CHICAGO — “They are definitely profitable in several ways,” says Bob King, owner of B & C Cleaners in Marshall, Texas, of wet cleaning and shirt laundering being the next big things for growing a business.
“First, when you have two ways to clean a garment, either traditional dry cleaning and/or wet cleaning, your quality goes up and therefore your customer service experience is increased, helping to retain customers,” says King.
“Second, your risk goes down,” he continues. “Some items may have higher risk of problems in a drycleaning process, so wet cleaning helps you minimize that. Third, oftentimes there is less pre-spotting of dry-clean garments that are going to be wet-cleaned, saving time.”
Wet cleaning is a water-based cleaning process that uses special detergents and conditioners. It has controlled agitation, specific time exposure for the garments and specific water temperatures during the cleaning process.
Customers, however, need to know why some garments can be wet-cleaned as a safer alternative to dry cleaning. There is some education that takes place about the process. They don’t walk in asking for their clothes to be wet-cleaned, he explains.
“Most customers assume it is a laundry process and are skeptical it is the process they want used for their garments,” says King, who runs B & C with wife Laura in serving two east Texas counties.
“You have to have a conversation with them explaining what it is and how it differs from traditional dry cleaning and laundry. The goal is to create the trust that assures them you know what you are doing and it will provide the results they want,” he explains.
“We have been in business for over 50 years with 16 employees,” King adds. “We are a professional dry cleaner and wet cleaner certified by the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI).”
Wet cleaning and shirt laundering are not the same. They differ in the four basic components of cleaning: Time, temperature, mechanical action and chemical action. And they are finished differently, notes King.
Brian Johnson, director of education and analysis at DLI, notes that wet cleaning is a professional process using water where all aspects of the process are precisely controlled, including the water level, water temperature, agitation and the use of special additives to reduce shrinkage, color loss and fabric distortion.
“The water level, water temperature, agitation and additives are different in laundry versus wet cleaning,” says Johnson.
Nearly all dry cleaners perform some amount of wet cleaning on a regular basis. Johnson estimates 30-40% of the items a cleaner receives have wash labels in them.
“A cleaner may opt to wet-clean instead of dry-clean because of the level or type of soiling on the item,” he says. “Or, wet cleaning may be a safer alternative to dry cleaning due to the construction and design of the item (dyes, beading, sequins).”
This market segment is not without hurdles, as Johnson indicates: “Finishing and restoring wet-cleaned garments can be a challenge. The biggest differences between water and solvent cleaning is water causes wrinkling and shrinkage. These effects do not occur nearly to the extent in dry cleaning as they do in wet cleaning.”
Regarding shirt laundering, he says that “the most basic points of shirt laundering still pose the biggest challenges. Those points being: presenting a clean, well pressed shirt without broken buttons.”
STREAMING TO CLEANVILLE
The challenges are unique to both wet cleaning and shirt laundering.
For wet cleaning, the biggest challenges are consumer education first, and care label approval second. “Because there are no care labels allowing garments to be wet-cleaned, you have to take calculated risks at times when making a decision to wet-clean an item,” notes King.
“You can test in many cases, but you do not have time to test every garment. One of the biggest problems we face today is proper dye setting and colorfastness of garments,” he warns, “and if a care label says dry-clean, you may have that risk of dye migration and possibly shrinkage.”
King indicates that time and experience help to offset this, but it comes at a bit of a price.
For shirt laundry, the problem is to produce a great-looking shirt without touch-up. Today’s presses can produce a beautiful shirt right off the press, but if touch-up is required, it seldom has the same appearance after being handled.
“We receive a wide variety of sizes to be laundered from small to 5X and it is a challenge to get the same appearance on the very small or very large shirts,” says King. “In east Texas, we process a lot of starched shirts and that crispness that is produced from the press works against you if touch-up is required.”
Along the same vein, and probably the second challenge, is making the shirt look good under the “poly.”
“If you have a three- or four-shirt order, with today’s blown sleeve, it is a challenge to make the order look good and not wrinkle while being packaged and put away.
“When we went to the blown sleeve, we had to reduce our pieces per order and in some cases use a wide gusset poly to keep from wrinkling each piece.”
Wet cleaning and shirt laundering is a segment of the business that is attracting more attention as the technology steadily improves to increase the margins.
The excitement comes from getting better and better at wet cleaning, insists King.
“While we have been doing wet cleaning for some time, there are always unique situations that require a little more expertise or that you had hoped for a little better result. So, you are constantly challenged to learn more and increase your abilities.”
He adds: “For shirt laundry, I love seeing what the manufacturers are doing to address the problems and challenges for a garment that is probably the lowest-margin item we deal with. Each time I attend a show, there are new products and machines that are vastly improved.”
Check back Thursday for the conclusion.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].