Make Money On The Side

Personal experience plus financial nous led professional couple to invest in Speed Queen as their side-hustle

When their children were just five and eight, Jan Wicksteed and her husband decided to do a big family trip around Europe. It was a great experience – and it led them to buy a business they’d never expected.

‘If you travel on your own, washing clothes is not a problem – but when you travel with children you seem to spend half your life in a laundromat,’ Jan laughs. ‘We began to think there must be an opportunity here, and we were right!’ Today, the couple own their own Speed Queen laundromat in Christchurch while enjoying full-time careers, too.

Jan followed her passion to retrain as a teacher after a corporate career. ‘We have owned a handful of businesses together over the years, including a franchise in Christchurch, but when my children arrived, I wanted to focus on them.’

As a teacher and mother, and with a hard-working husband, any additional business had to be as passive as possible. ‘We both have jobs and want to enjoy time with our children, too,’ Jan continues. ‘After our European trip, we travelled again and started to research the market. That’s when we found out about Speed Queen.’

Speed Queen has been the world’s leading supplier of commercial laundry equipment for over 100 years. ‘The machines are really robust, designed to last 15 years or more, and the system is set up for cashless payment so there are no security issues with coins or tokens – people just pay by Eftpos.

‘In addition, the company’s Insight software system allows us to do almost everything we need to do to support our customers remotely. If something comes up, there is no need for us to go to site ourselves, Speed Queen’s Insight software system means owners can manage their business from anywhere in the world and the system generates all manner of reports to show which machines have been operating most, and how efficiently. This allows us to manage the business from anywhere in the world.’

Speed Queen’s Insight software system means owners can manage their business from anywhere in the world

100 percent success rate

Speed Queen takes pride in opening successful outlets, as Royce Little, the company’s head of laundromat sales, says. ‘We’ve equipped over fifty outlets in the last two years, including some of the largest laundromats operating in the southern hemisphere. Most importantly, for our investors, we’ve never opened a site in New Zealand that has failed. Although we are not a franchise – Speed Queen equips laundromats which are operated under their owner’s own brand – we provide advice with site selection, fit-out and marketing to help you get established.’

Jan says all that help made the setting up of their new laundromat quite easy. ‘We hadn’t set up a laundromat before but Speed Queen are experts. They did an excellent job of finding a site with the right demographics and easy parking, but the location was a bit tucked away and there was an established laundromat round the corner. Using the Insight program, we set up a promotion for a Free Wash Friday for a whole month. Insight showed that the average wash cycles per day had been around 3 washes per machine – on the promotion days, this went up to 14 washes per day. People came flooding through the doors, we tripled our turnover within a month, and that hasn’t stopped since.’

Growing appeal

Having opened their laundromat in December 2021, Jan and her husband are already planning to open a second. ‘This is a business that, once set up, makes money 24 hours a day,’ Jan says. ‘We pride ourselves on operating a clean, inviting, well-maintained outlet that provides a superior customer experience, so the only additional outlay is to employ a cleaner to maintain the high standards which make it attractive to regular users.

‘It used to be the case that most people using laundromats here were visitors, not locals, but there’s been a big shift and more and more busy families are coming in with the weekly laundry. What might be eight or more loads of washing at home, they can do in four or even two of our really large machines, and the whole thing, washing and drying, can be done in around an hour. So rather than wasting space and time at home, busy families are choosing to come to their local laundromat. It’s a growing market, which is very promising for investors like us.’

‘Jan’s observations are certainly backed up by our experience,’ says Royce. ‘There has been a shift in perception by the public and using a laundromat is seen as economical and efficient. Our investors are reaping the benefit of that, so if you are interested in opening your own cashless, money-making passive business, give me a call. A medium-sized investment is between $250,000 and $300,000, with a deposit required of $75-100,000, and we have several areas with considerable potential right now.’

Advertiser Info

Speed Queen

Contact Royce Little

P 0-9-528 5600

royce@speedqueen.co.nz

www.speedqueen.co.nz