Dennis Chan, Managing Director, Lindström China
With its innovative and creative ideas, Lindström is one of Europe’s and Asia’s leading textile service companies with 175 years of experience in the textile industry. The company offers a wide range of textile services to its customers-ranging from workwear and cleanroom textiles to mats and textile they provide for healthcare in the Asian market.
Initially, Lindström was established in 1848 in Helsinki as a textile dyeing house which was complemented by laundry and small-scale textile renting operations in the 1930s. Later in the 1950s, the management recognized the company’s future as increasingly linked to the renting of workwear and textiles which eventually became the major business line a decade later. In 1990s, Lindström developed its internationally unique innovation, patented modular laundry concept, and established its first subsidiaries in Europe. In 2006, Lindström started its operations in Asia by establishing a subsidiary in China and after a year in India.
During its 175-year journey, Lindström has managed to renew its business and reinvent itself several times. Despite the turbulent years in world history including the most recent, global pandemic, Lindströmers have shown great strength to ensure continuous service for the customers. During the past years, it has been especially important in the critical industries of society, such as pharmaceutical, food, and health care where Lindström has taken care of workwear services ensuring hygiene and safety.
Today, Lindström is still a family-owned business, serving its 237,000 customers in 24 countries in Europe and Asia.
A Sustainable Mindset
China has set ambitious environmental goals and Lindström’s operations are also perfectly aligned with those goals with its circular business model, and carbon-neutrality and textile waste recycling goals. The company offers workwear as a service to businesses and organisations. Lindström takes care of the entire process from sustainable design and procurement to washing and maintenance and eventually recycling end-of-life textiles.
Dennis Chan, the Managing Director of Lindström China says, “As our business model is based on the circular economy it is our business interest to reduce overproduction and conserve natural resources. During the past three decades, Lindström has managed to halve the consumption of water and energy per washed textile kilo. We have also reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% per washed textile kilo since 2004.”
Lindström has technology and processes to minimize the use of water, recycle water, and treat every single liter of wastewater in compliance with stringent regulations before discharging it. The company also selects sustainable chemicals and detergents in the process to minimize harmful discharge to the environment. While operating in a resource-wise and sustainable way, Lindström has also improved the cost-efficiency of its services.
Empowering Customers
Being China’s biggest Cleanroom service provider, Lindström attracts several leading pharmaceutical companies. The company also provides workwear services for other industries including the biggest ones in China, processing, and electronics. “We value long-term customer relationships where we know the customers’ business and collaborate to develop new solutions together,” says, Mr. Chan.
Lindström guarantees that the workwear service is compatible with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and supports customers to pass GMP certifications and international audits. It also has an extensive backup laundry system and managed to serve its customers during disruptions and lockdowns.
To ensure high-quality service, Lindström collects customer feedback in its Voice of Customer surveys at various stages of the customer’s journey. With its CX Index measures the quality of interactions and collaboration with customers, as well as the ease of implementation of services and products.
“And while we have improved our customer experience by our on-demand manufacturing or digital services, it has at the same time helped to eliminate buffers in stocks and customer inventories, avoiding overproduction and operating in a more sustainable and cost-efficient way,” asserts Mr. Chan.
Caring for people and the planet
The purpose of Lindström is to care for people and the planet by inspiring people to shine and businesses to grow sustainable way. This is mainly supported by the company’s values which promote long-term customer relationships, responsibility, profitable growth, enthusiasm and the joy of learning.
As a work community, Lindström values caring for other people and respecting everyone. And, as an employer, the company believes in offering everyone equal opportunities to develop and grow in inspiring positions, as well as with motivating and fair wages.
Green Future
Talking about the future, Mr. Chan shares, “We want nothing less than to be the leader of sustainable development in our industry and offer our customers the most environmentally friendly option for their business textiles. We have set a strategic goal of recycling 100% of our textile waste globally by 2025 and in China we will aim to reach 70-80% recycling rate by the end of this year. Our long-term goal is to reach carbon neutral operations globally by 2035.”
Additionally, the company aims to collaborate with partners to find new, greener solutions for its operations and focuses especially on three main areas – energy consumption, customer deliveries, and textiles.
According to Mr. Chan the circular model is likely to be the predominant business model in the textile industry for the B2B sector and new circular models may also appear in the B2C sector. The demand for sustainable solutions is growing and more companies are setting their own sustainability goals that are also guiding their supplier choices.
“Sustainability is one of our core values and has always been a part of our operations, but today its importance is greater than ever. It is embedded in everything we do—making us accountable for our actions and thriving to create a more sustainable world for future generations,” concludes, Mr. Chan.
