designing restrooms with those concerns in mind.




POSTED ON: 2/1/2002