Current Convention Info
Our Next Convention Destination – Chicago USA September 2025
The last few years have proven difficult for our industry with the result that IDC has been unable to hold its renowned Convention. However, this year, it is back and will be held at the Sheraton Suites in Elk Grove Village, close to Chicago O’Hare Airport and will be from:
10th to 12th September 2025.
Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles.
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. O’Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world’s top ten busiest airports by passenger traffic, and the region is also the nation’s railroad hub.
Chicago is a major destination for tourism, including visitors to its cultural institutions, and Lake Michigan beaches. Chicago’s culture has contributed much to the visual arts, literature, film, theatre, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, dance, and music (particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music, including house music). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, while the Art Institute of Chicago provides an influential visual arts museum and art school. The. Professional sports in Chicago include all major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams. The city also hosts the Chicago Marathon, one of the World Marathon Majors.
Our Convention Hotel, the Sheraton Suites Chicago Elk Grove, is an all-suite hotel offering the best in the Chicago area, with accommodations with 2-plasma TVs, high-speed Wi-Fi access and ultra-comfortable beds. Savor delectable cuisine in the hotel restaurant and creative cocktails in the stylish lounge. Explore the area’s most celebrated attractions around Elk Grove Village including Allstate Arena, LEGOLAND and Ned Brown Busse Woods Forest Preserve. Free parking is available, as is a shuttle service to Chicago O’Hare International Airport based on advance reservations for a nominal fee. After an unforgettable day of business, shopping or sightseeing, take a refreshing dip in the sparkling indoor pool and visit the fitness centre with cardio equipment and free weights. The Sheraton Suites Chicago Elk Grove is sure to impress.
Speakers
Norman Way – Vice President, Puritan Cleaners
Norman Way is Vice President of Puritan Cleaners, a locally owned company proudly serving the greater Richmond Virginia area. He leads a team of 188 employees across 13 retail locations and 14 home delivery routes. Under his leadership, Puritan has grown its Wash Dry Fold service to over $1,000,000 in annual sales. Norman is passionate about developing people, building strong teams, and improving systems—all while keeping the customer experience at the center of everything Puritan does. The company’s culture is grounded in its commitment to Quality through People, Product, and Presentation. Together with owner Gary Glover, Norman believes that when you take care of your people, they take care of the client.
Heath Bolin – President, Sparkle Cleaners Inc/ Metalprogetti
Heath Bolin has over 32 years of experience in the drycleaning industry, beginning his career at Craig’s Cleaners in Houston, Texas, where he learned the business from the ground up before purchasing Sparkle Cleaners in 2000. As President of Sparkle Cleaners Inc. in Tucson, Arizona, Heath leads a highly successful operation with 16 retail locations, 5 home delivery routes, and one central production facility. A proud Metalprogetti customer for more than 17 years, Heath began consulting with the company in 2023, sharing his expertise in automation and plant layout design. His deep knowledge of workflow optimization and system integration has made him a trusted advisor for drycleaning operations across the country.
Thomas (Tom) Zengeler – President, Zengeler Cleaners
Thomas J. (Tom) Zengeler is President of Zengeler Cleaners, a family business still going strong after 165 years. His career in the Midwest’s oldest and largest cleaning company started at the early age of 5 when Tom spent Saturday mornings riding on a route with a Zengeler Cleaners’ home delivery driver. Those early experiences helped him to experience first-hand the company’s core values, such as knowing how each customer liked things done and the importance of building relationships. By age 15, Tom was working at one of the retail locations under the watchful eye of his father, Robert (Bob) Zengeler, Sr. Tom’s interest in the dry-cleaning industry and his willingness to learn about every department of the business made it natural for him to take the company reins and keep Zengeler Cleaners leadership in the family.
Tom’s leadership is recognised throughout the industry. He is a valued member of Management Concepts as well as a 25-year member (and current Chairman) of the exclusive Round Table of Dry Cleaners and Launderers. Tom has hosted a “best practices” exchange program in Japan as part of his membership in the International Dry Cleaners Congress. A long-standing member of the Chicagoland chapter of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), Tom recently earned “Gold Status” in recognition of his extensive commitment to the organisation.
Tom has also served on volunteer boards in the local community, earning the company, and Tom personally, many awards through the years. Examples include the Seven Seals Award for meritorious leadership and service to military personnel in 2013, in recognition of support for the Coats for Vets program. Tom and Zengeler Cleaners earned the 2017 Corporate Citizen of the Year award from the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce and the 2017 Community Service – Business award from the GLMV Chamber of Commerce. More recently, he served as President of Libertyville Rotary Sunrise in 2020. Tom and his family currently reside in Wauconda, Illinois.
Wes Nelson – President, Sankosha-USA
Wes Nelson is the president of Sankosha USA and has been a part of the Sankosha organization for over 35 years. He led Sankosha’s introduction to the North American market starting some 32 years ago. Striving to make the laundry and dry cleaning industries attractive to all, Sankosha USA is currently an active member of a multitude of industry groups including IDC. Wes is currently on the board of directors of TCATA.
Wes has taken the company’s mottos of “Customer First” and “Supreme Quality” and implemented them with his team of industry professionals to establish a reputation of innovation, automation and compassionate customer service.
CD One Price Cleaners – Joanna Vasquez, Michael Jackson, and Daniel Fitzgerald are the CD One Price Operations team.
Together they have over 30 years of experience in the dry cleaning and laundry industry.
As CD One’s VP of Operations, Daniel works to translate the company’s vision into implementable processes and procedures. With a background in training and process improvement, he seeks innovative ways to get new concepts implemented quickly and then evaluated and improved based on real-world results.
