National, February 2, 2021:  The year 2020 has had devastating effects on the fashion industry and has been even harsher on manufacturers and suppliers around the world. The disruption was quite sudden and now that it is time to rewire the industry, a Gurugram-based startup Fashinza has formally unveiled India’s one of its kind B2B platform that helps apparel and fashion brands outsource their manufacturing with complete transparency and reliability. An end-to-end cloud-based production platform, it helps apparel and fashion brands outsource their manufacturing efficiently. Fashinza already has 400 plus ethical partner factories across India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka and counts brands like Forever21, Noon.com, FirstCry, The Souled Store, and Bewakoof.com among their customers.

In his comments on the new platform, Pawan Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Fashinza, said, “Our cloud-based software is transforming the fashion industry by digitizing global supply chains and making sustainable sourcing easy and cost-effective for brands and every player in the supply chain. Our platform enables brands to manage the entire product development, sourcing, and production process from design right through delivery, all in one place. Fashinza helps brands reduce inventory forecasting errors and produce goods with complete transparency and minimal effort. We currently have manufacturing units in India, Bangladesh, and Srilanka and have worked with brands across India, USA, UK, Europe, and Australia. “

Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder and COO, Fashinza said, “At Fashinza, we are creating a new generation supply chain and product development platform for the Fashion Industry. Through Fashinza, we are also addressing the problems of small and medium sized manufacturers. MSMEs industrial units don’t have experience in using state-of-the-art technology that radically improves operations by introducing transparency and efficiency in the production process.  By partnering up with us they not only get to work with both national and international brands but also get an opportunity to upscale their business and operations through the integration of latest technologies.”

About Fashinza: Founded in 2020 by IIT Delhi Alumni, Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma, Gurugram-based Fashinza is a B2B marketplace that helps apparel and fashion brands outsource their manufacturing with complete transparency and reliability. They handle everything from design to delivery for their partner brands. Fashinza also helps global brands to work with lowest MOQs in the industry and have fast turnarounds. As of January 2021, they have 400 plus ethical partner factories across India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. Fashinza counts brands like Forever21, Noon.com, FirstCry, The Souled Store, and Bewakoof.com among their customers. 

Hanover, MA -- In a year that’s redefined normal, Lapels Dry Cleaning, an innovative, environmentally friendly dry cleaning company headquartered in Hanover, Massachusetts, took what’s become its normal place on Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500. For 2021, Lapels Dry Cleaning ranked 397 out of nearly 4,000 Franchise Concepts now available within the country.

“We strive to be the best franchise out there every single year. That requires continuous improvement, even during a pandemic,” said Kevin Dubois, CEO of Lapels and co-author of Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Dry Cleaning Business. “This past year, we developed new offerings, such as our new flat rate laundry program, converting existing laundromats and building new, partnered with Target to host lockers in select locations, as well as increased our free delivery routes to accommodate contactless services and stay at home orders. We also sought out independent dry cleaners for conversion to provide our new franchise owners the opportunity to hit the ground running with built-in market garment care services”

Added Dubois, “As always, we have continued to run our stores in an environmentally friendly way.”

Over two decades, Lapels has pioneered an eco-friendly dry-cleaning experience. That experience features a partnership agreement with GreenEarth®, the dry cleaning industry’s only non-toxic cleaning alternative for its newer locations. Using these kinds of solutions and the latest technology in equipment, Lapels uses the world’s ONLY 100 percent environmentally non-toxic dry cleaning process along with 100 percent wet cleaning that offers a sustainable and hypo allergenic process.

This business model has been very well received from not only retail customers looking for a better cleaning experience but also from some of the world’s largest hotel operators and employers looking to offer a sustainable solution to their customers and employees. Lapels Dry Cleaning’s environmentally-friendly cleaning process has no odor and is gentler on clothes, thus lengthening the life of clothes.

In addition to green business practices, Lapels Dry Cleaning remains an active member of the communities each location serves. That’s continued during the pandemic as individual Lapels locations have offered discounted and free cleaning services to health care professionals.

Lapels Dry Cleaning also sets itself apart with its customer service. Lapels customers are greeted to a warm and inviting reception area, with friendly customer service representatives, and alteration services.

In terms of its services, Lapels offers its customers Automatic Rewards earning them credit towards free dry cleaning for every dollar they spend, Loyalty Programs, a VIP Program which eliminates the need to wait in line, the use of a 24 Hour Drop Off Service and FREE Home Delivery to all its customers. During the COVID 19 pandemic Lapels also offers a “car hop” service where customers can drop off and pick up their clothing without ever leaving their cars.

