Portes ouvertes

We get our laundry for the gîte done by Blanchisserie du Maine based in Laval.  We've had our differences in the past, but we have what appears to be a working arrangement now.  We deliver our dirty laundry to a garage in the village where they collect it, and bring it back cleaned, ironed and neatly folded, a few days later.

They had an open evening (fr: "portes ouvertes") recently, to celebrate the opening of a new building housing a big new industrial washing machine, plus supporting equipment.   It was quite a fancy affair; various local dignitories were there, giving speeches, there was champagne, wine, and canapés, and a small band started playing after the formalities.

Some interesting figures were given out: the business has enjoyed double-digit growth every year since 2000 when the current owners took it over.   (They didn't say if this was revenue, profits or volume of work).  They now use less than half the electricity per Kg of washing that they did in 2000, and less than 20% of the water.

It appeared that all the staff were there, and were called out by name for the final photo shoot.  They wore different colour T-shirts depending on which department they worked in.  I got the impressioin of a good business, and of an event where they were making an effort to give people a nice time in celebrating their success.