ORLANDO — After a year’s delay to realign with global textile care events, The 2025 Clean Show exceeded expectations, organizers say.
While the post-show report didn’t list the final attendance numbers for the Aug. 23-26 event here at the Orange County Convention Center, Greg Jira, group show director for Messe Frankfurt, earlier said he was pleasantly surprised by the strong turnout and industry response.
“We have surpassed the visitor attendance of both 2019 and 2022, so that’s fantastic,” he said during the show’s final day. “Vegas in 2017 was the traditional high point, and we’re close to that. 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 layout also grew from its 2022 outing in Atlanta. Orlando’s iteration offered more than 210,000 square feet of exhibitor space, versus 180,000 at the previous show. There were nearly 400 exhibitors this year, along with 88 international companies, which was a record. The exhibitor total also included a record number of “first-timers,” according to Jira.
That enthusiasm was evident among attendees as well. In addition to exhibits of the latest machines and technology, The Clean Show also offered several well-attended educational sessions to help cleaners build their skills and contemplate new ideas.
Ron Garrett of Lexington Dry Cleaning and Brandon Crick of Conway Cleaners, both in South Carolina, attended the first Drycleaning & Laundry Institute-sponsored educational session, dealing with social media marketing for dry cleaners.
“There are multiple reasons I come to the show,” Garrett says, “and education is definitely one of them. I always come away with something new.”
“We also have some equipment to buy in the future,” Crick says. “I get to look at all the new toys.”
“I think The Clean Show was a great success,” says Mary Scalco, CEO of 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. It was particularly exciting to see the technology that is coming to our industry. While much of it is still in the beginning stages, it was great to see this type of investment in our industry.”
Clean is now back to its original biennial schedule. Las Vegas will host the next edition on July 15-18, 2027.
American Drycleaner will have much more Clean Show coverage, including articles about educational sessions and new products, in the coming weeks.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
