Originally posted – Oct issue/2012
New Hampshire Couple Builds New Self-Service Laundry, Buys Existing Store
Scott and Penny Williams first broke ground on Speedy Wash n’ Go in Alton, N.H., last November. However, the couple’s self-service laundry didn’t open until this past May.
Scott admitted that the project probably could have been completed sooner.
“We had a real slowdown for a month right in the middle of it,” he explained.
A zoning snag? Permit issues with the town? A problem with the store’s utility upgrades?
Not exactly.
“We have an annual trip that we take to the Caribbean for a month,” Williams continued. “And we were definitely going.
“My wife and I work awfully hard. We get up at 6:00 in the morning, and we don’t go to bed until midnight. So, we need to recharge the batteries.”
Indeed, Scott has been going at a breakneck pace since graduating from school 35 years ago.
“I’m a high school graduate only,” he said. “I subscribe to a strong work ethic.”
As soon as he received his diploma, Williams promptly opened three gaming arcades. It was a business he enjoyed for a few years, before selling the locations to acquire the capital required to enter the construction industry.
“I’ve been a homebuilder for 32 years and an excavating contractor for about 28 years,” Williams said. “We do all kinds of real estate development. We do small subdivisions, which are under 15 lots. We own rental properties. We have commercial rentals. In fact, we even rent to the U.S. Postal Service at one of our properties. So, we’re quite diverse.”
In addition, Williams serves as chairman of the town’s planning board and is the community’s fire chief.
However, none of that apparently was enough to keep Scott and Penny busy.
“We had been without a laundromat in this community for about five years,” Scott explained. “I felt it was terrible not having one, because the closest laundromat was about 15 miles away.”
So, the Williamses decided to add a self-service laundry to their business holdings by building Speedy Wash n’ Go on a piece of property they already owned.
For the most part, the project – which included the couple’s month-long hiatus to the Caribbean – went smoothly, according to Scott.
“I served as my own general contractor,” he said. “I’ve probably built 300 homes in my career. Overall, I spent about $180,000 on laundry equipment, while the build out was probably $80,000 between gas piping, ductwork, filters and the septic system.”
Perhaps the biggest issue the Williamses faced was educating the state of New Hampshire as to the lower water usage of today’s energy-efficient washers.
“We’re on septic systems here in Alton, and we had to explain to the state how washing machines are these days,” Scott noted. “They require only 500 gallons a day per machine. My wife and I did tons of research on other laundries – getting water usage data and comparing old equipment to new equipment. Today’s machines are using about one-third less water than they used to.
“So, probably the biggest challenge we faced was convincing the state as to the water usage of these machines. And we prevailed. We now have a 2,300-gallon-a-day septic system, where they had wanted us to install a 7,500-gallon-a-day system. And we’re using about 1,500 gallons a day right now.”
Williams built a 4,500-square-foot building for his new laundromat. However, Speedy Wash n’ Go takes up only about 1,500 square feet of the facility, and the rest is leased out to a dance academy.
The store is also located near the town’s post office, local banks, restaurants, a gourmet food shop and other small businesses.
“We’re right in the downtown area, so a lot of services are within walking distance,” explained Scott, who estimated that he and his wife probably spent about 20 hours per week at their laundromat.
Although Alton – which is a tourist community – has a year-round population of only about 5,300 people, that figure swells to more than 15,000 during the summer months, according to Scott.
“The surrounding communities are a little bit smaller, maybe about 4,000 to 5,000 people,” said Williams, who runs a weekly display ad promoting his business in the local newspaper. “And we draw from about three or four of those communities around us.
“We had a very busy summer, and a lot of people think we’re probably not going to slow down very much in the winter months. We’ve taken great pains to make our store very energy-efficient and very clean – and we feel we’re priced competitively.”
The summer tourists stay in the town’s cottages, which aren’t equipped with washers and dryers, according to Williams.
“There is a fair amount of rental property in the area, but not big apartment complexes,” he said. “We’re a very rural community. In fact, the zoning is two acres per house lot. And the landlords here never offer washers and dryers to their tenants.”
The unattended store, which is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, features automatic locks on the doors. In addition, this system turns off the lights and sets the store’s alarm at the end of the day.
“We also have 12 cameras in the store, and we can see them right from our smartphones,” Scott said. “Wherever we are in the world, we can see what’s going on in there.”
Besides keeping their store spotless, the Williams have helped Speedy Wash n’ Go stand out from the crowd with all LED lighting, air conditioning and a variety of payment options for customers.
“We are the first business in our community that has complete LED lighting in the store,” Williams said. “It’s been amazing. The lighting load for our store is 260 watts, which is totally incredible. It’s virtually nothing.”
The store’s customers also have the option of paying in cash, with a credit or debit card, or with one of the store’s loyalty laundry cards.
“We decided to install a card reading system in our store,” Scott explained. “As a rule of thumb, about 30 percent of the volume of the store is typically expected to come from credit cards. However, we’ve been around the 50 percent mark.
“It’s all been positive,” he continued. “It’s certainly not complete absentee ownership. The card readers probably added a little bit to the challenge, because it’s a learning curve for our customers. Sometimes they’ll swipe them in the wrong direction. Also, we offer multi-level pricing and that has been confusing for some customers. Basically, customer education has been our biggest surprise and frustration.”
Earlier this year, the Williamses purchased a second location, which was an existing 1,500-square-foot coin laundry in Belmont, N.H., about 15 miles west of Alton.
“It was an old dilapidated store with terrible equipment,” Scott said. “We rehabbed that store in June – new machines, new floor, new paint job, added air conditioning.”
The Belmont location currently features wash-dry-fold services, and the couple plans to begin offering a drop-off laundry option in Alton as well.
“The same woman who does it in the Belmont store will probably offer it in our Alton store,” Scott explained. “In Belmont, we’ve offered this woman free rent; her responsibility is to keep our store clean, and that is her rent. She also uses one of our customer loyalty cards at a discount.”
With two stores already up and running, Scott Williams would like to add a few more laundries to the couple’s resume in the near future.
“I would like to have four or five,” he said. “My wife and I are probably within 10 years of getting into retirement range. We don’t plan on retiring, because we’re just not that type of people. We’re looking at something that will be easier. The construction industry is high pressure, high frustration and very physical work – and that takes a toll on our bodies as we get older. But we will take care of our rental units… and now these laundromats.”
Equipment Mix
Speedy Wash n’ Go – Alton, N.H.
4 Speed Queen 20-pound frontloaders, $2.50
4 Speed Queen 30-pound frontloaders, $3.50
4 Speed Queen 40-pound frontloaders, $4.50
3 Speed Queen 60-pound frontloaders, $6.50
6 Speed Queen 30-pound stack dryers, 25 cents for six minutes
3 Speed Queen 45-pound stack dryers, 25 cents for four minutes
1 NATCO water heating system
1 Setomatic card system
1 American Changer bill changer
6 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
VCT tile flooring
1 soda/snack combination vending machine
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machine, $1.00
WiFi access
Video surveillance system, featuring 12 cameras
Wash-dry-fold service: $1.00 per pound
Distributor: Yankee Equipment, Barrington, N.H., (800) 239-9265
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