Restaurant closures hit more than chefs, wait staff. Suppliers feeling coronavirus pain, too

Boxes and boxes of clean napkins and tablecloths and bar towels fill the warehouse at 1012 Center St. in Tacoma, where Superior Linen Service washes and packs linens for food service, hotels and medical facilities. On normal weeks, these boxes would be shipped out and brought back a few days later to be cleaned and shipped back out again.

At restaurants and bars across the Puget Sound, more boxes sit idle, waiting to be picked up.

“We don’t even have a room to warehouse their inventory,” said John McMasters, Jr., the company’s general sales manager. His father held that role for more than 30 years, after marrying into the Hersey family. Jack and Greg Hersey now own the company their grandfather Charles started here in 1926.

Eighty percent of business is on hold. Aside from new medical accounts, including King and Snohomish counties, which have ordered sheets, towels and patient gowns, restaurant and hotel business has all but evaporated.

The business-to-business trade of linens and amenities like coffee hums on a constant cycle, largely outside the public eye. The coronavirus has changed the standard seesaw, leading family-owned companies to finagle a way to stay open to serve the few businesses crawling through the shutdown.

“Every hour, every day, it just changed,” said McMasters. “There is no playbook for this.”

The phone started ringing and ringing on March 10 after Gov. Jay Inslee banned large gatherings and offices started to shuttle their employees to remote working. Hardly two weeks later, Superior Linen and Tomlinson Linen Service, another family-owned provider based in Tacoma with roots dating back to 1916, strive to stay afloat and adapt.

“We have an obligation to our customers to help them first,” said McMasters. “We’re contracted with these people. If they are open for business, so are we.”

Joel McAllister, Tomlinson’s general manager, agreed.

“It just came out of nowhere,” he said. “Revenue goes down 85 percent in two weeks, almost 90 percent. When that happens in a matter of two weeks, there’s nothing you can do.”

Unlike Superior, Tomlinson’s facility cannot support a sudden switch to cleaning medical linens. The company relies solely on restaurants and hotels — two of the industries hit hardest by the shutdown.

“We’re doing so little revenue at this point that we’re just doing it to support them,” McAllister told The News Tribune in a phone call.

He trimmed operations to two days per week at the company’s plant in central Tacoma, where workers are unionized, in an effort to give tenured employees “as many hours as we can give them.” The schedule also limits contact for drivers, who traverse north to Bellingham and Bainbridge Island and south to Olympia, usually seven days a week.

Nonetheless, Tomlinson let go of about half of its 145 employees, some through voluntary layoffs.

MAKING TOUGH CALLS

“The worst professional day I’ve ever had was two Mondays ago, when I had to basically call all my staff and lay off half and tell the other half that their roles have changed, and the nature of our business has changed overnight,” said Neil O’Brien of Puget Sound Beverage. “We run the business like everyone is part of our family. We don’t have a ton of turnover. It’s like laying off a family member, and for no reason.”

He started the coffee and break room supply company in Tacoma with his father in 2004. They employ 12 people, many of whom have worked there since the early years, supporting offices throughout the region in a swath of industries — from heavy manufacturing to technology and assisted living.

Their business started to fall weeks ago, as office work transitioned to work-from-home.

“It’s been a bit of a guessing game over the last several weeks here,” said O’Brien.

Even industries still operating have downgraded their orders by as much as 50 percent, with only essential production staff still on-site.

A single route would usually include 30 to 40 stops; lately, it’s more like a dozen. This week, one route has only two orders.

Though this segment of the business supply chain has a few national players, including Aramark, many more are local, family-owned businesses, explained O’Brien.

“We are a little bit hidden, and that’s the nature. Our industry is huge, and it’s taking a massive, massive hit,” he said, noting two other Puget Sound suppliers, Agora Refreshments and Pot O’ Gold Coffee Service.

O’Brien and his dad will attempt to sell coffee and supplies directly to consumers, to adapt to this moment as best they can.

At Superior Linen, McMasters has fielded growing inquiries from hospitals, urging them to think big-picture as supply chains across the board are strained. Tomlinson will continue to serve the restaurants and hotels that remain open, but McAllister doesn’t expect a full-blown return to pre-coronavirus conditions.

“The problem is: how many restaurants are going to come back? The restaurant spaces will come back eventually, but it’s such a tight market for restaurants,” he said, anticipating that one in five could close. “We hope that everybody makes it through, but it’s just a difficult situation.”

O’Brien likened this moment to hibernation, but perhaps without the guaranteed return of spring.

“I know my business is going to survive this,” he said. “I know we’re not going to go out of business. At the same time, what does our business look like when we wake up?”

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 12:00 PM.