SANTA MONICA, Calif. — U.S. Dry Cleaning recently took part in Equities Magazine’s Third Annual MarketSite Conference, which was available via webcast from the publication’s website, www.equitiesmagazine.com.
During the webcast, representatives of a diverse range of sectors discussed their companies’ corporate histories, financials, products and properties, and the strategies and partnerships that will be used to achieve growth.
“It’s time to get back to basics — companies that are always going to make money. And nothing is more basic than drycleaning,” said Rick Johnston, U.S. Dry Cleaning spokesman, at the conference. “Drycleaning is the definition of safe, and U.S. Dry Cleaning is the definition of a small, emerging growth company. Six months ago, you would have said boring; now boring is looking pretty good.”
U.S. Dry Cleaning’s management intends to rapidly acquire profitable, market-leading operations at accretive valuations to create the premier national chain in the drycleaning industry, company reps said at the conference. Each acquisition target is expected to be self-sufficient, and field management remains in place to ease the assimilation.
U.S. Dry Cleaning management believes the greatest value achieved in any consolidation is during the earliest phases, so the company intends to grow as rapidly as possible to maximize shareholder value.
“We are consolidating the industry,” Johnston said. “This is a rollup, not a rollout — we are buying companies. Our latest acquisition brings us up to a run rate of $33 million a year.”
“These are tough times, but U.S. Dry Cleaning is a tough company,” added Robbie Lee, chief executive officer. “We are the first consolidator in America. These times are an advantage as a consolidator. And as the first consolidator, we are only buying the best companies.”
The current acquisition pipeline has more than $100 million in revenue with all due diligence completed, with the potential to double that each year until $500 million in revenue is reached, U.S. Dry Cleaning reps indicated. There is a plan in place to turn the company into a billion-dollar-per-year business, they said.
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