American Drycleaner - November/December 2021

Nov./Dec. 2021 Vol. 88, No. 8

FEATURES

Going Commercial

Performing dry cleaning work for businesses might not just be a great source of income, but it can also diversify a cleaner’s customer base to ride out challenging times. We look at how cleaners can build up this valuable resource and serve their commercial customers well.

Cleaners: Raise Your Prices! (Conclusion)

We conclude our series about the myths that keep some dry cleaners from raising their prices by examining one that has been dominating the spotlight recently: Never Raise Prices in a Tough Market.

Preventing Downtime

Preventative maintenance is something that dry cleaners can put o — or ignore entirely — but they do so at their peril. We examine what goes into creating and maintaining a good PM program. If you take care of your machines, they’ll take care of you!

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In Front of a Live Audience

In early October, I finally got to do something that I had been waiting for since I arrived at American Drycleaner — I had the privilege of actually meeting some of the people I’ve been interviewing for the past year.

It all happened at Fabricare 2021, held in Las Vegas and sponsored by the California Cleaners Association. The conference brought dry cleaners from across the country together with industry vendors and guest speakers, allowing them to network while gathering new information about the industry’s future.

Publisher

Charles Thompson

312-361-1680 cthompson@ATMags.com

Associate Publisher/ National Sales Director

Donald Feinstein 312-361-1682 dfeinstein@ATMags.com

Editorial Director

Davis

While Zoom conferences have certainly been useful in the pandemic era, there’s no substitute to meeting the people who have been featured in this magazine during 2021 face to face. You can find our coverage of the event, along with photos, on page 18 of this issue.

Our cover feature this month, “Going Commercial,” examines how offering drycleaning services to other businesses can not only add to a cleaner’s bottom line but provide the company with some protection by diversifying its customer base. We’ll look at methods dry cleaners can use to build up this base.

Our second feature, “Preventing Downtime,” focuses on the value that preventative maintenance can provide a drycleaning plant. This practice enables cleaners to not only to stay operational but to offer better results to their customers, as well. During busy times, it’s easy to put off PM, but you do it at your own peril!

This issue, we’re also finishing up our three-part series — “Cleaners: Raise Your Prices!” — by taking a look at the myth “Never Raise Prices in a Tough Market.”

One of the most often heard sentiments expressed by Fabricare 2021 speakers was that dry cleaners need to raise their rates to at least keep up with their own rising expenses. Customers expect prices to be going up everywhere right now, and cleaners who don’t put a value on their profitability might wind up paying the price.

The industry seems to be emerging from the dark days of the pandemic, and while the future will certainly present challenges, the path ahead is looking brighter. ADC

American Drycleaner (ISSN 0002-8258) is published monthly except Nov/Dec combined. Subscription prices, payment in advance: U.S., 1 year $46.00; 2 years $92.00. Foreign, 1 year $109.00; 2 years $218.00. Single copies $9.00 for U.S., $18.00 for all other countries. Published by American Trade Magazines LLC, 650 West Lake Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL 60661. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices.

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© Copyright AMERICAN TRADE MAGAZINES LLC, 2021. Printed in U.S.A. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher or his representative. American Drycleaner does not endorse, recommend or guarantee any article, product, service or information found within. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of American Drycleaner or its staff. While precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of the magazine’s contents at time of publication, neither the editors, publishers nor its agents can accept responsibility for damages or injury which may arise therefrom.

American Drycleaner, November/December 2021

Bruce Beggs 312-361-1683 bbeggs@ATMags.com

Editor Dave Davis 312-361-1685 ddavis@ATMags.com

Digital Media Director

Nathan Frerichs 312-361-1681 nfrerichs@ATMags.com

Production Manager

Mathew Pawlak

Dan Miller Diana Vollmer Martin Young

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Dave

Dry Cleaners: Raise Your Prices!

Tough markets require tough choices

By Dave Davis, Editor

R

aising prices is never comfortable, either for business owners or for their customers. When market forces require businesses to take steps to maintain profitability, however, the choice should be a simple one. Profitable businesses are the ones that survive.

