CHICAGO — For decades, The Clean Show has been the time and place where the drycleaning community comes together to meet industry leaders and see what they have to offer, both now and in the coming months.
This gathering got pushed back a year because of the pandemic but if there’s one thing this most challenging of times has taught us, it’s that we can roll with the punches and find new methods of reaching our goals.
No Clean Show … no problem!
To fill the gap, American Drycleaner wants to bring our readers together with our display advertisers of 2021 to date and allow you to meet up within our pages.
These companies have been adapting to meet the evolving needs of their clients and finding ways to move the industry forward into better days ahead.
Any claims made in this feature are those of the participants, and not those of American Drycleaner.
Day 3 is getting underway — see you on the floor!
NATIONAL CLEANERS ASSOCIATION
The National Cleaners Association (NCA) is a professional trade organization dedicated to the welfare of consumers and the professional cleaners and suppliers who serve them.
For more than 50 years, NCA says it has been at the vanguard of education, research and information distribution concerning garment and household fabric care. According to the organization, elected officials, government agencies, consumer groups, fashion designers and major media outlets have recognized and responded to NCA’s activities, reports and tradition of excellence.
NCA says it offers its members a wide range of benefits, including health and business insurance designed for dry cleaners, in-person on-site training, and government-required training classes, along with webinars, presentations, ideas, trends and forecasting. NCA also assists its members with email and other marketing assistance, Green Cleaners Council certification, and networking meetings and events.
The association says that its long-term working relationships with designers and garment manufacturers were developed in an effort to eliminate the production practices that can result in unserviceable garments.
NCA also offers a consumer newsletter, along with other publications, designed to provide dry cleaners with information about garment care and other topics of interest.
SPOT BUSINESS SYSTEMS
SPOT Business Systems has been a leading provider of software to the drycleaning industry since the early 1990s.
Over the last several months, the company has been working on the next generation of drycleaning software. This software, it says, will solidify its leadership position by providing a powerful system to help dry cleaners navigate the day-to-day and long-term operational needs of their businesses. Connect, SPOT’s newest application, will deliver sophisticated analytics, world-class navigation and robust functionality, the company says, all wrapped in an intuitive interface to benefit dry cleaners everywhere. Connect will be widely available during summer 2021.
During the challenging times the industry has faced over the last year, SPOT says it has partnered with the drycleaning industry and its valued customers. That partnering has come in a few different ways. SPOT has been providing weekly data trend snapshots, with the goal of providing the industry with sound data to make great business decisions as customer behaviors continue to evolve. SPOT has also provided billing concessions for its customers’ software licensing fees during the hardest-hit months, as well as taking the opportunity to sponsor different virtual events and work with the many industry associations in a tangible way that benefits the overall community.
SPOT says it is continuing to look for meaningful opportunities to partner with this great industry and looks forward to better months ahead.
FABRICARE SYSTEMS
Fabricare Manager Point of Sale System has been a leading industry standard for more than 25 years, Fabricare Systems says. Its time-tested platform can be run as a self-hosted or cloud-based system. The company claims its tech support is second to none, and when you call, you will always talk with a real person.
With its new Customer Gateway and Route Dashboard, you can manage your routes to include messaging customers, adding stops and moving stop numbers. Driver out for a day? Not a problem, because you can optimize the route delivery based on current and past traffic conditions. The dashboard can be used in both cloud-based and self-hosted environments.
You can also have apps in the app stores for both iOS and Android. These apps are skinned with your logo and allow customers to view their order status, profile information and add or change credit card information.
During these trying times, Fabricare’s Customer Gateway allows your customers to reach out to you by sending “On My Way” requests and allows new and current customers to sign up or move to your route services. Fabricare has also expanded its partnerships with third-party kiosk companies, allowing for 24/7 contactless pickup and drop-off services. The company says these features in Fabricare Manager have aided dry cleaners in navigating through troubled times.
Fabricare says it has its software all over the world. From Washington to Florida, from Aruba to Ireland, you will find many dry cleaners using Fabricare Manager.
NIE INSURANCE
National Fire and Indemnity Exchange (NIE) was founded in 1915, and insures hundreds of dry cleaners, serving all 48 continental states from NIE’s office in St. Louis.
Coverage available through NIE includes Building (when the building is owned by the dry cleaner), Business Personal Property, Loss of Income, Liability, Crime, Bailee (covering customer property), and Equipment Breakdown. NIE also provides access to workers’ compensation insurance underwritten by other insurance carriers.
NIE helps cleaners get proper insurance every day, with a team who has experience with almost any problem your business will ever face. Cleaners can work directly with NIE’s experts, or, if they prefer, they can access NIE through their local agent.
NIE claims that its financial ratios are stronger than most insurance industry giants, and the company buys reinsurance from companies with aggregate surplus of more than $15 billion.
The Exchange’s policyholders appoint an attorney-in-fact to manage the Exchange. They also elect a committee to advise the attorney-in-fact of policyholder needs and preferences, what to do with the Exchange’s profit, how the Exchange’s assets should be invested, what actuarial firm should analyze the Exchange’s loss reserves, and what CPA firm should audit the Exchange’s financial statements.
We're open for one final day, so join us again on Thursdaty! Miss a day of the show? No worries — you can find them here: Day 1 — Day 2
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].