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Lindström’s Comforta expands its operations in the St. Petersburg

Comforta Oy has opened a new modern service centre for hotel textiles in Sestoretsk near St. Petersburg. Comforta is a subsidiary of the textiles service company Lindström, providing hotel textile services for companies and organisations.

It is common in Russia that hotels have their own linen in their storage and individual laundries in their properties. Hotels need to invest in linen, towels, dressing gowns and, naturally, the laundry personnel and equipment. In the hotel industry, these costs are truly significant.

“Leasing textiles and outsourcing their maintenance are new industries in Russia, but outsourcing is already familiar to international hotel chains. Interest towards Comforta’s services has been significant,” states Santtu Jokinen, Managing Director of Comforta Oy.

The world-wide recession has had an impact on the occupancy rates of hotels in Russia. The economic trends that are difficult to foresee encourage hotels to lease their textiles as a service instead of investing in them. Responsibility, the environmental impact of maintenance in particular, comprises an important part of the Comforta service concept. These values are expected to play a more important role in the hotel industry in Russia in the near future.

Finnish-based Sokos Hotels is one of Comforta’s first customers in St. Petersburg.

“Sokos Hotels owns three hotels in St. Petersburg. Our objective was to find a truly reliable partner for hotel textile maintenance. We have been in close cooperation with Comforta in Finland and, as a result, we are very pleased that the company has expanded and started cooperating with us in Russia. We can rely on Comforta providing our customers with the best possible textile quality in an environmentally friendly manner. Environmental issues comprise an important criterion for us and our customers,” says Juhani Järvenpää, General Director of Sokos Hotels responsible for operations in St. Petersburg.

Additional information: Santtu Jokinen, Managing Director, Comforta Oy

Comforta

Comforta is specialised in hotel textile services, operating in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Russia. Comforta’s turnover target for 2009 is 46 million Euros and the company employs more than 420 people. Comforta is a part of textile services company Lindström, which operates in 19 countries in Europe and Asia.