Joanna is CD One’s Training and Compliance Manager, responsible for onboarding new franchisees and providing classroom, virtual, and just-in-time training to support both brand new operators and long-term dry-cleaning pros. Outgoing and enthusiastic, she helps our owners, and their teams pursue continuous improvement through ongoing education.
Michael brings a wealth of knowledge as a manager and supervisor with a background in multi-unit restaurants to the CD One Price team. As a Franchise Consultant he provides real-time support, ongoing coaching and guidance, and a drive for operational excellence to the system.
World Country Reports
There will also be several speakers presenting the World Country reports, and these will be announced in the updated News.
Visits
Zengeler Cleaners
92% of American businesses are family-owned and actually employ the majority of the USA workforce. Studies show just 30% of such companies survive to the second generation, and only 10% to the third. Zengeler Cleaners has survived for multiple generations in large part because there was always one or more family members who embraced the challenge of learning the business – and Zengeler’s core values – from the ground floor up.
One such core value is the belief that community outreach is the responsibility of every civic-minded business owner. That philosophy began in the 1850s with company founder John Zengeler and continues to this day. Over the years, Zengeler Cleaners has invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours each year in support of programs such as Coats for Vets, a robust prom dress collection drive and many, many other local programs that serve both youth and senior citizens in the communities served by Zengeler Cleaners.
Under Tom Zengeler’s leadership, Zengeler Cleaners expanded to eight stores when the Long Grove location opened with a fully automated, 24-hour self-service delivery system in 2008. Tom led the comprehensive modernisation of the Winnetka store in 2010, followed in 2015 with the opening of the new Northbrook location and relocation of the company’s business operations to an office building, earning American Dry Cleaners’ “Plant Design Award” for Strip Malls. In 2022, the Northfield store relocated to its modernised location.
CD One Price Cleaners
This itinerary visits CD40 in Schaumburg The second location is a satellite location in Glendale Heights. And then the one wild card is the American Music World site in Elmhurst which is scheduled to be CD One Price’s first 24/7 automated kiosk.
Sankosha-USA
Sankosha USA is the North American headquarters for Sankosha, located just 10 minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Sankosha USA provides warehousing and distribution for the North American market. The administrative and service departments are also located at this facility.
At this facility Sankosha warehouse machinery, parts and covers/pads. Typically, they keep between two and three hundred machines in stock and currently over two million dollars’ worth of parts inventory across three thousand plus different items.
They have a state-of-the-art showroom which can showcase up to ten machines. The showroom lineup can be easily rearranged to match the interests of the customers at any given time. Training and educational seminars for Sankosha customers and distributors are frequently held here, in addition to industry association related events.
Sankosha look forward to sharing their facility and a sample of the culture at Sankosha during IDC’s visit.
Day 1 – Wednesday 10th September
Conference: Meeting the Challenges of the New Market Environment
A light buffet lunch will be available from 12:00 pm and the Convention will be opened at 1:00pm by the IDC Executive Director, Mr Chris Tebbs and will be followed by presentations on:
Developing the Wash and Fold Model
Norman Way, Vice President, Puritan Cleaners
Automation in the Industry
Heath Bolin, President, Sparkle Cleaners Inc/Metalprogetti
The afternoon session will be followed, after a short break by:
Buffet Reception
This will take place from 6:00 pm to 8.00 pm. As usual, this is an opportunity to renew old friendships and meet new members. A buffet dinner and unlimited drinks will be provided.
Day 2- Thursday, 11th September
This will start with a visit to CD Cleaners
Following a presentation by Daniel Fitzgerald about the CD Cleaners concept, there will be a visit to CD Cleaners. Following return to the hotel for lunch at 1:00 pm, the Convention will continue with:
A session of reports from around the world on the latest developments in the textile care industry including a report on Global trends and the future perspective of a fast-changing industry In particular, these will highlight the changes that have occurred in the Industry over recent years and some of the developments to address these in order to maintain a profitable business.
Retail Laundering options for a More Profitable Business
The Conference will close at 5:00 pm for delegates to have a break before the Gala dinner
IDC Gala Dinner
Cocktail Reception at 5:30 pm/Opening Ceremony at 6:00 pm -Dinner to Follow
Day 3- Friday, 12th September (Optional)
This optional day will start with presentations at the hotel from:
Tom Zengeler of Zengeler Cleaners and
Wes Nelson of Sankosha USA Inc
Following the presentations delegates will visit Zengeler Cleaners followed by Sankosha USA Inc
Here, there will be a further presentation by Wes Nelson and an opportunity to see some of the latest equipment available to the industry. Sankosha will provide a Japanese Sushi lunch before return to the hotel at 4:00 pm.
The Convention Hotel
The Hotel, for the Convention will be the Sheraton Suites Chicago Elk Village. The nightly rate for 9th – 12th September including breakfast and tax for either King Bed or Twin Queen Bed rooms is $134.20. Additional days may be available at these prices.
Registration
Japan Tour Services (JTS) will look after all Registrations from their office at 5-14-10-8F, Nishinakajima Yodogawa-ku, Osaka-shi Osaka 532-0011 Japan. A copy of the Registration form can be downloaded below and completed forms should be sent to either JTS or IDC as shown on the registration form. Alternately you can register direct on line with JTS – go to https://jts-travel.jp/idc2025-registration-form/
JTS will be delighted to discuss other tours on a private basis with anyone wishing to extend stay on or arrive early.
REGISTRATION FORM
Or, as shown above, to register online, go to https://jts-travel.jp/idc-registration-form/