For complete information on Lapels Dry Cleaning, please visit https://lapelsfranchise.com/.

Lapels Dry Cleaning – Environmentally Friendly Cleaners
Each Lapels Dry Cleaning store offers a full slate of services, including same-day dry cleaning; shirt service; tailoring; wedding gown preservation; suede and leather processing; box storage and fur storage. Lapels Dry Cleaning has stores in Arizona (Buckeye, Gilbert, Chandler, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Yuma), California (Gilroy, Hollister), Colorado (Littleton), Connecticut (Cromwell), Florida (Fleming Island, Tampa); Illinois (Wilmette); Massachusetts (Abington, Allston, Bedford, Boston, Boston Seaport, South Boston, Brighton, Burlington, Cohasset, Concord, Dedham, Dover, Easton, Hanover, Hingham, Kingston, North Andover, Malden, Marshfield, Martha’s Vineyard, Newtonville, Norton, Stoughton, Waltham, Wakefield, Wellesley, Westwood, W Roxbury and Wilmington), Mississippi (New Albany, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Oxford, Pontotoc), New Jersey (Brick, Somerville), New York (Latham), North Carolina (Charlotte), Oklahoma (Edmond, Oklahoma City), Pennsylvania (Bloomsburg), South Carolina (Fort Mill, Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, Carolina Forest), Tennessee (Arlington, Brentwood, Franklin, Germantown, Nashville), Texas (Brownsville, Little Elm, Prosper, Spring). Additional locations are coming soon to Bloomsburg, PA, Scottsdale, AZ and Brooklyn, NY.

Lapels Dry Cleaning has received a number of accolades in the franchise world. That includes being ranked again on the 2020 Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list for the country’s top Franchise Systems. Entrepreneur's “Franchise 500” is the best and most comprehensive rating of franchises in the world and is based on objective, quantifiable measures of a franchise operation. Lapels Dry Cleaning has also been named to Franchise Times Top 200+.

Lapels has also achieved acclaim in the dry cleaning industry. Lapels Dry Cleaning CEO Kevin Dubois is the co-author of Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Dry Cleaning Business, sold on Amazon.com.

Lapels Dry Cleaning corporate offices are located at 962 Washington Street, Hanover, MA 02339. 

To learn more about franchise opportunities with Lapels Dry Cleaning, call toll free (866) 695-2735 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Additional information and up-to-date company news can also be found on the company’s Web site, www.lapelsfranchise.com and www.mylapels.com

Media Contact:
Steven Dubin, PR Works
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
781-582-1061

dry cleaning, franchise 500, entrepreneur, business

Entrepreneur Magazine Names Lapels Dry Cleaning to Franchise 500

Hanover, MA, February 02, 2021 -- In a year that’s redefined normal, Lapels Dry Cleaning, an innovative, environmentally friendly dry cleaning company headquartered in Hanover, Massachusetts, took what’s become its normal place on Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500. For 2021, Lapels Dry Cleaning ranked 397 out of nearly 4,000 Franchise Concepts now available within the country.

“We strive to be the best franchise out there every single year. That requires continuous improvement, even during a pandemic,” said Kevin Dubois, CEO of Lapels and co-author of Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Dry Cleaning Business. “This past year, we developed new offerings, such as our new flat rate laundry program, converting existing laundromats and building new, partnered with Target to host lockers in select locations, as well as increased our free delivery routes to accommodate contactless services and stay at home orders. We also sought out independent dry cleaners for conversion to provide our new franchise owners the opportunity to hit the ground running with built-in market garment care services”

Added Dubois, “As always, we have continued to run our stores in an environmentally friendly way.”

Over two decades, Lapels has pioneered an eco-friendly dry-cleaning experience. That experience features a partnership agreement with GreenEarth®, the dry cleaning industry’s only non-toxic cleaning alternative for its newer locations. Using these kinds of solutions and the latest technology in equipment, Lapels uses the world’s ONLY 100 percent environmentally non-toxic dry cleaning process along with 100 percent wet cleaning that offers a sustainable and hypo allergenic process.

This business model has been very well received from not only retail customers looking for a better cleaning experience but also from some of the world’s largest hotel operators and employers looking to offer a sustainable solution to their customers and employees. Lapels Dry Cleaning’s environmentally-friendly cleaning process has no odor and is gentler on clothes, thus lengthening the life of clothes.

