La Nuova was established in Hawera in 1959 by Mr J G and Mrs J M Craig as a retail dry cleaning business.
They were joined in 1974 by their son Gordon Craig and in 1984 bought into the Apparelmaster franchise to facilitate expansion into garment rental, towel and mat hire as well as many other services. In 2007, La Nuova shifted its main operation from Hawera to Inglewood, setting up shop in the former Moa-Nui Dairy factory.
Now trading as La Nuova Apparelmaster, the company is owned by Gordon’s son Brad. Brad is the Managing Director and is supported closely by General Manager and 25 year industry veteran Bevan Broughton .While Gordon is now retired, he supports the business in an advisory role as director of the board.
From its inception, the company has built a reputation on listening, understanding and then responding to its clients’ requirements.
We believe our business is fundamentally founded on ‘presentation’, both in the way we present products to our clients and the clean image they in turn present to theirs.
To this end, we offer for hire a huge range of work overalls, shirts, trousers, dustcoats and other protective clothing, table and bed linen, backed up by a comprehensive laundering programme, together with washroom services such as towels, sanitary units and mats. Most recently we have been providing a first aid kit supply and service, and also now specialise in wedding dress cleaning, repairs and alterations.
La Nuova Apparelmaster has the capacity in our current Inglewood plant to cope with processing huge volumes of product on a day to day basis. We are recognised for our superior quality product and service in the Taranaki region and this has led to increasing enquiries week to week.
Guarantee – Our Quality
Should you ever be unhappy with any part of the business we are open and honest and happy to discuss any concerns.
Environmental Laundry Hub of Taranaki
Our laundry plant in Inglewood has been operating now for sixteen years. The state-of-the-art equipment from Europe has been mastered by our skilled team and we are now reaping the rewards.
Our business has been growing rapidly and in April 2015 we completed a multi million dollar upgrade which sees our capacity double and our efficiencies increase. From this we have seen a 20% reduction in water use with more to come as we fine tune the new equipment.
Continued growth and our commitment to lead the industry with the latest technology has seen us undertake yet another Multi-million dollar upgrade of our facility in 2022. Now this project has been completed (July 2023) we now operate the most technologically advanced laundry in NZ
How it works
The plant was designed along the simple idea of the laundry coming in dirty at one end of the building and coming out clean at the other. A computerised load cell weighs the product as it is brought in, and then stores it in over head bags prior to dropping into one of our two tunnel washers.
The two Continuous Batch Washers (CBW), have compartments for the separate stages of washing. The product is automatically moved from one compartment to the next. We have one 9 pocket CBW we use for colours and a 12 pocket CBW that we use for our whites.
The computerised continuous batch process means that the different requirements of the various types of product can be met at the same time. For example, the first compartment may be starting the process for a batch of linen, while garments are undergoing the second stage in the next compartment and towels the next step in the third. 50 kilos of product is washed every two and a half minutes.
The automated process uses considerably less water than older traditional laundry equipment. The Inglewood plant uses 9 litres of water per kilogram of product, compared with 22 litres at the old Hawera plant.
After washing, the product is automatically transferred to an extractor or press, which removes the worst of the moisture before tipping the product into a shuttle. The next step depends on the type of product being washed. Some will be lifted up into one of five large dryers. Other items bypass this stage. A conveyor at the back of the dryers then takes the product up to a trolley in the rear area of the plant.
La Nuova Factory
Up to this point, the product has not been manhandled. The product is then taken through the dividing wall to awaiting trolleys full of tea towels, pillow slips, linen and cabinet towels are taken to the ironer, after which they are folded automatically and placed onto shelves, ready for orders to be made up.
Overalls, shirts and trousers for example, are placed on hangers and fed into one end of the tunnel, dried and come out at the other end.
This process gives them better presentation and makes them last longer, as there is less mechanical action to wear out the fabric.
A sorting system assigns the garments to the appropriate accounts. There is a repair station in this part of the plant, plus a robot garment folder and racks for hanging the garments, that are delivered back on hangers.
Our fleet of 21 vehicles is constantly being upgraded to ensure they are efficient and well presented.
The new plant is well situated for all our Taranaki clients, being 15 minutes from New Plymouth, Bell Block and Waitara, 35 minutes from Hawera and 1 hour 40 minutes from Whanganui.