Laundry Tech Provider Focused on Overcoming Today’s Industry Challenges

In 2015, Sukanth Srivastav and Vishal Gupta founded a laundry startup in India. The experience taught them the nuts and bolts of the laundry business and left the two entrepreneurs thinking about how large the garment-care industries – and some of their challenges – actually were.

From there, the two long-time friends began to focus on tackling some of the main challenges current laundromat owners and other industry professionals face on a day-to-day basis. This resulted in the development of a new business venture, Turns.

Turns is a software product developed to power today’s modern laundromats and drycleaning businesses of all sizes through a business-in-a-box SaaS platform. Through Turns, garment-care professionals have access to proven software to help grow their businesses, drive operational efficiency, and elevate the customer experience.

By offering effective employee management, revenue tracking, point-of-sale management, mobile-first digital ordering, on-demand delivery, customer apps, websites, and other elements, Turns can provide store operators with a single platform to run every aspect of their businesses.

“Laundromats and drycleaners represent one of the largest main street businesses in the United States that have been severely underserved by modern software,” Srivastav said. “We see an immense vertical SaaS opportunity and already understand the laundry business intimately.”

“Laundry is a large business, but also a complex and competitive one,” Gupta added. “Laundromats need state-of-the-art software to deliver the experience that is being demanded by B2C, as well as B2B, customers. We are building Turns to do just that – provide an all-in-one system that laundromat owners can operate easily and use to scale their businesses with a stellar customer experience.”

Today’s laundromats increasingly boast a number of complex workflows involving machines and manual labor – as well as multiple business models designed around self-service laundry, vending sales, wash-dry-fold services, pickup-and-delivery orders, laundry routes, and more.

“More and more these days, laundromat owners need a system that can scale as quickly as their businesses do – and one that integrates seamlessly into existing systems,” Srivastav noted. “Traditional solutions have fallen short of the modern needs of this multi-billion-dollar industry. This is the opportunity Turns is focused on.”

“Working on this problem delights me,” Gupta said. “I feel at home with laundry operators. It feels like we are a tribe – we speak the same language. And, whenever our partners launch new stores, we also live that experience with them… to support them as they start, grow, and scale their businesses.”

In the post-COVID era, Srivastav and Gupta have noticed a fundamental shift in the laundry industry. “We believe all of the pieces – from shifting consumer preferences to changing technology to a modern approach toward the business – are in place for the industry to grow tenfold in the upcoming decade,” Srivastav predicted.

Turns reports that it has already signed up more than 500 laundromats and drycleaners across more than 15 countries, including the United States, India, the United Arab Emirates, and others. The company will focus primarily on the U.S. market and currently is targeting 1,000 new customers within the next 12 to 18 months.

“We’ve been using the Turns platform for almost a year now, and it’s incredible to see how the product continues to develop and help our business,” said Rishi Vohra of the Washhouse Laundromat, located in Newburg, N.Y. “I’ve been able to test new operating models and add on-demand delivery without any cost – growing our customer base and revenue. Turns is the affordable game-changer that our industry has been waiting for. We have grown more than 200 percent in the last 10 months using Turns, and my customers love that they can pay on mobile, receive automated messages about their pickups, and get their orders picked up via DoorDash.”

“They helped me open up a completely new channel of revenue with DoorDash,” added Mithun Vohra, CEO of the Washhouse. “I connected with the Turns team after judging almost all of the current POS and tech platforms. I got online with my new website, built by them and integrated with DoorDash and my POS system. They helped me streamline my wash-dry-fold business and built a new revenue stream with pickup and delivery and DoorDash.”

“I first met the Turns team in 2021, when I was looking for some new ways to grow my business,” recalled Marieke van der Graaf, CEO of Laundrylicious, based in Whittier, Calif. “At that point, my primary growth channel was my website, and I had used most of the POS and business management tools out there. However, none of them were really meeting my needs. Their scheduling forms were poorly designed and didn’t have great conversion rates.

