The calculation
Every wearer needs, at any moment: one uniform being worn, one in the laundry loop, and enough clean stock to cover the days until laundry returns. The formula:
Sets per wearer = shifts worked between laundry collections + laundry turnaround (in shift days) + 1 buffer set.
If your kitchen works five shifts a week and laundry leaves and returns twice a week, the laundry loop spans about three shift days; add two days of turnaround and one buffer, and the answer is six sets — not two. Under-ordering does not save money: it converts into emergency local purchases at retail prices, staff wearing tired kit, and hygiene corners cut on the busiest days.
Worked example: in-house laundry, next-day return
A hotel kitchen, staff on five shifts per week, laundry washed and returned next day (turnaround = 1 shift day), laundry collected daily:
| Item | Worn | In laundry | Clean buffer | Sets per wearer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coats | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Pants | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Aprons | 2/day | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Hats | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Aprons run at roughly double the coat count because they are changed more than once a day at wet and hot stations. Hats follow the coat count.
Worked example: outsourced laundry, twice-weekly collection
A restaurant group sending laundry out on Mondays and Thursdays, with a two-day turnaround, staff on six shifts per week:
| Item | Worn | In laundry loop | Clean buffer | Sets per wearer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coats | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Pants | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Aprons | 2/day | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| Hats | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
The pattern to notice: the per-employee count is driven by the laundry system, not by preference. Change the laundry contract and the uniform budget changes with it — which is why uniform and laundry procurement should be planned in the same meeting.
Adjustments planners apply
- Part-time and casual staff — pool stock in core sizes rather than named sets; embroidery by title only (see the embroidery guide) keeps pooled coats assignable.
- Spares pool — hold 10–15% above the calculated count in the most common sizes for new starters, damage and loss. Damage is concentrated: burns and tears hit coats and aprons of hot-line staff disproportionately, so weight the spares towards those roles.
- Seasonal and banqueting peaks — agency and event staff are usually kitted from the spares pool in unembroidered coats; if peaks are structural (a wedding venue every weekend), they deserve their own line in the calculation.
- Replacement cycle — plan the reorder before the kit looks tired: programs typically review coat condition at 12 months and aprons continuously. Reorders on this program are quoted against your original order specification, so the replacement order is a repeat, not a redesign — see restaurant chain planning for how groups schedule those windows.
From per-employee counts to an order
Multiply through by wearers per role, per store, and the order writes itself — role by role, size set by size set. Two final checks before you send the inquiry: first, size sets should come from the actual staff list where it exists, because a size curve guessed at head office returns as exchanges; second, embroidered (named) items should be counted separately from pooled stock, because the two follow different reorder rhythms.
Quantities settled, the remaining decisions are styles and fabrics — the coat range and the fabric guide cover both. Send the counts with your quotation request and the per-style quotation comes back with MOQs and lead times stated line by line.
Senior grades and special cases
The calculation bends at the edges of the brigade. Executive and head chefs often hold a separate, smaller rotation of presentation coats — the coats worn for service, events and photographs — alongside their working sets; the working sets follow the standard calculation, the presentation coats are counted as a fixed small pool per person. Commis and apprentices in high-turnover roles are usually kitted from pooled, title-only stock (see the embroidery guide) at the standard ratio, because named sets for short-tenure roles are re-embroidered more often than they are worn out. Agency and event staff draw from the spares pool; if your operation uses agency chefs weekly rather than occasionally, they are not an edge case — give them a line in the size-set table.
Loss, damage and the steady state
First orders follow the calculation; steady-state orders follow experience. Three flows erode a kit in service: loss (uniforms leave with leavers and laundry errors), damage (concentrated in hot-line roles, as noted above), and laundry wear (every garment has a wash life, reached fastest by aprons). Planners who track issues and returns by category for the first two cycles can replace the generic ratios in this guide with their own consumption rates — per store, per role, per item — and the annual program then runs on data rather than rules of thumb. Until that data exists, the worked examples above are the honest starting point: they are deliberately built from the laundry system you actually run, which is the variable most first orders get wrong.
One last discipline: count wearers by role, not heads. A headcount treats the executive chef and the part-time commis as equal consumers of kit; the laundry loop knows better, and so will your second order.
A note on named versus pooled stock
The counts above split one more way in practice. Named stock — embroidered with the wearer's name — follows the individual: count it per wearer, exactly as calculated. Pooled stock — unembroidered or title-only — follows the shift: count it per shift position, plus the spares percentage, and expect it to serve part-time and agency cover as well. Mixing the two systems in one count is how programs end up with named coats for people who left and no clean coat for the person who stayed. Draw the line in the spreadsheet before the order, not in the laundry room after it.