In addition to green business practices, Lapels Dry Cleaning remains an active member of the communities each location serves. That’s continued during the pandemic as individual Lapels locations have offered discounted and free cleaning services to health care professionals.

Lapels Dry Cleaning also sets itself apart with its customer service. Lapels customers are greeted to a warm and inviting reception area, with friendly customer service representatives, and alteration services.

In terms of its services, Lapels offers its customers Automatic Rewards earning them credit towards free dry cleaning for every dollar they spend, Loyalty Programs, a VIP Program which eliminates the need to wait in line, the use of a 24 Hour Drop Off Service and FREE Home Delivery to all its customers. During the COVID 19 pandemic Lapels also offers a “car hop” service where customers can drop off and pick up their clothing without ever leaving their cars.

For complete information on Lapels Dry Cleaning, please visit https://lapelsfranchise.com/.

Lapels Dry Cleaning – Environmentally Friendly Cleaners
Each Lapels Dry Cleaning store offers a full slate of services, including same-day dry cleaning; shirt service; tailoring; wedding gown preservation; suede and leather processing; box storage and fur storage. Lapels Dry Cleaning has stores in Arizona (Buckeye, Gilbert, Chandler, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Yuma), California (Gilroy, Hollister), Colorado (Littleton), Connecticut (Cromwell), Florida (Fleming Island, Tampa); Illinois (Wilmette); Massachusetts (Abington, Allston, Bedford, Boston, Boston Seaport, South Boston, Brighton, Burlington, Cohasset, Concord, Dedham, Dover, Easton, Hanover, Hingham, Kingston, North Andover, Malden, Marshfield, Martha’s Vineyard, Newtonville, Norton, Stoughton, Waltham, Wakefield, Wellesley, Westwood, W Roxbury and Wilmington), Mississippi (New Albany, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Oxford, Pontotoc), New Jersey (Brick, Somerville), New York (Latham), North Carolina (Charlotte), Oklahoma (Edmond, Oklahoma City), Pennsylvania (Bloomsburg), South Carolina (Fort Mill, Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, Carolina Forest), Tennessee (Arlington, Brentwood, Franklin, Germantown, Nashville), Texas (Brownsville, Little Elm, Prosper, Spring). Additional locations are coming soon to Bloomsburg, PA, Scottsdale, AZ and Brooklyn, NY.

Lapels Dry Cleaning has received a number of accolades in the franchise world. That includes being ranked again on the 2020 Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list for the country’s top Franchise Systems. Entrepreneur's “Franchise 500” is the best and most comprehensive rating of franchises in the world and is based on objective, quantifiable measures of a franchise operation. Lapels Dry Cleaning has also been named to Franchise Times Top 200+.

Lapels has also achieved acclaim in the dry cleaning industry. Lapels Dry Cleaning CEO Kevin Dubois is the co-author of Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Dry Cleaning Business, sold on Amazon.com.

Lapels Dry Cleaning corporate offices are located at 962 Washington Street, Hanover, MA 02339. 

To learn more about franchise opportunities with Lapels Dry Cleaning, call toll free (866) 695-2735 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Additional information and up-to-date company news can also be found on the company’s Web site, www.lapelsfranchise.com and www.mylapels.com

For the second year in a row, The North American Software Testing Awards has announced the top QA providers in the region. This time, one of the a1qa's projects reached the final in the category "Best Overall Testing Project — Retail."

Participation in the competition starts after each applicant submits an overview of the project showcasing the company’s contribution to attaining the client’s business objectives leveraging QA services. The overall success, value, and input are assessed by the judging panel that includes industry experts with years of experience in the field.

To match these high-level criteria, the a1qa’s team shared the story of a three-year collaboration with a large-scale US home appliances manufacturer that was undergoing migration to SAP Hybris Commerce Platform and required professional QA support.

To guarantee unhindered operation of diverse B2B and B2C solutions, the a1qa’s dedicated team applied a comprehensive strategy incorporating:

  • Functional testing & UAT to spot critical defects that could impede further activities and guarantee the whole functionality scope was operating as required.
  • Performance testing to ensure brisk solutions’ work under heavy load, including Black Friday interval.
  • Test automation to speed up time to market and reduce operational costs. Only in terms of 2 months, it helped save 50 business days of manual checks performed by the team of 4 engineers.
  • Integration testing to provide the seamless integration of payment platforms and the system responsible for the correct distribution of taxes.

