Plant Design Awards—Outstanding Reconstruction: Clemson Cleaners

CLEMSON, S.C. — In 2015, Clemson Cleaners, owned by Wright Henry, relocated a few miles from a strip center location in the former Clemson Center on Anderson Highway (U.S. 76) to a former restaurant site the drycleaning business acquired at 1001 Tiger Blvd.

Clemson Cleaners rebuilt and restored the interior of the 2,400-square-foot structure located just off a busy four-lane highway and added a drive-thru that’s proven popular.

“Since the renovation of our new building, the addition of the convenient and covered drive-thru has been a huge factor in the growth in our customer base,” Henry writes in nominating his company’s plant. “Our new and returning customers have the ability to simply drive right up and one of our CSRs will come out and wait on the customer without (them) ever having to leave the comfort of their car.”

The many windows in the building offer customers the opportunity to see the plant operating in all stages of production.

Protecting the environment is important to Clemson Cleaners, which became the region’s first dry cleaner to use GreenEarth cleaning back in 2008. High-efficiency washers and a wide range of machines operate on just a single gas-powered boiler.

What was supposed to have been a 90-day renovation was completed in less than 50 days, according to Henry.

“During the transition to our new location, we were only closed to our customers for one day that would have been a normal business day,” Henry writes. “When the obstacle of obtaining our certificate of occupancy (came about), our employees worked and waited on our customers in the parking lot.”

Equipment for the Clemson Cleaners plant comes from Union (using GreenEarth solvent), Sankosha, Unipress, QuickSort, UniMac, Fulton, Quincy and Ingersoll Rand, among others. Clemson Cleaners utilizes a CompassMax POS.

Rahmany Group Inc. designed the plant layout. McKibben was the architect. Central Contracting, with David Gully, was listed as the project’s distributor.

Clemson Cleaners, which received Outstanding Reconstruction honors in the 55th Annual American Drycleaner Plant Design Awards, as it appears today. (Photos: Clemson Cleaners)

A “before” photo taken as the former restaurant was being converted to house a dry cleaner.

The drycleaning and laundry area at Clemson Cleaners.

The bright, clean lobby that welcomes customers and guests to Clemson Cleaners.

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].