Roscoe

“The Roscoe Company is a family-owned and -operated textile rental supplier located on Chicago’s west side in the North Lawndale community that celebrated its 100th anniversary on Aug 13. The company provides uniforms, floor mats and towels to more than 1,500 customers in the Chicago Metropolitan area covering Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.” Read full story…

“George C. Buik and John P. O’Connell were two young entrepreneurs who, in 1921, saw a market niche in rapidly industrializing Chicago. As smokestacks blossomed, the workforce grew, and there was a growing demand for someone – other than the wife at home – to launder work clothes. They pooled their resources to purchase equipment and rent the building of The Very Best Laundry at the corner of Roscoe and Southport streets. From there, the Roscoe Overall Laundry was born.” Read full story…

“In an age of recruitment/retention challenges, laundry operators may be overlooking the advantages that enhancing diversity—particularly in the management ranks—can bring to companies, especially those that rely on immigrant or minority labor to fill hourly jobs. In essence, diversity can enhance competitiveness and staff morale by mining new talent that otherwise might leave you for a job that pays a quarter-an-hour more somewhere else.” Read full story…

“A family business has many assets to draw upon in a crisis, even one as challenging as a pandemic-triggered economic backslide. At Roscoe, a fourth generation work uniform company founded by my grandfather, one of the most valuable assets is the close relationships among long-tenured team members. We are a second family that speaks candidly with one another. Decades of trust built between leadership and front line team members helped us get through the uncertainty and fear of the last few months.” Read full story…

“For nearly two decades, company President Jim Buik and his team at the Roscoe Co. have leveraged technology to improve quality, enhance efficiency, expand throughput and save labor, while improving customer service in the processing of garments, mats and related textiles in his industrial plant on Chicago’s near West Side. The team Buik has built at Roscoe since he bought the family-owned company in 2000 came in handy last fall when he relied on an in-house crew to dismantle the old semi-automated sorting system so that Kannegiesser ETECH could install the new sorter.” Read full story…

“Roscoe is an industrial laundry that washes, dries and delivers commercial floor mats, shop towels, linens and uniforms. Co-founded in 1921 by Buik’s grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, it was among the few businesses that stayed after riots ravaged the West Side in the 1960s. It has hung on through the economic ups and downs of the decades since.” Read full story…