This is the overall response that American Drycleaner received from the drycleaning industry professionals interviewed for this three-part series. For the past few issues, we’ve examined myths that many cleaners have clung to in their reluctance to raise their rates. In this final installment, we’ll look at a myth that has been at the forefront of many dry cleaners’ minds over the past few months:

MYTH NO. 3: NEVER RAISE PRICES IN A TOUGH MARKET

The thinking behind this myth is that, when customers are faced with rising prices in other sectors, dry cleaners should keep their prices consistent, for fear of being the straw that broke the camel’s budget.

While this mindset appears to keep the customer’s needs in mind, it does so at the expense of the cleaner’s profitability and, potentially, their survival. And, as their own supply and labor costs are increasing, this becomes an increasingly untenable position to take.

TOUGH TIMES MEAN TOUGH DECISIONS

“You need to be monitoring your pricing, no matter what the times are,” says Kermit Engh, managing partner of the drycleaning consulting group Methods for Management and the owner of Fashion Cleaners in Omaha, Nebraska. “Does it make sense to hold your prices and go out of business? During tough times, things that we’re paying for that enable us to run our business go up. If it’s already tough, how can I absorb anymore? I can’t.”

When looking at the bigger picture, Joe Gagliostro, president of Muldoon Dry Cleaners in Auburn, New York, believes that the answer becomes clear when it comes to setting rates.

“If the prices go up, if your cost of operation goes up, you have two choices,” he says. “One, you raise your prices accordingly, which every other industry does. The gas station does. The grocery store does. The lumberyard does. Or, two, you eat that cost — and none of us are in a position right now to be able to do that.”

Although it might seem counterintuitive at first, customers are actually more likely to accept a rate hike at this point, says David Dawson, a longtime industry veteran and principal of the Clean Expertise consulting group.

“After more than a decade of modest annual inflation, on the order of 2-3% a year, it is now roughly double that and at its highest level in 13 years,” he says. “Consumers buy gas and groceries. They understand. I think that today, with all of the disruption of the normal order of things, the problems with availability and higher prices for a wide range of everyday items, most people will be more understanding than they might otherwise.”

MORE THAN CLEANING

One mistake dry cleaners can make is not seeing their true contribution to their customers’ lives. Cleaners provide a convenience in a time when that service is most appreciated.

“We have two businesses, two young kids, and more commitments than hours in the day,” says Chheavy Lema who, with husband Chris, owns Martinizing Dry Cleaning in Elk Grove, California. “With that said, we place a higher value on service and convenience than we do on low prices.”

(Image licensed by Ingram Images)

Service and dependability are the differentiating factors between businesses that can raise their prices and those that are stuck at a certain level, says Glen Gould, who, with his wife Tammy, owns the Atlanta-based Dry Cleaning Connection.

“There are going to be those customers who just shop prices,” he says. “We get a call every single day — ‘What do you charge for shirts? What do you charge for pants?’ We tell them, and they gasp and say, ‘I can do much better somewhere else.’ Those aren’t our customers, and they never will be.”

When a dry cleaner can go from a price-only basis in their customer’s eyes to a service basis, Gould says, profitably is much easier to maintain, no matter what happens.

“Our customer is the customer who values knowing what they’re going to get and when they’re going to get it,” he says. “They know they can walk into their closet and feel confident that what they’re going to put on is going to look good, and it’s going to be there.”

While Gagliostro keeps an eye on the drycleaning market in his area, he’s more mindful of the service he provides his customers.

“Is it important to stay within your competitors? Of course,” he says. “But I’d say that 85% of my customers come to me because of convenience and service, and I’m sure that, nationwide, the majority of clients are not picking their cleaners because of prices.”

“If you are going to raise prices, it is important to raise the bar on service and cater to your best clients,” Lema says. “Our industry follows the 80/20 rule, meaning that your top 20% of clients make up 80% of your revenue. The top 20% did not become your best clients because you had the lowest price — they became that way because they valued a service that made their lives easier. Focus on the best clients and allow the extremely price sensitive ones to go.”

