When leading outdoor furniture manufacturer A&E Leisure was refurbishing the washrooms at its Reading headquarters, company financial controller Deborah Smith found herself taking an unexpected interest in hand dryers. “They’re not the sort of thing I’d really paid much attention to before”, she says, “but since this project I’ve been looking at the dryers in service stations and other places with new eyes”.
The company designs, manufactures, and installs outdoor furniture and leisure equipment, including awnings and giant umbrellas, seating, and outside play equipment and benches for schools. The company’s retail division supplies the well-known Max-Green outdoor furniture range.
The Reading headquarters has a relatively small staff of about 40, and three washrooms –male and female staff, and a dedicated visitor’s washroom. Each of the washrooms has very different demands placed on it. Nevertheless the company found that one Mitsubishi Jet Towel per room would provide all the hand drying they needed.
But why choose the Jet Towel? “First of all we were attracted by the style” says
Deborah Smith. “Then when looked into it, we found they offered very good value for money”. This value was particularly notable when the Mitsubishi product was compared to a similar hand dryer from another manufacturer, she elaborates.
Installation of the Jet Towels was completed in March 2011, since then Deborah Smith has had a chance to assess their performance -and compare them to others on her regular trips up and down the motorways. Would she recommend the Jet Towel to others? “Oh, yes. They are so much better than what we had before, and when the capital costs and running costs are taken into consideration, I would certainly recommend them. What I’ve found interesting is that some of the traditional hot air blowers you see in washrooms appear to be really powerful, but actually they’re just really noisy. What the Jet Towel does is get your hands dry, and that’s what you want after all!”
