Interview with Roberto Deniz Santana, manager of CAPERSAN, the DOMUS local office in the Canary Isles

A company with long experience in the hotel and industrial laundry sector 

Today we talk to Roberto Deniz Santana, manager of Capersan, our local office for Domus in the Canary Isles; a company with more than 30 years of experience in the laundry and dry-cleaning sector.

Since 2014 they have been Domus machinery distributors, both for the industrial and the hotel laundry sector, and today we would like to talk about their business lines and the situation of the sector in the Canary Isles.

1. Good morning Roberto, first of all, could you tell the users a little about the company, its origins and how you started working with a brand such as Domus. 

Capersan was founded 32 years ago; we began as a civil society and after a time became a limited company. For 25 years we worked for another company, the business was growing, our staff, materials, infrastructure were expanding… Until there came a time, approximately 8 years ago, when we began to work with Domus.

We decided to support them as they seemed to be a good group, we could work together and the quality of the laundry machinery was very good.

We began as distributors, reaching where we are today, a local office in the Canary Isles for the brand itself.

In addition, we should highlight that we have made commercial and sales inroads in some African countries including Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco, Cape Verde…, promoting the brand in these countries and at hospitality trade fairs in the Canary Isles, with excellent results on all sides.

In short, we saw ONNERA as a fast-evolving name on the rise, and we tried to back the winning horse. As you can imagine, time has proved us right.

2. What are Capersan’s main business lines in the Canary Isles? Could you give some figures about how the business is divided between the industrial laundry sector and the hotel laundry sector?

60% of our business is in the hotel laundry sector. A further 30% corresponds to industrial and commercial laundries and the remaining 10% is for private customers, residential homes, hospitals…

The Canary Isles is a decidedly tourist zone. In the past all the hotels, or the vast majority, had their own laundries. Nowadays, many hotels have opted to externalise the service to two or three very large industrial laundries.

It is also true that this tendency is starting to turn around and recently there has been a long list of hotels which have began to set up their own laundries, and at least towelling is starting to be processed once again in the hotels. A factor which, for us, undoubtedly offers added value in terms of quality and, in particular, control of the process.

In addition, there is a lot of holiday tourism and demand for small laundries for flats intended for this type of public is significantly increasing.

3. And the self-service sector? With so much holiday tourism, this type of business must also be on the rise… or is this not the case?

We have set up between eight and ten self-service laundrettes on the islands and they work very well. At Domus we have a self-service laundrette model which offers all the benefits of a franchise, without actually being one. Without a doubt it is a business model which is on the rise on the mainland. We hope that with time, this will also be the case in the Canary Isles.

With the Clean&Go solution, we offer our customers a comprehensive approach for setting up a self-service laundrette. We advise them on the premises, the machinery, the design… we try to offer advice in all these areas.

In addition, the customer does not have to pay rights of entry, advertising or sales royalties. This means that the turnover from the laundrette reaches the customer in full. This makes this solution a feasible and profitable business model with guaranteed returns on investment.

4. What are the requirements of a hotel laundry and what sort of machines are most often installed there?

With a hotel laundry, you have to take everything into account. We study everything. For example, you have to look at which chemical products a laundry will need, always based on their specific requirements. The physical space is also extremely important.

We often find that the requests made by the hotel managers with respect to machinery are impossible to meet given the space they have set aside for the laundry.

This also all depends on the expected productivity of the laundry. The machinery has to be selected according to the requirements and volume of work to be carried out in this space.

It is very important that a hotel laundry has what we consider to be the three supporting legs: washing machine, dryer and flatwork ironer. However a flatwork ironer requires at least 50 or 60 m² of available space.

Other elements may also significantly help the daily work, such as a towel folding machine. It is not the same to have one person folding towels all day rather than an automatic folding machine which can fold the same number of towels in less than an hour. The productivity of the space increases exponentially.

To give you an example, we have recently installed two compact flatwork ironers in a laundry on the island, called  El Cardón, which has small branch offices across the islands, specifically in Las Palmas and Fuerteventura. They are delighted with the production rates these machines offer.

5. Let’s talk about energy efficiency and data analysis. Aware of the importance of controlling both consumption and traceability in a laundry, what are the benefits of the new TOUCH II and why is it becoming a game changer in the sector?

As a technical operator, I would say that the introduction of the TOUCH system in the machinery has been a success. Now, with its evolution, that is, with the TOUCH II, its success is on the rise.

We have spoken to engineers and experts in the laundry sector and everyone agrees that this microprocessor is really amazing.

One of the main benefits is that, once you know how to use it, you can use any machine in a simple and practical way without problem.

In addition, as you mentioned, an exhaustive control of the traceability, depending on the type of business and laundry, is very important.

That said, without a doubt the new TOUCH II has made our machines more productive, sustainable, environmentally-friendly and efficient, not to forget that they come ready to connect to the Internet of Things or IoT.

6. To wind up, we’d like you to tell us about one of the main pieces of news for 2021; Domus is developing machinery designed for working via the IoT. What can you tell us about this, and what are the benefits to both owners and distributors?

It is early stages at the moment, but it is true that everything we have discovered and tested so far is magnificent, both for us and for our customers.

For example, I believe that it will be absolutely essential in the self-service sector. When it is ready, I think it will be a great success, more than anything we have seen before. We are talking about the laundry of the future, and I believe that other brands will try to produce something similar or copy us directly.

This brings us to the end. Remember, to contact the CAPERSAN commercial department in the Canary Isles, just send an e-mail to web@carpesan.es. Also, you may take a few seconds to fill out the contact form on their web page www.capersan.com to receive their news immediately.