Dry Cleaners Service Seattle
Is Dry Cleaning a Great Business Franchise Opportunity?
-- History
Robert Devaney, head of a dry cleaning plant that processes more than 2, 000 shirts on a daily basis has worked hard to produce the perfect shirt. This is why he recently spent $60, 000 on new pressing devices that neatly press 200 shirts per hour, each ironed as if by hand.
Devaney got his start in this dry cleaning industry more than 30 years ago. He was pursuing a degree in speech pathology at Northeastern University when his father convinced him to join the family business. The father and son team purchased your Weymouth-based Dry cleaning by Dorothy in 1976. Later, Devaney founded the Fresh n' Clean and Lapels franchises and opened 42 stores in five states. Both franchises have been sold.
Devaney's latest company endeavor, The Cleaner Spot has already established nine locations on the South Shore, and looks to extend franchise businesses. The Weymouth plant employs 35 people and processes items from the three corporate-owned Drycleaning by Dorothy drop-off stores and The Cleaner Spot franchises.
- How casual dress trends have affected dry cleansing
Casual dress has heavily affected the dry cleaning industry over the last decade. The volume of clothes would have to be dry cleaned has greatly reduced. The industry has created new methods and equipment to handle casual dress. Each time a pair of khakis are pressed, for instance, it's different than pressing a pair of wool slacks. Often , khakis are needed to remain wet cleaned instead of dry cleaned, which makes them harder to press and finish. There are actually machines which grab the bottom of the pants and pull them down, helping to give a better press. Undoubtedly making this press much more popular with casual clothing.
Casual dress has become more popular over the years, but doesn't mean you should lose a professional look. Meaning if you want to dress in khakis and a polo, but still desire that professional image, it's best to need those items professionally cleaned and pressed.
-Changes due to pollutant regulations
Environmental Protection Agency regulations have got given us additional costs. Additional education and new equipment were also needed. Equipment manufacturers have been needed to create more efficient equipment - equipment that didn't harm the atmosphere. In our industry, they are called closed-loop systems, so instead of releasing the odors into the atmosphere, pollutants are all self-contained. This process also produced cleaning much more efficient, so that less of the chemicals could do the same volume of clothing.
In addition , after the dry up cleaning process is completed, a hazardous waste residue is left behind. Dry cleaners must then get that waste and put it into barrels, and then have it professionally removed. The newest thing in dry cleaning is usually environmentally friendly systems, but even plants that claim to have an environmentally-friendly process use chemicals that are considered parasites. There's actually no such thing as a completely environmentally-friendly dry cleaner, unless they personally wash almost everything.
- The Perfect Shirt
You won't see any difference in quality if you bring a sweater into 10 dry cleaners... And you can't take a stain on a silk blouse to five dry cleaners, so this change is very hard to see. But generally, what greatly sets dry cleaners apart Is the quality of their t-shirts, which is easily noticeable. You can very readily see any obstructions made to a shirt, therefore shirts are definitely the competitive grounds between dry cleaners. 99-cent shirts are all over the place, leaving customers very attuned to your cost of shirts. For this reason, shirts are cleaned on mass production equipment. They are actually processed with about 100 or more shirts per hour, as opposed to a dry cleaning item that's hand-ironed and pressed should be done at around 15 or 20 an hour. Click here for more best dry cleaners Seattle, Wa
You could always make the perfect shirt if you had time for you to hand press every shirt, which doesn't happen anymore because of inefficiency and high price, until an alternative company (Japan's Sankosha) developed a machine that can still turn out 150 to 200 shirts an hour - but as perfect shirts.
-What sets The Cleaner Spot apart
The whole dry cleaning and tailoring economy works on incentive, allowing Devaney to realize that no one cares about the business more than the owner, which is the reason every franchise of The Cleaner Spot is managed by the owner. The owner is always there, working 40 to help 50 hours a week, so that you're guaranteed the ultimate in service. The owner specifically inspects every piece that is highly refined through that store so you are ensured to get the best quality. Our drop stores are small, 1, 000-square-foot stores that we are able to conveniently locate anywhere. Dry cleaning is a business based on convenience, typically drawing clients that live and work near by, enabling us to target specific communities. Large dry cleaning plants can even be not allowed anymore in heavily populated areas because of chemical and environmental problems.
Robert Devaney, head of a dry cleaning plant that processes more than 2, 000 shirts on a daily basis has worked hard to produce the perfect shirt. This is why he recently spent $60, 000 on new pressing devices that neatly press 200 shirts per hour, each ironed as if by hand.
Devaney got his start in this dry cleaning industry more than 30 years ago. He was pursuing a degree in speech pathology at Northeastern University when his father convinced him to join the family business. The father and son team purchased your Weymouth-based Dry cleaning by Dorothy in 1976. Later, Devaney founded the Fresh n' Clean and Lapels franchises and opened 42 stores in five states. Both franchises have been sold.
Devaney's latest company endeavor, The Cleaner Spot has already established nine locations on the South Shore, and looks to extend franchise businesses. The Weymouth plant employs 35 people and processes items from the three corporate-owned Drycleaning by Dorothy drop-off stores and The Cleaner Spot franchises.
