A desire to better manage facilities during peak times led one of the largest garden centres in Bedfordshire to install high speed hand dryers in it public bathrooms.
Just in time for the pre-Christmas rush, Podingon Garden Centre refurbished its washroom facilities with Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel hand dryers, which cut users’ hand drying time from over 30 second to less than 10 seconds.
“An efficient throughput at the hand dryers was our key driver,” explains Jon Read, Operations Director. “We aim to make every visit to Podington a pleasure for our customers that includes having excellent stock, great service and getting all the little details right. We don’t want people having to queue to use the dryers, even when we are at our busiest.”
Another aspect to this is that rather than waiting in a queue, many people will choose to walk off with still wet hands. This can be an added hygiene risk, especially as Podington runs an onsite coffee shop and restaurant.
Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel maximises hygiene because it blows moisture off the hands straight towards a drain. Other high speed dryers often have no provision for moisture management, so it ends up dripping onto the floor, while conventional hot air dryers evaporate it and any bacteria into the ambient atmosphere. Additionally the Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel has invisible anti-microbial surfaces.
Adding another dimension to the Podington visitors’ experience, Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel is incredibly quiet in operation, indeed it has just been awarded a prestigious International Quiet Mark by the Noise Abatement Society. As Jon observes: “The sound of an old fashioned hand dryer going off in the background every few minutes can be very wearing.”
Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel is a ‘hands in’ dryer. User places their hands into a large slot like chamber in the top of the unit, which triggers a high speed flow of air through precision shaped nozzles that create a laminar flow.
“It’s a very pleasant experience and I was delighted to note that people took to using them straight away,” says Jon.
Another major feature of Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel is that it is highly energy efficient, using only about one tenth the electricity of a hot air dryer. The small energy saving of each hand drying will quickly add up in a busy garden centre and make a welcome contribution to the business’ bottom line.
Podington is a wonderful example of a successful family business, started by his parents in the 1970s, Jon now shares the boardroom with the Horticultural Director, his brother Philip. They employ nearly 80 people and are a major contributor to the local economy. They have recently won an Award of Merit from the Garden Centre Association and are listed in its UK top UK garden centres.
Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel is redefining washroom facilities and is the original high speed hand dryer. The concept was developed by in Japan Mitsubishi over twenty years ago and has been steadily enhanced ever since.
If you would like to rent or purchase a Jet Towel hand dryer please call us on 0800 032 5615.
