ORLANDO, Fla. — When the doors opened on Aug. 23 at the Orange County Convention Center, textile care professionals flooded the aisles with an energy that surprised even the most optimistic observers. The 2025 Clean Show, which Orlando, Fla., hosted Aug. 23-26, wasn’t just well-attended — it exceeded expectations and revealed an industry ready to move forward.

The numbers tell part of the story. Greg Jira, group show director for show organizer Messe Frankfurt, watched attendance climb past recent benchmarks. “We have surpassed the visitor attendance of both 2019 and 2022, so that’s fantastic,” he says. 

But Jira admits he underestimated the industry’s appetite for connection and investment. “We felt that we were going to come in somewhere between 2019 and 2022 in attendance for this year, but the industry was hungry. They wanted to come back, get together and meet.”

The show matched that enthusiasm with scale. With nearly 400 exhibitors spread across more than 210,000 square feet — 30,000 more than the 2022 Atlanta show — the event offered both breadth and depth. Among the exhibitors were 88 international companies, a new record, along with a record number of first-time exhibitors who had never participated in Clean before.

Behind those statistics was something difficult to quantify but hard to miss: a palpable shift in mindset from survival mode to growth mode.

Jira says that these 2025 numbers demonstrate “the resilience and forward momentum of our industry. We’re already looking forward to delivering an even bigger and better Clean Show in 2027.”

“I think The Clean Show was a great success,” says Mary Scalco, CEO of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), one of the show’s partnering associations. “There was an energy on the floor, and the attendees were engaged and focused on looking at investing in their operations.”

That investment mindset was echoed by exhibitors, who saw a marked change from previous shows. Leo Hermes, partner at Yamamoto-North America, noted the transformation in attendee attitudes.

“For people in the drycleaning business, COVID was devastating, and the rebuild time after COVID was slow and hard,” he says. “What we’ve seen in the last year or so is a big resurgence of people who are now reinvesting into dry cleaning because they’ve been able to get their customer bases back. Now they’re feeling a lot better and more stable with business in the future.”

Vic Williams, president of Union Dry Cleaning, sensed a similar enthusiasm. “I think everybody’s upbeat,” he says. “A lot of electricity. Everybody’s excited to see new products and machines they want to replace.”

Joel Jorgensen, vice president of sales for Continental Laundry Solutions, described the experience on the show floor as relentless — in the best possible way.

“When those doors opened at 10, we did not get any relief from a constant stream of people, and we didn’t want it,” he says. “We made the investment to be here and engage with all these new opportunities, so it’s been fantastic.”

Scalco believes the year’s delay actually worked in the industry’s favor, letting businesses stabilize after the pandemic’s disruptions.

“It allowed the dust to settle a little,” she says. “People felt like they were on solid footing. That allowed them to come to the show and say, ‘I’m investing in my business. I want to see what’s out there.’”

For attendees, the reasons for making the trip to Orlando were diverse, but common themes emerged: education, networking and preparing for growth.

Joyce Simmons of Orlando Cleaners, attending her second Clean Show, came primarily for education. “I like learning,” she says. “I am the manager of the stores, so I don’t do the dry cleaning, but I want to know. I want to do the spotting, I want to do everything, so if anybody in the plant asks me a question, I can have an answer.”

Scott Lloyd of Durham (N.C.) Cleaners & Laundromat was making his first post-pandemic appearance at the show. “We always enjoy coming and learning something new and getting to socialize with some of the other people in the industry,” he says. His primary goal? “To network.”

Drycleaning consultant Kim Weller noticed a shift in the event’s overall tenor. “I think we’ve seen a ton more dry cleaners,” she says. “It’s been great to get everybody back together. Lots of networking, lots of excitement with all the improvements in technology.”

Weller, who has attended many Clean Shows over the years, felt a palpable difference this year. “It just feels like everybody’s more excited because we were on lockdown after the pandemic. And I think innovation in technology has become very exciting, because for the longest time, dry cleaning was pretty static when it came to that.”

Come back Thursday for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll recap some of the standing-room-only educational sessions.