- How casual dress trends have affected dry cleansing
Casual dress has heavily affected the dry cleaning industry over the last decade. The volume of clothes would have to be dry cleaned has greatly reduced. The industry has created new methods and equipment to handle casual dress. Each time a pair of khakis are pressed, for instance, it's different than pressing a pair of wool slacks. Often , khakis are needed to remain wet cleaned instead of dry cleaned, which makes them harder to press and finish. There are actually machines which grab the bottom of the pants and pull them down, helping to give a better press. Undoubtedly making this press much more popular with casual clothing.
Casual dress has become more popular over the years, but doesn't mean you should lose a professional look. Meaning if you want to dress in khakis and a polo, but still desire that professional image, it's best to need those items professionally cleaned and pressed.
-Changes due to pollutant regulations
Environmental Protection Agency regulations have got given us additional costs. Additional education and new equipment were also needed. Equipment manufacturers have been needed to create more efficient equipment - equipment that didn't harm the atmosphere. In our industry, they are called closed-loop systems, so instead of releasing the odors into the atmosphere, pollutants are all self-contained. This process also produced cleaning much more efficient, so that less of the chemicals could do the same volume of clothing.
In addition , after the dry up cleaning process is completed, a hazardous waste residue is left behind. Dry cleaners must then get that waste and put it into barrels, and then have it professionally removed. The newest thing in dry cleaning is usually environmentally friendly systems, but even plants that claim to have an environmentally-friendly process use chemicals that are considered parasites. There's actually no such thing as a completely environmentally-friendly dry cleaner, unless they personally wash almost everything.
- The Perfect Shirt
You won't see any difference in quality if you bring a sweater into 10 dry cleaners... And you can't take a stain on a silk blouse to five dry cleaners, so this change is very hard to see. But generally, what greatly sets dry cleaners apart Is the quality of their t-shirts, which is easily noticeable. You can very readily see any obstructions made to a shirt, therefore shirts are definitely the competitive grounds between dry cleaners. 99-cent shirts are all over the place, leaving customers very attuned to your cost of shirts. For this reason, shirts are cleaned on mass production equipment. They are actually processed with about 100 or more shirts per hour, as opposed to a dry cleaning item that's hand-ironed and pressed should be done at around 15 or 20 an hour. Click here for more best dry cleaners Seattle, Wa
You could always make the perfect shirt if you had time for you to hand press every shirt, which doesn't happen anymore because of inefficiency and high price, until an alternative company (Japan's Sankosha) developed a machine that can still turn out 150 to 200 shirts an hour - but as perfect shirts.
-What sets The Cleaner Spot apart
The whole dry cleaning and tailoring economy works on incentive, allowing Devaney to realize that no one cares about the business more than the owner, which is the reason every franchise of The Cleaner Spot is managed by the owner. The owner is always there, working 40 to help 50 hours a week, so that you're guaranteed the ultimate in service. The owner specifically inspects every piece that is highly refined through that store so you are ensured to get the best quality. Our drop stores are small, 1, 000-square-foot stores that we are able to conveniently locate anywhere. Dry cleaning is a business based on convenience, typically drawing clients that live and work near by, enabling us to target specific communities. Large dry cleaning plants can even be not allowed anymore in heavily populated areas because of chemical and environmental problems.
How Home Dry Cleaning Works
That name is a bit misleading. The dry cleaning process isn't actually dry at all, it simply translates that water isn't used in the process. At a commercial dry cleaners they use washing machines that are filled with a solvent to clean the garments, but no water. The reason it's necessary to do this is that some fabrics, enjoy silk, rayon and wool blends, don't react well to the hot water in a domestic washing machine and can lengthen and become misshapen. The strength of the solvent used also means it can often tackle stains that normal washing aren't able to shift.
Home dry cleaning is a bit different from a domestic dry cleaners'. The normal solvent commercial carpet cleaners use is strong and harmful and would be unsuitable to use in the home. So for home cleaning you purchase kits that deal with the process in a slightly different way. The kits are aimed at cleaning individual clothes, rather than coping with full loads, and so for larger items like suits, duvets and curtains you're still far better off going to the high street dry cleaners. But if all you have is something like a silk blouse using food stain from last night's dinner then you can save yourself some time and expense by using a dry cleaning product.
How Home Dry Cleaning Kits Work
The kits contain 3 components:
1 . Stain remover and/or stain absorbing pads to remove spot stains.
2 . Dryer activated Dry Cleaning Cloth
3. A Reusable dryer bag.
Pre Treating Spot Stains
If there are particular stains you want to remove, you first tackle these individuals with the stain remover. This is a bottled solution, and it is the normal pre-treatment you would use on all your fabrics in advance of putting them in the wash. You simply rub the solution on to the stain, working it in to the fabric, and allow it to needlessly do its work of lifting the stain. You then use the absorbent pads to mop away the most effective, and the lifted grease and grime with it. This is actually where most of the cleaning gets done as the next period will do little to lift dirt and grime from the fabric.