Apart from testing, a1qa contributed to improving the overall strategy, which included creating a release support scheme, introducing smart team scalability, aligning the process within multiple subprojects, and many more.

Nadya Knysh, Managing director at a1qa, North America, said :

“We thank the experts for their trust and support. We at a1qa will keep accumulating and expanding our expertise to provide professional QA support to companies in the retail market and help them deliver software that astonishes customers.”

About a1qa

The company has been helping roll out high-quality software solutions for almost 18 years. a1qa's customers are notable market players, including Fortune 500 companies. 800+ QA engineers have successfully completed 1,500+ projects for various industries. The quality management system is certified to ISO 9001:2015.

Contact:

United Kingdom: 3d Floor, 5-8 Dysart Street, Moorgate House, London, EC2A 2BX

+44 208 816 7320

United States: 3900 S. Wadsworth Blvd. Suite 485 Lakewood, CO 80235

+1 720 207 5122

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Contact us to learn more about QA partnership opportunities.

The European Committee for Standardization (Comité Européen de Normalisation, CEN) has published a new standard covering experimental toy sets for chemistry and related activities.

Published in December 2020, EN 71-4:2020 ‘Experimental sets for chemistry and related activities’ includes several updates. It defines the requirements for the maximum quantity or concentration of certain substances and mixtures that are included in this popular toy product. Examples of these types of toy set include crystal growing sets and carbon dioxide generating experiments. 

Among the changes brought in by EN 71-4:2020 are:

  • Clarification on scope
  • Permissible inclusion of non-hazardous food additives, starches, etc.
  • Maximum amounts and concentrations for defined substances
  • Requirement for eye protection

For a comprehensive review of the changes being brought in by EN 71-4:2020, view SGS SafeGuard 010/21.

Stakeholders should be aware of the following dates:

  • Standard will be given status of national standard by June 2021
  • Conflicting national standards must be withdrawn by December 2021

EN 71-4:2020 is expected to be harmonized under Directive 2009/48/EC, the so-called Toy Safety Directive (TSD), once it has been accepted by the European Commission and published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

SGS EU Toy Directive Services

SGS offers a wide range of services to ensure that products comply with the EU Toy Safety Directive. They offer training, safety/risk assessment, technical documentation check, labelling review, testing according to harmonized standards, SVHC screening, inspections and audits. They have the world’s largest network of toy experts and testing facilities, including around 20 toy laboratories and three 3 EU Notified Bodies (France, Germany and Netherlands). Learn more about SGS’s EU Toy Directive Services. 

SGS SafeGuardS keep you up to date with the latest news and developments in the consumer goods industry. Read the full CEN Publishes EN 71-4:2020 ‘Experimental Sets For Chemistry And Related Activities’ SafeGuardS. 

Subscribe here to receive SGS SafeGuardS direct to your inbox.

For further information contact:

Hingwo Tsang

Global Information and Innovation Manager

Tel: (+852) 2774 7420

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.sgs.com/hardlines

LinkedIn: sgs-consumer-goods-&-retail

About SGS

SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 89,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.​

The cheap dedicated server provider Reprise Hosting LLC ( http://www.reprisehosting.com ) marked its ninth year in business with significant network upgrades and lowered prices on server bandwidth.

“In the latter half of 2020 we made significant investments in our regional peering and network quality in the Pacific Northwest,” said Brian Harrison of Reprise Hosting. “Additionally, we added network capacity -- a lot of network capacity.”

Over the past 6 months, Reprise Hosting has added 12x 10G peering sessions with new participants over the SIX, 10G transit with Hurricane Electric, 10G transit with CNSERVERS and 10G transit with Fiberhub. “We’re excited about the possibilities that our newly upgraded network offers,” added Brian. “Our regional latency in the Pacific Northwest is the best it has ever been and our latency to Europe and Asia has fallen by ~10% on average. If you need to serve an audience that spans east Asia, North America and Europe, then the Pacific Northwest is an excellent locale to source operations.”

With the network upgrades, Reprise Hosting has also rolled out substantial price cuts to server bandwidth. 100Mbps unmetered connections are now offered as standard on all dedicated servers with the option to upgrade free of charge to 1Gbps with 20TB.

About Reprise Hosting:
Reprise Hosting ( http://www.reprisehosting.com ) is a hosting provider based out of Seattle, Washington specializing in cheap dedicated servers and cPanel VPS hosting.

 

Media Contact:
Jeff Michaels
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
1-877-HOST-839

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