“I’m not listening to the bottom 10%,” says Kurt Lucero, owner of The Cleanery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “That’s what this pandemic has taught me. We provide a service, and we need to be paid for it.”

Lucero believes the drycleaning industry needs to pay attention to how other sectors operate in tough times.

“It’s that same old comparison that I’ve heard for years about going to your local coffee shop,” he says. “It’s some hot water and some ground up beans, and you’re paying 5 bucks for a cup of coffee, but all the work we do on one shirt, and we can’t get 3 bucks for it? Starbucks does not apologize for their prices. Maybe educating our client as to what we do might be important for our industry.”

RISING TIDES

By raising prices, cleaners can turn away from depending on volume to make ends meet while better serving

their customers.

“We undervalue our product without a doubt,” Gould says. “I’m a firm believer that every dry cleaner could raise their prices by 20% and not miss a beat. We’ve had two increases since COVID. Labor price increases have gone crazy, and then your supply prices — if you can even get them — have gone crazy. So, we’ve had to increase our rates.”

These increases have kept his business stable, he says, even though piece counts have dropped. “We are financially about 10% short of what we were in 2019, but units were down 60%,” he says, “so you’ve got to figure we’ve had some pretty stiff price increases.”

“I think I’m a price leader in my market, or at least one of them,” Lucero says. “In April, I raised my prices by 8% in one shot, and I will most likely do another 3% before the end of the year.”

“I’m all for raising prices,” Gagliostro says. “I’ve never been afraid to do so. Everyone I’ve talked to hates to do it, but I don’t care. My mindset is, I would rather press 750 shirts a week at $4 a shirt than press 1,000 shirts a week for $3 a shirt.”

Lema agrees with this “less is more” assessment.

“The worst-case scenario is that revenue remains the same but your overhead decreases,” she says. “This allows you to preserve your margins with fewer people to serve.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

Engh believes that the benefits of putting proper pricing structures into place outweigh the initial discomfort many cleaners fear in taking such actions.

“It allows for being able to pay employees better,” he says. “It allows you to acquire new equipment that makes your business more efficient. And it provides you, personally, with a return on your time and investment. If you don’t increase your pricing, how in the world are you going to have a better bottom line that allows you to do those things? That allows your business to grow and thrive?”

Dawson points out that once budget items like labor and energy rise, it’s rare for them to go back down.

“The increases will get baked in and are not going away,” he says. “Employers won’t be able to take back the higher wages they need to pay, for instance. So, prices are going to have to go up for most people.”

Lucero knows firsthand that raising prices is a point of discomfort for many cleaners. Because price is not the overriding concern for their best clients, however, he’s found that the downside might not be as bad as many cleaners fear — or exist at all.

“I know there’s definitely a psychological barrier raising prices,” Lucero says. “I’ve experienced it. It was really difficult for me to get to that $4 shirt price, but I did it, and I’m glad I did it.”

There’s more: We’re just two members of NIE’s team of experts. NIE has been handling fabricare insurance since 1915!

Preventing Downtime

The four laws of effective

preventative maintenance

By Dave Davis, Editor

Preventative maintenance probably isn’t the most exciting thing on any dry cleaner’s to-do list. A proper PM schedule, however, can help them avoid the “excitement” of a blown air compressor, garment damage from worn pads, clogged supply lines and other events that can shut down a plant or provide poor results to their customers.

Here are four laws of preventative maintenance that can help keep equipment running and minimize downtime — or prevent it entirely.

LAW NO. 1: SMALL THINGS CAN ADD UP TO BIG TROUBLE

When you really stop to think about what goes into keeping a drycleaning facility operational, it can become almost overwhelming, says Vic Williams, the Eastern sales manager of equipment manufacturer Union Dry Cleaning.

“Think about how many moving parts there are in a drycleaning plant,” he says. “I believe a dry cleaner has the most moving pieces of any type of small business.”

Williams, who also has owned Impressive Cleaners and Formal Wear in McDonough, Georgia, for the past 20 years, knows that when small parts fail, big machines can falter. This is why preventative maintenance is so important.