The "Dry" Part
Once you have pre-treated any sort of stains, you come to the freshening part of the dry cleaning process that takes place in your tumble dryer. People place your garment(s) - how may will depend on the kit, it's normally up to four - in the bag provided along with a dryer activated cleaning cloth, seal the bag and then put it in to your drop dryer.
This where the freshening happens, and it's "dry" because it only involves the use of steam, perfume and a great emulsifier.
The heat from the tumble dryer causes the water and perfume to evaporate out of the cleaning cloth. People form a fragrant steam that expands in the bag, which fills out under the pressure. Under the following increased pressure the steam is forced in to the fibres of the fabric in the garments, and this is the "freshening part", the fragrance is simply infused in to the garments. The seal on the bag isn't completely airtight which means that some of the vapour escapes, although most of it stays within the bag. This prevents the pressure from possessing too high and the bag popping like a balloon.
The steam also softens the fabric and removes facial lines from the garments, just as your steam iron does. The emulsifier attracts the steam molecules to stop all of them being absorbed as water in to the fabric, which is why the fabric stays dry. Some dirt will also be assimilated by the steam.
Once the process is complete, you take your garments from the bag and hang these people up.
Drawbacks of Home Dry Cleaning
There are two main disadvantages, compared to commercial dry cleaning.
Primary, you can't actually use the kits for all the fabrics a commercial dry cleaners can deal with. The delicate clothing don't shrink in the tumble dryer because they are protected from the neat by the bag. The steam in the container is just below the temperature needed to melt or shrink most synthetic fibres, but you still shouldn't use a kits for leather, velvet, suede or fur.
Second, other than the pre-treatment of spots and marks, no real cleaning takes place. Sweat and body oils that you can't see and are absorbed in to the clothing through normal wear, remain. You just aren't aware of them as the infusion of a perfume overpowers most other odors.
So the kits can be ideal for the removal of specific stains and a quick freshen up of delicate garments, but should you prefer a properly cleaned garment, you still need the services of commercial dry cleaner.
Home dry cleaning is a bit different from a domestic dry cleaners'. The normal solvent commercial carpet cleaners use is strong and harmful and would be unsuitable to use in the home. So for home cleaning you purchase kits that deal with the process in a slightly different way. The kits are aimed at cleaning individual clothes, rather than coping with full loads, and so for larger items like suits, duvets and curtains you're still far better off going to the high street dry cleaners. But if all you have is something like a silk blouse using food stain from last night's dinner then you can save yourself some time and expense by using a dry cleaning product.
How Home Dry Cleaning Kits Work
The kits contain 3 components:
1 . Stain remover and/or stain absorbing pads to remove spot stains.
2 . Dryer activated Dry Cleaning Cloth
3. A Reusable dryer bag.
Pre Treating Spot Stains
If there are particular stains you want to remove, you first tackle these individuals with the stain remover. This is a bottled solution, and it is the normal pre-treatment you would use on all your fabrics in advance of putting them in the wash. You simply rub the solution on to the stain, working it in to the fabric, and allow it to needlessly do its work of lifting the stain. You then use the absorbent pads to mop away the most effective, and the lifted grease and grime with it. This is actually where most of the cleaning gets done as the next period will do little to lift dirt and grime from the fabric.
The "Dry" Part
Once you have pre-treated any sort of stains, you come to the freshening part of the dry cleaning process that takes place in your tumble dryer. People place your garment(s) - how may will depend on the kit, it's normally up to four - in the bag provided along with a dryer activated cleaning cloth, seal the bag and then put it in to your drop dryer.
This where the freshening happens, and it's "dry" because it only involves the use of steam, perfume and a great emulsifier.
The heat from the tumble dryer causes the water and perfume to evaporate out of the cleaning cloth. People form a fragrant steam that expands in the bag, which fills out under the pressure. Under the following increased pressure the steam is forced in to the fibres of the fabric in the garments, and this is the "freshening part", the fragrance is simply infused in to the garments. The seal on the bag isn't completely airtight which means that some of the vapour escapes, although most of it stays within the bag. This prevents the pressure from possessing too high and the bag popping like a balloon.
The steam also softens the fabric and removes facial lines from the garments, just as your steam iron does. The emulsifier attracts the steam molecules to stop all of them being absorbed as water in to the fabric, which is why the fabric stays dry. Some dirt will also be assimilated by the steam.
Once the process is complete, you take your garments from the bag and hang these people up.
Drawbacks of Home Dry Cleaning
There are two main disadvantages, compared to commercial dry cleaning.
Primary, you can't actually use the kits for all the fabrics a commercial dry cleaners can deal with. The delicate clothing don't shrink in the tumble dryer because they are protected from the neat by the bag. The steam in the container is just below the temperature needed to melt or shrink most synthetic fibres, but you still shouldn't use a kits for leather, velvet, suede or fur.
Second, other than the pre-treatment of spots and marks, no real cleaning takes place. Sweat and body oils that you can't see and are absorbed in to the clothing through normal wear, remain. You just aren't aware of them as the infusion of a perfume overpowers most other odors.
So the kits can be ideal for the removal of specific stains and a quick freshen up of delicate garments, but should you prefer a properly cleaned garment, you still need the services of commercial dry cleaner.
