Dry Cleaning and Laundry Facilities Industry Profile

The US dry cleaning and laundry facilities industry includes about 30,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $11 billion. Major companies include Coinmach Service, DRYCLEAN USA, Mac-Gray, and Martin Franchises. The industry includes about 20,000 companies that provide retail laundry and dry cleaning services, and 10,000 that provide services through coin-operated laundromats. The dry cleaning segment is highly fragmented: the 50 largest firms generate less than 10 percent of revenue. The coin-laundry segment is fragmented: the 50 largest firms generate about 40 percent of revenue.

Commercial and industrial laundry services are covered in the Linen and Uniform Supply Services industry profile.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is related to growth in consumer income. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations and favorable store locations. Large companies have efficiencies of scale in centralized cleaning operations. Small companies can compete successfully by owning favorable locations or providing special services. The industry is labor-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $55,000.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major products are retail dry cleaning services and coin-operated laundry services. Other sources of revenue include shoe and clothing repair services and washing machine route operations (servicing of machines in apartment complexes and other multifamily residences).

Retail dry cleaning operations consist of collecting and tagging clothing, operating dry cleaning machinery either on the retail premises or at central facilities that serve a number of stores, and pressing, bagging, and returning clothing to customers. Coin-operated laundries ...