“Take a washing machine with an inverter drive, for example,” he says. “There’s a little filter on the inverter, and nobody ever cleans them. This can cause your inverter to burn up, and then your washing machine doesn’t work. And it’s not like there are any tools required to clean it; just take an air hose and blow it off.”

“Regular preventive maintenance is going to keep your machines in top working order,” says Mike Tungesvick, national sales manager for equipment manufacturer Sankosha USA. “It’s also going to allow you as a cleaner to become familiar with your machines and get to know them. That way, you’ll notice if something is starting to develop, and you’ll know you need to take care of it now.”

“The primary value in preventive maintenance is that it’s protecting your investment,” says Jerry Moore, owner of equipment supplier Moore Services in Cleveland. “It’s an asset you want to protect. Hopefully, you’ll avoid the pitfalls of that small leak that turns into a big leak, that winds up leaking down through a control panel and frying a computer on your drycleaning machine.”

“Bad PM practices are just going to bring failure and frustration,” Tungesvick says. “You feel like you’re throwing parts at the machine, and it still doesn’t work correctly.”

(Photo: © jukai5/Depositphotos)

LAW NO. 2: STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN

So, what are some of the most valuable tools a cleaner can use for PM? Your eyes and your ears, Williams says. Sometimes, problems will present themselves to you — if you know how to look for them.

“I know when I walk in my plant and hear the boiler pumps running all the time,” he says. “I know something’s not right when I hear that.”

It’s not always easy to pay attention during business hours when the hustle of the plant might hide the little hints that something is wrong.

“Go in on a Sunday when it’s quiet, and fire everything up,” Williams says. “And then just listen. Listen for air compressor leaks. Listen for the vacuum.”

If leaks are detected, he says, either fix them then and there, or mark their location for a maintenance call.

“This isn’t a business where everything works and you can just walk away,” says Williams. “It does require a little hand holding.”

Also, since your employees are the ones most familiar with the day-to-day operations of their machines, make sure they know to come to you when they believe there’s a problem.

“If something isn’t working correctly, make sure your operators understand that they should let you know immediately, and not in a week,” Williams says. “That’s how big problems get started. A lot of this stuff is preventable if you just keep it simple.”

“Listen to your operators, because they’re the ones who will tell you if their machines are starting to act funny,” Tungesvick says. “The backbone of your company is your people, so pay attention to what they’re telling you.”

LAW NO. 3: KNOW YOUR EQUIPMENT

Knowing how a machine is supposed to operate when everything is working correctly is key to understanding when something is going wrong, Williams says, as well as how to care for it into the future.

When getting a new piece of equipment, he believes that it’s great to have the person who is going to operate it receive training by the manufacturer — but the owner needs to be involved, as well.

“Don’t be the person who stands back and says, ‘Just train my operator,’” Williams says. “What if that employee leaves next month? You have to know how to train someone else to run and maintain that machine.”

When it comes to performing preventative maintenance and repairs, knowing your own abilities is crucial, Williams says.

“Build a rapport with a good maintenance person,” he says. “That person is going to save you a lot of time and money, especially if you’re not mechanically inclined.”

Educating yourself about your equipment is a great investment you can make in your business, Moore says.

“Make yourself familiar with manuals,” he says. “Try and participate in what our trade associations have to of fer. But most importantly, any time you have a service technician come in, follow them around. You don’t want to drive them crazy, but ask questions and watch what they do. If they’re comfortable with you, most are more than willing to share tips and tricks. Pay attention to what they do because it’s the fastest, easiest way to pick up on those simple things that you can do yourself.”

LAW NO. 4: PROCRASTINATION IS THE ENEMY

One of the difficulties in setting up regular preventative maintenance is that it can always be put off. When the plant is running at full capacity, PM can be easy to neglect — and this is where problems can begin.

Coming up with a checklist — and making sure someone is responsible for carrying it out — is one way to make sure preventative maintenance is regularly performed, Williams says.

