Leveling the Playing Field

John Um wanted to make sure small business owners could get fair pricing and access to reliable suppliers without needing to have significant buying power. As a leader whose career spanned several major retail and e-commerce companies, he had seen firsthand how hard...

Staying Fierce: Haley Gould Finds Perfect Fit in Vended Laundry

Haley Gould is the Director of Partner Success for HappyNest. She manages an internal team while leading more than 100 partners across the United States building a successful pickup and delivery operation in addition to running their laundromat business. A consummate...

Metrics That Matter

Profit, Performance, and Planning in Vended Laundry The laundromat business is like most businesses in that you need to do a lot of things right to be successful. But how do you know if it’s working? According to successful owners, you just need to look at the...

Startup to Scale

How Western State Design Has Been Helping Laundry Businesses Thrive for More Than 50 Years For more than five decades, Western State Design has been a leading provider of turnkey laundry solutions across the vended, on-premises, and commercial/industrial markets....

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Taking Care of Business

Jan 27, 2015

Originally posted - Jan issue/2012 Here's How Four Laundry Owners Diversified Their Operations with Commercial Accounts In the laundry business, an idle machine is a missed chance to gain needed revenue – and it's an opportunity that can never be recovered. Perhaps no...

Industry Showcase

Jan 27, 2015

Originally posted - June issue/2012 The Latest Products and Services from the Coin Laundry Industry's Leading Companies Alabama Bag Co. Alabama Bag Co., established in 1908 and is located in Talladega, Ala., provides high-quality canvas money bags for coins and...

Competing

Jan 27, 2015

Originally posted - Sep issue/2012 How to Respond When a New Laundromat Enters Your Market When the closest competitor to one of Brian Brunckhorst's coin laundries in northern California lost its lease, the multi-store owner was understandably overjoyed – and his...

Headlines

Making a Statement

The ‘What,' ‘Why' and ‘How' of Mission Statements In a long history of looking at mission statements, researchers and practitioners have almost universally acknowledged the value of a singular mission as a driving force for companies – and yet have been inconsistent...

Dirty Bird Laundry

Ryan and Bernadette Hansen Dirty Bird Laundry Fresno, Calif. www.DirtyBirdLaundry.com Before Getting into the Laundry Business… Ryan was the operations manager for a produce distributor, and Bernadette worked at Costco. Store Openings Store 1: November 2009 - Fresno...

‘We Turn a Laundromat into a Community Center…’

An Interview with The Laundry Project's Jason Sowell Jason Sowell founded Current of Tampa Bay in 2008. It's a non-profit organization dedicated to helping meet the needs of low-income communities. Sowell is a former youth pastor and executive pastor in the Tampa...

Wash with Wally: Hair Dye Stains

One of my commercial accounts is a hair salon. Can you tell me the best way to remove dark hair dye from the white towels my client brings to me? Hair dye can be a real problem because different manufacturers use different types of bases for dyes. Some use a metallic...

Going ‘Undercover’

Forced to Take a Fresh Look at His Laundry Business, the Author Gained an Entirely New Perspective on His Overall Operation When is the last time you went "undercover?" No, I'm not suggesting you sneak into one of your competitor's laundries, pretending to be a...

Business Bio: Wash-n-Go

Dewayne Bohannon Wash-n-Go Columbia, S.C. Before Getting into the Laundry Business… Dewayne has been in the self-storage industry for 25 years, and he is also in the coin-operated amusement business. Store Opening Wash-n-Go in Columbia opened two years ago. However,...

Making the Call

How to Prepare for Sales Calls with Potential Commercial Clients In my last column, I discussed some of the profitable niches available to self-service laundry owners within the vast realm of commercial laundry accounts. This time, I'd like to follow up on that...

What If Muhammad Ali Owned Your Laundry?

Adopting the Legendary Boxer's Personal Philosophy Can Turn You into a Champion of Business All of the buzz surrounding the recent high stakes Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao welterweight title fight got me thinking about boxing's heyday in the 1960s and '70s, as well...

Berkshire Hills Acquires Firestone Financial

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. has announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of privately held Firestone Financial Corp. as an operating subsidiary of Berkshire Bank. Based in Needham, Mass., Firestone is a nationwide commercial specialty...

Speed Queen Honors Its Distributor of the Year

PWS Recognized for Service and Sales Excellence Speed Queen has named PWS - The Laundry Company as its 2014 Distributor of the Year. "We are honored to name PWS the 2014 Distributor of the Year," said Dan Bowe, Speed Queen North American sales manager. "Not only have...

IPSO Names Distributor of the Year

Steiner-Atlantic Honored for Outstanding Sales and Service Achievements IPSO recently named Steiner-Atlantic Corp. its 2014 Distributor of the Year. "We are honored to name Steiner-Atlantic Corp. the 2014 Distributor of the Year," said Kathryn Rowen, IPSO North...

Whirlpool Enters into Agreement to Acquire ADC

Whirlpool Corp. has entered into an agreement to acquire American Dryer Corp., which manufactures and markets coin-operated, on-premise, industrial and specialty laundry equipment. The planned acquisition gives Whirlpool's commercial laundry business a platform to...

This Month's Issue

Green is Good Business: Green Operations Increasingly Important to Feed Consumer Demand
Women In Laundry: Lee Ann Geurts Loves a Challenge
Store Profile: Kings Laundry Kicking it in Los Angeles
Untapped Growth Opportunities
And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

Clean 2017: Exhibit Space Sold Out

For the first time in 20 years, exhibit space for the Clean Show is completely sold out. The biennial event, which is celebrating its 40-year anniversary this year, is scheduled for June 5-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.In addition, attendee registration also is...

CBORD, Washlava Partner to Provide a More Convenient Student Laundry Experience

CBORD, a provider of technology solutions for colleges and universities, and Washlava, a technology company modernizing self-service laundry through its mobile application, have announced their partnership, which features the integration of Washlava into CBORD's...

Profit Symposium Attracts Record Numbers

Continental Girbau West and Elite Business Investments recently hosted the Conference of Champions Profit Symposium in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. The event, which focused on ways to improve vended laundry profits and attract new customers, drew record numbers. The...

WASH Upgrades Laundry Rooms with PayRange Mobile Payment

WASH Multifamily Laundry Systems - which has more than 7 million people doing their laundry in its WASH-branded laundry rooms every week throughout the U.S. and Canada - has selected PayRange to be the technology provider of its mobile payment solution, thus marking a...

Commercial Equipment Company to Host Spring Open House

Commercial Equipment Company will hold its annual open house, service school and equipment showcase on May 19 at the company's headquarters in Farmers Branch, Texas. This event - which is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - will feature extensive educational...