The Laundry Chute, LLC, has expanded its collegiate services in Pittsburgh and beyond for the 2019-20 school year, providing “peer-to-peer, on-demand laundry ecosystems to increase campus machine uses,” according to the company.
To bolster its offerings, The Laundry Chute has partnered with Church & Dwight, the makers of Arm & Hammer and OxiClean products, as well as with CSC ServiceWorks, a leading provider of laundry solutions on university and college campuses.
The Laundry Chute’s collegiate service launched in 2015 at the University of Pittsburgh, where students can download the company’s mobile app and sign up as processors or customers. Student customers drop off their laundry bags at on-campus proprietary “smart lockers,” where a student processor then launders and folds its contents using the on-campus laundry facility.
The Laundry Chute benefits existing, on-campus laundry service providers by increasing overall machine usage and helping these providers capture more of the off-campus student market.
“We could not be happier with the increase in volume we have realized since The Laundry Chute’s launch at the University of Pittsburgh,” said David Drake, executive vice president of CSC ServiceWorks, the on-campus laundry services provider at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as more than 1,200 other schools. “We look forward to working with The Laundry Chute to bring its service to universities across the country.”
“Once we were able to prove out the viability of our peer-to-peer college offering, we were looking for a large, laundry-related business to collaborate with,” explained James Janis, chief executive officer and co-founder of The Laundry Chute. “After having led early-stage discussions with several companies, it became clear that Church & Dwight was well-suited to work with us, nationwide, given its extensive expertise and industry-leading stature and brands, and laundry know-how.”
The service will use Church & Dwight’s Arm & Hammer and OxiClean products exclusively.
“We have been working with The Laundry Chute for some time now and have been impressed by the processes it has managed to put in place at the University of Pittsburgh, and by the thoughtfulness of the business model,” said Melissa Martin, vice president of marketing at Church & Dwight. “The Laundry Chute has managed to create a unique and cutting-edge, full-service laundry offering for universities that has the potential to be revolutionary and highly effective in capturing the attention of college students across the nation. We are very happy to do our part to help this growing modality of laundry service.”
Jim Earle, who is the assistant vice chancellor for business and auxiliary services at the University of Pittsburgh, was instrumental in helping to create the partnership between the company and the university.
“We enjoy the benefits to students that are made possible through The Laundry Chute – which enables us to provide our students with both a revolutionary and convenient service, as well as attainable and competitive on-campus jobs that they can do from the comfort of their own residence halls,” Earle said.