“I don’t believe in putting the schedule on computers because it can quickly become too complicated for people to follow,” he says. “Just have a sheet of paper for the drycleaning machine, a sheet for the presses, a sheet for the boiler, and so on, and have people sign off when the maintenance is complete.”

Getting assistance early on can also help a plant build a PM habit, Williams says.

“The best thing I can tell you to do is get on the good side of a distributor, or somebody that knows the ma chine,” he says. “Ask them to help you set up a PM plan.”

“Most manufacturers list maintenance schedules in their manuals,” Tungesvick says. “Follow a weekly, monthly and annual schedule for all the stuff you should be doing. For daily things, with machines that are blowing air, for example, they’re going to have a filter, so take it off and clean that every day. Weekly items consist of cleaning press heads, make sure the steam is running correctly, and so on.”

Tungesvick believes that making PM a regular, expect ed part of the workday schedule is also valuable in keeping a plan on track, as well as potentially giving owners one less thing to handle.

“Pay attention to it, and get your employees involved,” he says. “Give them ownership of that machine. Maybe even pay them a little extra at the end of their shift to clean up the press, for instance. Otherwise, when they get done with their pressing work for the day and they leave, then the owner, with 100,000 things to do every day, has to think about cleaning, too — and that PM could get missed.”

Going Commercial

By Dave Davis, Editor

One way many dry cleaners have found to minimize their business risk is to broaden their client base. By diversifying who they serve, they can better ride out a downturn or business climate change. This is where com mercial work — drycleaning services aimed at businesses rather than individual customers — can come into play.

And, while there can be differences in scale, depending on the sizes and types of business a dry cleaner targets, the demands put on a plant are generally similar between commercial and residential cleaning. Even if a drycleaning plant wasn’t designed with an eye toward commercial work, says Kent Wales, owner of Happy Laundry and Dry Cleaning, located in Seattle, this type of service is still a possibility.

“You may not have a lot of space capacity if you’re a small neighborhood plant,” he says, “but realistically, if you’ve got 35- to 60-pound washers and auto-injected soap, you can do a wide variety of things on the commercial side.”

He estimates that about half of his company’s business comes from the commercial sector.

“We were getting approached by several companies to do commercial work early on,” says Wales, who has owned his business for 15 years. “A lot of it was wedding venue table linen. There were some smaller accounts — restaurants, mechanic shops, and others — but it was the table linen, and a large massage therapy company, that got us into the commercial cleaning business.”

BUILDING UP A BUSINESS BASE

Cultivating commercial clients can require more effort than developing a walk-in residential base, says Greg Colosi, owner of Dry Cleaning Profits, a marketing

company located in Rochester, New York. That effort, however, can be well worth it. Looking at the businesses you’re already passing each day, he says, is a great place to start building a commercial clientele.

“When you’re on a route, you’ll drive by all these commercial accounts, so you can make them part of your route,” Colosi says. “You can have a small salon, a doctor’s or dentist’s office, a therapeutic massage business, and more. You’re passing by these every day — it’s going to be hardly any more time for you to pick up and drop off things from these clients.”

For cleaners who have some commercial clients just through happenstance, Colosi advises calling on similar businesses in the area: “You’re somewhat familiar with their needs, so this is a good place to start.”

Having an email listing of customers is another good way to make inroads with commercial clients, he says.

“Email your customer base and tell them what you’re doing, because I’m sure you have customers who either own their own businesses or work for a business that could use your services.”

When going after companies with which a cleaner has no prior relationship, there are also various options.

“We’ve had a number of members successfully get customers with sales letters,” says Colosi. The most important thing when taking this path, he adds, is to find the right contact — to get in front of the person who actually makes the decisions.

“You can easily hire someone or get someone on your staff to take a target list of companies, make some calls and find out who that person is,” he says. “This person doesn’t need to be a salesperson because they’re not making the sales call; they’re only asking whoever answers the phone for the name of that decision maker.”

Colosi warns cleaners to temper their expectations when it comes to this type of marketing.

