European Textile Services Association

WORKWEAR RENTAL SERVICES IN EUROPE

Still relatively unknown

A market worth 35 billion Euro

With market penetration of just 20%, workwear rental is still relatively unknown to companies in Europe.

To highlight this issue, the European Textile Services Association (E.T.S.A.) commissioned research to find out how workwear and workwear rental services are perceived in Europe.

According to Alain Decroix, Chairman of the E.T.S.A. Workwear Committee, "What comes out of this survey is that companies have little awareness of what workwear is, they do not know that workwear rental exists, and consequently do not use it or see the benefits. What we are talking about is a service that includes the rental and maintenance of garments."

This survey also shows that people too often think of workwear as basic overalls, and that many companies leave their employees to wash and maintain their workwear as they see fit.

In spite of this, the workwear market is showing a stable 5% to 10% increase per year in Europe. Three main reasons explain this growth. "The first is the need to ensure hygiene and protection of personnel. The second is that companies, particularly those which export and who have front line personnel, pay more and more attention to their employees’ image. And the third stems from outsourcing which is increasingly popular with companies in Europe, both North and South," says Alain Decroix.

From a legal and regulatory standpoint, companies in “clean industries” (such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical, food processing) and in heavy industry (chemicals, metallurgy) are required to use professional garments. These companies are also obliged to service and maintain their employees’ workwear to make sure workers and products continue to be protected. This should also drive companies to seek professional workwear rental services.

Finally, what of the future of workwear rental services? With the improvement in working conditions and the modernisation of companies, the market is now moving towards a new trend: the wear on the skin. "In other words," says Alain Decroix, "the employee is fully dressed by the company he or she works for, and the garments are fully adapted to the needs and constraints of the work. This means that employees no longer need to wear their own clothes. They will find their garments in a locker that will assure full discretion for changing. This trend is now increasingly prevalent in sectors such as health and food processing.

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