“That’s when I discovered Turns – a scheduling platform that was very well-designed and user-friendly. Turns even helped customize their platform for Laundrylicious. And they were open to suggestions and feedback from Day One, which makes working with them so much easier. Turns also supports a dedicated driver app and a completely integrated POS system, which is what we’ll be implementing into our business next. We’re hoping to go all the way with this team.”

The company’s overall mission, with regard to the laundromat and drycleaning industries, is to be “the technology backbone” for any garment-care business.

“We believe that the industry needs a next-generation, unbiased technology platform that puts the customer and top-notch experience at the forefront for new age operators to grow and scale their business and streamline different workflows to bring down the cost of service and boost efficiency and employee productivity,” Gupta explained. “We work with more than 500 stores across more than 15 countries, and their business and feedback give us a bird’s eye view to build for the future.

All in all, Turns has been created for laundry business owners who want to focus on the growth of their new or existing businesses.

“We are currently the only technology company that is able to provide branded apps on Google Play and the IOS App Store for our partners, with features like DoorDash integration, loyalty points, and subscriptions already baked in,” Srivastav said. “In overseas markets and also with our initial partners here in the U.S., we have seen app users order 30 percent more than non-app users – so we are excited to bring the app and gig economy to the laundry industry.

“I have been in the shoes of a new laundry business owner, staring at the machines and figuring out how to make the rent,” he continued. “But I kept the faith on my process and technology, and it took care of the rest. I have seen this story repeat before my eyes with enough stores and partners to know that what we have is built for the operator, by the guidance of operators.”

Turns founders Srivastav and Gupta recently took some time to share with PlanetLaundry their thoughts on the future of the laundromat business:

What is the most pronounced trend you’re currently seeing in your segment of the industry?

One of the most pronounced trends that we see currently is the incredible growth of consumer preference for pickup-and-delivery services, as well as the continued consistent growth in size of wash-dry-fold revenue. With pickup and delivery, laundromats can break the barriers of location and grow their customer bases for miles around.

What are you most excited about in 2023?

Personally, we’re most excited about the entry of generative AI into the mainstream, and how we can design workflows to help and grow all types of laundry business from a single store to a large franchisee. AI would change the game not just with regard to marketing and discounting, but also in terms of new generation features like dynamic pricing and customer profiling.

From a business perspective, what are you most concerned about?

We’re a bit concerned about recession fears and the tightening financial markets in the U.S. Then again, the laundromat industry has shown its ability to survive and grow during tough times over the last few decades and to come back even stronger, thus displaying the essential nature of this industry.

Where do you see your niche of the laundromat industry headed?

We serve almost all sizes of laundry and cleaning businesses, from a single laundry van to a large multi-location franchise. We are seeing owners becoming more confident about their business margins and the growth of the industry. This is reflected in the growth of multi-location ownership. We predict further growth in this sector, specifically with the rise of technology systems to help manage these multi-location businesses.

What’s the biggest reason for laundromat owners to be optimistic in 2023?

The biggest reason for laundromat owners to be optimistic in 2023 is the ability to reach inside the customer’s pocket by being on their mobile phone. Bringing customers to the laundromat is turned on its head by technology, which can bring the laundromat to the consumer with delivery services and mobile payment. Customers also are rewarding modern laundry services with their patronage and loyalty, thus showing that efforts to create a modern laundromat industry are received with open arms by today’s consumers.

What are the keys to successful laundromat ownership today?

The primary key to successful laundromat ownership today is pure customer obsession. If you are obsessed with providing your customers with the best value for their money, a top-notch experience and consistency, then you are already halfway there. Full-service customers are high-value consumers, paying thousands of dollars for your service – so always maintain quality. Also, it’s critical to keep a thorough check on cash and expenses inside the laundromat business, as well as to consistently track the performance of your employees and laundry equipment.