“If the letter is written correctly, you’re going to get

(Photo: © Krisdog/DepositPhotos)

Including business customers in your base can bring big benefits

Capacity = More

one or two out of 100 people to call you,” he says, noting that cleaners can still build a strong client base from this kind of response — they just need to be serious about the effort and send letters out to many potential clients.

When building up his own list, Wales found a combination of approaches useful.

“We got our names out to our distributors,” he says, “letting them know we were doing commercial work, and we did some business networking groups. We also have a great website, so we do target commercial keywords. We’ve done some direct mail to customers who we wanted to engage with, as well. We looked at the categories of businesses that we wanted and then really focused on them.”

Commercial work makes up about half of Kent Wales’ work at Seattle’s Happy Laundry and Dry Cleaning. “Commercial work has always been a part of what we do,” says Wales. (Photo: Happy Laundry and Dry Cleaning)

“You need to be cognizant of what’s coming in,” Wales says. “We do ask any commercial customer— and this includes medical customers—that if they have anything that could be considered a biohazard, it’s got to be bagged separately and tagged as that so we can approach that appropriately.”

While most plants can handle commercial work, Wales believes there is one element a cleaner needs to have in place before considering expanding into this type of work.

“If you’re a dry cleaner trying to get into commercial work and you don’t have a route, I don’t think it’s going to work,” he says. “They’re going to expect you to pick up and deliver at their business.”

COMMERCIAL BENEFITS

GETTING STARTED

Wales has two suggestions for dry cleaners wanting to get into the commercial field. The first is to know what it is you want to do.

“One of the biggest mistakes I made was saying yes to everything in the beginning,” he says.

“You’re always looking for volume, but if you’re an existing dry cleaner, just start with one type of business, whether that be sheets and towels, or table linens and napkins from a restaurant. Figure out a niche that you want to service, and then build off that.”

Wales’ second suggestion? Ask for advice.

“If you don’t have a great chemical rep from whom you’re buying your soaps for your shirts, find one, because they’re going to be able to help you set up your machines,” he says. “If you’ve got one or two machines that are chemically injected, you’ve got plenty of extra cycles available on those during the week. But, maybe you’ve got to add some more chemicals — have that rep available to you.”

Because commercial cleaning can be potentially hazardous, communication is key to safety.

While it can be more difficult to build up a commercial customer list in the beginning, Wales believes that the work is worth the effort.

“One of the things that surprised me more than anything was how consistent a commercial customer is,” he says. “The average customer can come in once a week or as needed, but from our route and commercial work, it has been much more consistent. You have seasonal ups and downs, to be sure, but with commercial work, the majority of what we’re signing up today is somebody who needs service one to five times a week.”

Colosi says that a lot of small businesses can add up to big revenue— to the point that cleaners should beware of landing a big account. If they become dependent on that large account, to the point that they stop looking for other work, their business will take a huge hit if the client decides, for whatever reason, to go with another cleaner.

“It could be for no fault of your own, but suddenly you’re out a big chunk of cash,” he says. “You can’t sit on your laurels. Hustle like crazy to get a bunch of accounts so that, if one goes down, you’ve still got plenty of work coming in.”

(Finally) Live from the Floor

The floor was full of drycleaning owners and operators from around the country during Fabricare 2021, held in Las Vegas on Oct. 2 and 3. The event hosted speakers from around the industry, as well as exhibitor breakouts between presentations for networking and to reconnect in person. (Photo by Dave Davis)

Fabricare 2021 Conference Brings People Back Together in Vegas

By Dave Davis, Editor

Online meetings and Zoom conferences were a lifeline, but they are no substitute for face-to-face gatherings.

This was the often-expressed sentiment on the floor of Fabricare 2021, an educational conference that took place in Las Vegas on Oct. 2 and 3. The event, attended by approximately 200 drycleaning professionals, was the first opportunity most have had to interact with their peers in person since the pandemic lockdowns of 2020.

During the event, presenters from around the industry spoke on topics including best practices in running successful cleaning companies, hiring and retaining employees in today’s tight labor market, keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive and what the future will bring to the drycleaning industry.

