LAA Member of the Month: Kununurra Commercial Laundry & Dry Cleaning

Interview with Lisa Spackman

Q: How long has the laundry been in business?

Lisa Spackman: Kununurra Commercial Laundry has been operating since 2012. This is my accidental business that started from wanting to do things more efficiently in processing the laundry from my two accommodation businesses. Then, we were washing in domestic machines – when we had 210 beds, this was crazy. So, I put in one commercial washing machine and dryer that took us from washing all day to only washing for a few hours. Score! Saving so much staff time! I told a friend who is a masseuse

about the in reduction of the staff time to wash, but then my frustration of having the machines

sitting there for half a day doing anything. She asked if I could wash her towels – well of course I would. This got me to thinking that if this reduced my overheads, then maybe offering the service to other accommodation houses, it would do the same. And so, a new business in the East Kimberley was born, offering a laundry service that had not existed previously. Kununurra is located in the East Kimberley Region of Western Australia. We are 800kms West of Darwin and 3,200km North of Perth, with a local population of about 6,500 people. It is one of the most beautiful and remote places in Australia – but I am slightly biased.

Q: What sort of work do you do?

Lisa Spackman:

• Commercial Laundry Services. Serving the hospitality and mining sectors.
• Domestic Laundry Services. Providing convenient and quality laundry support to residents.
• Additional Services. Wet cleaning, Linen hire, Carpet cleaning, Event linen hire

Q: What are the special operational, environmental andeven social challenges of operating in a remote arear of Australia?

Lisa Spackman: Operating in aremote area like Kununurra presentsseveral unique challenges.

• Logistically, the distance from major supply chains (Perth,Melbourne, Sydney) requires careful planning for deliveries of chemicals, linen, and parts, necessitating larger inventories than businesses in metropolitan areas.
• Environmentally, extreme heat and seasonal weather patterns can affect both equipment performance and staff safety, the one reason why we are fully air- conditioned. Otherwise, we would not have a work force during the Wet season with temperatures of 45 degrees and high humidity while working in a tin shed. This in turn meant a much higher fit out cost, with lining of the shed, installation of air conditioning, and the installation of solar panels so we can afford to pay for the air conditioning costs.
• Attracting and retaining skilled workers is also difficult due to the limited local workforce, which is why we provide accommodation and offer sponsorships under the DAMA (Designated Area Migration Agreement) program.
• Adaptability – We need to know a little about a lot of things to be able to manage efficiencies. Having to be guided over the phone to fix machinery is a challenge for both people on the line.
• Tradespeople – dragging my plumber (who hated washing machines) kicking and screaming to work out how to work with Commercial machines. Or convincing my builder that yes, my dryers defiantly needed to be built in a false wall internally and to remove the lining of the outside shed to enable the heat to escape.
• Seasonality of the Region – due to the extreme temperature during the “Summer” or what we call the Wet season; this is the quietest time with work reducing to about 3-4 days a week. While during the “Winter or our Dry season with the influx of tourists, contractors, etc we work 6 days a week. Staffing levels can be tricky with balancing full time employees (consistency of work flow, procedures and standards) and casual employees (constant training). The casual employees usually consist of backpackers coming to the region looking for an adventure.
• Lack of accessibility to Laundry specific knowledge base – the current laundry was designed based on what I needed rather than a typical laundry design. Finding suppliers is Google searches and phone calls. I have met with a lot of disinterests as we are either, too small, too far away, I am not male.
• Having a vision of what I want to achieve where there is not anything existing in the region already.

I’m incredibly thankful to those who have taken a chance on us, it means a lot. I truly value the relationships we’ve built throughout Australia and the support we’ve received along the way. I would not have been able to build the business I have without it. Despite these challenges, our team is highly adaptable, and we’ve established robust systems and community partnerships that enable us to continue delivering reliable, high-quality services.

Q: What drives your team each day?

Lisa Spackman: What drives our team is a strong, positive work environment where everyone understands their role and feels supported. By setting clear goals and implementing well-structured procedures and duties, we’ve significantly increased productivity over the past year. This has allowed us to operate more efficiently with a leaner team, while still maintaining high service standards. It’s this sense of shared purpose and continuous improvement that makes our business special. We are a team that relies on each other, where there is no position that is more important than any other – including mine. As one employee once told me when we were faced with one challenge or another – Don’t worry Lisa – you have taught us that we are in the business of solving problems – we can do this.

Q: What does the next year - five years look like for the laundry?

Lisa Spackman: Over the next year, we will continue focusing on operational efficiency and service quality. This includes increasing our processing capacity, expanding into new areas, and maintaining strong relationships with our existing client base. Our goal is to grow in a way that is both scalable and sustainable, with a strong commitment to quality, community, and innovation. At this stage we are operating at a capacity of 2.5tonnes a day while still manual folding. While not a large-scale laundry, we are not a small one-person laundry either. For the next 5 years it depends on the region’s progress, and we need to develop a plan to be able to be in place to be able to enable expansion as soon as it is required.

Q: How will you expand to meet increasing demand?

Lisa Spackman: In 2022, the business expanded into a larger facility and installed additional machines to meet growing customer demand, allowing us to go from processing 6 tons of linen per week. To now nearly 15 tons per week positioning us to meet continued growth in demand. This larger facility took over a year to find, as industrial properties in Kununurra with sewerage are very rare. So, everything we did was done with further expansion in mind if required. The next challenge is the type of machinery that is able to do the job with the challenges we face in the East Kimberely (i.e. being in the middle of nowhere) The challenge of transport, outfitting machinery that no one has ever seen before, and learning to operate is easily met – the hardest challenge is finding the type of machinery to use that fits our purpose. As this is all done by phone, and email. Experts in the field don’t tend to want to come for an hours site visit.

Q: How long have you been with the LAA?

Lisa Spackman: Since 2023

Q: Have you been to the Conference or participated in any webinars?

Lisa Spackman: Yes, both the myself and the Assistant General Manager have attended most webinars and found them to be very informative. Sessions on industry compliance, efficiency in laundry operations, and workforce management were particularly valuable, providing practical insights that we’ve been able to apply within our business. I attended the conference in May 2024 which I found particularly informative and great for networking.

Q: What would you like from the LAA in the next 12 months?

Lisa Spackman: Access to practical toolkits or templates for policies, procedures, or HR-related matters. The opportunity to build connections with trusted industry contacts and foster meaningful collaboration.