Tumbledry – India’s Largest Laundry & Dry Clean Chain Building Strong Paradigms for the Indian Laundry Industry

Limited, its Co-Founders, Mr. Gaurav Nigam, and Mr. Navin Chawla to have a virtual interaction with our editorial team. The dignitaries shared many lesser-known facts about the brand and quoted important perspectives of Tumbledry’s business agenda. Their inspiring words motivated us to feature Tumbledry Solutions Private Limited as “Company of the Year 2023” on our platform.

The Inception Tale

During professional trips to China, Mr. Gaurav Nigam and Mr. Navin Chawla noticed the widespread use of laundry services by individuals as well as businesses. Being impressed by the synchronized and high-quality services provided by Laundromats in China, a resonating potential idea started brewing in their mind. Because, here in India, there was a complete absence of such an organized laundry system. With people always running short on time, laundry was a common everyday problem. They either did it themselves or relied on maids and local dhobis. After slight research, the seasoned duo realized that the actual size of the Indian laundry industry was about $35 billion. But unfortunately, a whopping 96% of it was unorganized. This is when they saw a huge potential in the market and decided to launch Tumbledry in 2019. The ultimate vision behind the brand’s inception was to take advantage of the laundry industry’s growth potential and relieve urban Indians of their laundry woes.

Addressing the Challenges with Strategies

• Trust Building

Tumbledry is India’s largest laundry and dry- clean chain that provides top-notch services to help the hustling urban Indians maintain a supreme quality of cleaning. Whether it is your everyday clothes or heavy designer wear clothes, or even your shoes and bags, Tumbledry offers a 360-degree laundry service line. Tumbledry also offers dry-cleaning services that encompass a plethora of other products like branded carpets, curtains, luggage, and soft toys.

The brand has expanded its presence to all states and union territories of India. With more than 500 stores spread across 180+ cities in India, Tumbledry has traced a remarkable industry in the laundry service domain which is generally not much talked about. Today more than 5 lakh people are actively using Tumbledry to enjoy impeccable cleaning services. The company is redefining the unorganized Indian laundry industry and is adamant to tackle diverse cleaning necessities with utmost perfection.

To touch more upon the brand’s story we invited the core proponents of Tumbledry Solutions Private

Establishing trust was a major obstacle for Tumbledry. In India, the traditional way of offering laundry and dry clean services was completely opaque. People didn’t have clear knowledge about the actual cleaning processes. Customers used to be unaware of the quality of water and chemicals used to treat their clothes, shoes, etc. And, this was the root cause of distrust among common people.

To overcome this, Tumbledry opened live laundry stores with advanced machinery and chemicals that allowed customers to observe the cleaning process firsthand. This was a whole new concept in India, where previously, customers had no knowledge about how their clothes were handled at a Laundromat or dry cleaner. By emphasizing quality and transparency, Tumbledry was able to establish trust among its customers.

• Covid 19 Pandemic

Tumbledry was founded in 2019 and the same year the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The global economic impact of the pandemic was significant, caused disruption, and put many established businesses on the brink of shutdown. The initial phase of the pandemic was challenging for Tumbledry, but the company remained growing and continuously improved its strategies. Despite facing two extended lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, Tumbledry not only survived but also grew exponentially.

Unequaled USPs

To provide premium services

Tumbledry leverages globally acknowledged Swedish machinery and German chemicals. The brand has also adopted the latest Lagoon technology from Sweden. Instead of manual processing, they have automated the entire cleaning process. To carry this legacy ahead, Tumbledry also runs a manpower training academy. Trainees are imparted exemplary laundry and dry cleaning skills so that they can provide comprehensive services to the end customers.

Along with quality, transparency is Tumbledry’s area of expertise. As mentioned above, the brand runs live stores where the entire cleaning process takes place in front of the customers. The team understands that modern consumers are always eager to save their time and experiment with technology.

Quality, Trust & Convenience

Tumbledry has made consistent efforts in ensuring that consumers develop ardent trust in its services. These efforts are showing magnificent vibrancy as more than 70% of its customers are repeat customers. This in itself is an impressive parameter to understand that they are deeply connected with Tumbledry.

Elaborating a little more, Mr. Gaurav Nigam said, “If a brand has the caliber to build trust, then customers rise above their doubts. For instance, a few years ago, there was general distrust related to laundry and dry clean services. However, when Tumbledry took the lead, people witnessed a new perspective of easily accessible and trustworthy laundry and dry clean services. Targeting a basic yet ignored problem without compromising the quality, made Tumbledry stand out from the competition. This exhibits that customers have evolved a deep understanding of their expectations and won’t compromise on quality. A concoction of dedication, customerdriven ideology, transparency, and convenience distinguishes our rapport and leaves an everlasting impact on the customers. Tumbledry is trying to solve this latent problem for half a billion urban Indians by offering premium laundry and dry clean services at customers’ doorstep. They can get laundry or dry clean in a few clicks using Whatsapp or Tumbledry app. Hence, every urban Indian for whom laundry is an everyday challenge is a customer for us.”

Strengthening Franchisees With Robust Business Model

The Indian laundry sector was largely dominated by small, local dry cleaners and dhobis until the advent of Tumbledry in 2019. To date, Tumbledry is unparalleled in its consumer base and scalability in the industry, with over 500 stores spanning 180 cities. Through its commitment to high-quality services, Tumbledry has built a substantial customer base of 500,000 individuals, resulting in a substantial and recurring business. The focus is not just on opening new stores, but rather on effectively managing them. Tumbledry’s franchisees receive extensive support in both setting up their business and managing day-to-day operations, helping to ensure their success. Currently, there is no other laundry brand in India that has even come close to achieving one-third of Tumbledry’s accomplishments.

Plans Aligned for the Future

The brand is proactively working to decimate the obstacles of the laundry industry. For this, the team is steadfastly moving to launch 2000 live stores by 2026. The aim is to have a hyper-local presence by opening one Tumbledry store within every 3 km radius across all Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities in India.

A Capsule of Intellect

To finish the read on an enticing note, we asked Mr. Navin Chawla to quote a few words for our global readership panel. He quoted “Brands are not built overnight. You need to work hard consistently to grow, establish and sustain a business. Along with hard work, you should be open to change. The world around us is changing rapidly, hence, as an entrepreneur, you should be ready to face the change and adapt in the best interest of your venture. The constant collaborative efforts towards solving problems and getting better with the business have kept my entrepreneurial journey amazing. There have been challenges and struggles, but we have beaten the odds every time and achieved one after another milestone.”