In addition, more than 30 exhibitors had tables set up to present their goods and services, answer any questions the attendees might have and meet people in person for the first time in months.

Sassan Rahimzadeh, president of the

Association (CCA), which organized Fabricare 2021, was pleased with the way the event unfolded on Oct. 2 and 3. “We are very proud and happy to see this kind of turnout,” he says. “It has been a culmination of a lot of people’s hard work over a long period of time.” (Photo by

“We are very proud and happy to see this kind of turnout,” says Sassan Rahimzadeh, president of the California Cleaners Association (CCA), which organized the event. Rahimzadeh is also president of ARYA Cleaners of Chula Vista, California. “It has been a culmination of a lot of people’s hard work over a long period of time.”

Rahimzadeh pointed out that putting together one of

American Drycleaner,

California Cleaners

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the first in-person industry gatherings in the aftermath of the lockdowns was no easy task.

“There was no pre-existing roadmap for an event like this anywhere in the industry — not at this scale,” he says, “so, we had to create it. We started planning this in late 2020, which was in the thick of COVID, so it became a moving target for us. We had to shift and modify the program over the last nine months to get it to where it is today. We’re glad to see it be a success.”

While the event was well attended, it was designed as a smaller-scale educational conference rather than a full-sized trade show — something Rahimzadeh and the CCA hoped the exhibitors would attend and support.

“From every single one of the vendors that I’ve spoken to so far, they’re all extremely pleased,” he says, “and they’re all happy with the turnout as is because we have gotten the best of the best to attend the seminar.”

“Overall, it felt like a shot in the arm for the garment care industry,” says Aaron Newport, marketing manager of GreenEarth Cleaning, one of the exhibitors at the con ference. “I was inspired by so many of the presentations and encouraged for the future by the positivity in the con versations we’ve had at our table and at the affiliate recep tion. And personally, it just felt good to have face-to-face conversations, shake hands, and even hug it out with some amazing humans I haven’t seen in person for far too long.”

Fabricare 2021 was structured in an alternating format between exhibitor breakout opportunities and presentations from industry leaders. Speakers included Kevin Dubois from Clean Franchise Brands; Christa Hagearty from Dependable Cleaners in Boston; Mary Scalco of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI); Jennifer Mar-

quardt-Whitmarsh from The Route Pros; David Coyle from Maverick Drycleaners; and John Rothrock from Yale Cleaners in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I left Vegas with a reinforced sense of resiliency in our industry,” Newport says. “The presenters and attendees alike seemed to carry overwhelming positive energy — it was infectious. Each presenter brought innovative ideas and inspirational stories, and our team has enjoyed discussing how we can apply those to our business.”

FRESHENING UP

Many of the speakers have made webinar presentations sponsored by various groups within the industry over the past 18 months — and Rahimzadeh welcomed the wealth of experience the professionals brought to the event. He did, however, make a request of them.

“We wanted to make sure that everybody got fresh content,” he says. “We asked all of our speakers to come with brand-new material that they had never presented.”

This request — which the presenters agreed to — was made to close the book on the pandemic era and turn to a fresh page for the industry, Rahimzadeh says.

“We’ve all been watching the Zooms, and we’ve been oversaturated with the information that’s been coming at all of us over the last year and a half,” he says. “We felt that this is an opportunity to reset that mark and start with new material. The market is shifting, the business is changing and things are evolving.”

Garney and Sherrie Hill from Wichita, Kansas, attended Fabricare 2021 to learn from the experiences of others and see the best practices presented during the event. “We’re always looking to expand and learn as much as we can about the industry. This conference has been a great experience,” says Sherrie Hill. (Photo by Dave Davis)

Christopher White, executive director of America’s Best Cleaners (right), conducted a live version of the organization’s Leadership Forum during Fabricare 2021. This live version of the panel consisted of, from left, Bobby Patel, owner of Kona Cleaners, founder of BeCreative360 and the president of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute; Tom Beidle, CEO of personal services at Xplor-SPOT Business Sys tems; Monika Manter, VP of Balfurd, Inc.; and Dan Miller, CEO of Mulberrys Garment Care. (Photo by Dave Davis)

THE VIEW FROM THE FLOOR

Sherrie and Garney Hill operate Martinizing Dry Cleaning in Wichita, Kansas. The Hills began in the industry in 2018, and in March 2020 — just before the pandemic lockdowns began — they purchased four additional stores and bought into the Martinizing franchise.

In an industry where multi-generational ownership is not uncommon, the Hills were happy to meet people who held that kind of perspective.

“This has definitely been worth the time,” Sherrie Hill says. “We’ve gotten nuggets of information, and we’ve done some great networking and met some great people. We’ve also been able to meet some people from our headquarters, which is a really good thing for us.”

The Hills valued both the interactions and educational aspects offered at Fabricare 2021. “As new owners, we know we need to grow,” she says. “We’re always looking to expand and learn as much as we can about the industry. This conference has been a great experience.”

LEADERSHIP IN PERSON

One of the presentation slots was a Leadership Forum, conducted by America’s Best Cleaners (ABC) Executive Director Christopher White.

ABC conducted a monthly online version of the Forum, via Zoom, for six months in late 2020 and early 2021. This was the first time the format — where White discusses management and business issues with a group of industry leaders — was performed live.

“It was awesome,” White says. “Doing this live, in front of an audience, I thought things were a lot more fluid, and the tone and dynamic of the body language allowed us to express ourselves better. It was also great that we could get feedback from the audience to let us know that we were on the right path.”

The live panel included Monika Manter, VP of Balfurd, Inc.; Tom Beidle, CEO of personal services at XplorSPOT Business Systems; Dan Miller, CEO of Mulberrys Garment Care; and Bobby Patel, owner of Kona Cleaners, founder of BeCreative360 and the president of DLI.

White said that simply being in the same room with people from the industry was a tremendous boost both for himself and for the panel— not only for the opportunity to conduct a Forum, but on a more fundamental level.

“This is a human contact business,” he says. “It always has been. You can only do so much online. We touch fab ric. We touch things. We touch people. That’s a big part of this industry, and it feels wonderful to be back.” ADC

David

Monika

Jon

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Fears, Unions and Horse Races

10 YEARS AGO. What Strikes

Fear

In Your Heart? — As part of American Drycleaner’s Wire survey, dry cleaners were asked about which spooky scenarios frightened them the most. At the top of the list, gathering 26.3% of the vote, was getting a call from the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) after it had received an anonymous complaint. Running in a close second place, at 23.7%, was a lengthy power outage. When asked about some actual frightening things that had happened to them personally, one respondent reported that their “delivery truck rolled over in the snow with 1,000 garments on it,” while another said they once found “an intruder inside the factory looking at my machines.”

25 YEARS AGO. BBC Visit — A camera crew from the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) visited the IFI Garment Analysis Laboratory. The crew was there to gather footage for a segment on drycleaning and manufacturer problems, with a particular interest in garments that had a “dryclean only” label but could not withstand the drycleaning process. The IFI staff described the garment problems they had found and demonstrated the testing methods and discussed the cause of damage for various items, as well as offering several reasons why the garments

may have been mislabeled.

50 YEARS AGO. Middle Managers Unionizing? — A New York management consultant warned that middle managers may start joining labor unions within the next five years unless their companies started treating them better. The consultant reasoned that “callous treatment” had convinced many that their top management considered them “a cheap, expendable commodity.”

85 YEARS AGO. Presser’s Prize Plant owner Phil Cooper shut down his operation in Edgewater,

N.J., called all of his employees together in the plant’s main room, and brought out a case of liquor. The cause of the celebration was a horse named Dan Bulger, who had won the Cambridgeshire Stakes at Newmarket, England. “The Ten Girls” — pressers in Cooper’s plant — had a ticket on the horse, which won them $15,000 each from the Irish Hospital’s Sweepstakes. “I love beautiful clothes,” said Sarah Wills, “and the first think I’ll do is buy a lot of them. And I’ll send them all over here to be cleaned.” ADC

— Compiled by Dave Davis, Editor

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