Five new members for CLA board
The Coin
Laundry Association elected
four store owner members and one manufacturer member to its
board of directors. The five new directors began their
three-year terms Jan. 1.
The store owners new to the CLA board are
Alan Greenberg, Keith Griffin, Bette Holland and Harvey Kantor;
Tony Regan of American Dryer Corp. is the new
manufacturers’ representative on the board.
Greenberg grew up in the self-service
laundry industry. He was nine years old when his father,
Sumner, opened the family’s first store in the 1950s.
After graduating from college in 1973 with a master’s
degree in mechanical engineering, he went to work full time in
the family laundry business.
“The truth of the matter is that,
when I went to college, there was always the thought that I
might someday join the family business,” said Greenberg,
who used to work part time in the business over his summer
vacations.
Today, he oversees the family’s
11-store, Massachusetts-based Wash n’ Dry laundry chain.
In addition to his new duties on the CLA Board, Greenberg is
active in the New England Coin Laundry Association.
Keith Griffin, 32, began his professional
career as an insurance agent after graduating from college in
1996.
Three years later, looking for an
additional source of income, he built his first coin laundry,
Super Suds, which has grown to six laundries within four years.
He also runs a full-service insurance agency and is involved in
building houses in his home state of Arkansas.
In 1992, Bette Holland’s south
Florida drycleaning business was swept away by Hurricane
Andrew. However, by 1998, she was back in business as the owner
of 3,600-square-foot Mowry Coin Laundry in Homestead, FL.
“After Andrew, I decided that I
didn’t want to be caught with just one little
[drycleaning) machine that does a lot of work,” Holland
explained.
Today, her coin laundry business has
several machines, and she is planning to add more in the near
future.
Harvey Kantor is an experienced coin
laundry owner, having owned and operated four stores over the
last 15 years. At times, he has been a multiple-store owner. He
and his wife, Shirley, opened a 2,850-sq.-ft. debit card store
in Philadelphia last April.
Kantor’s background spans almost 25
years in the coin laundry industry. He often serves as a
consultant to existing and prospective coin laundry owners,
analyzing the demographics, competition and financial potential
of coin laundries.
He also has developed coin laundry
marketing programs and worked with owners to sell their stores.
He also is the founder and president of
Triumphe Leasing Network, a company that specializes in
financing coin laundry, HVAC and general business equipment. He
is a frequent speaker before business groups on sales
development, cash management and profit improvement strategies.
Tony Regan, the manufacturer newcomer to
the Board, brings a varied business background to the
association.
As a regional manager for American Dryer
Corp., he worked with distributors and coin laundry owners on a
daily basis. Later, he headed ADC’s finance program
— American Credit Corp. Prior to those positions, he was
in the international business market, representing U.S-built
products for an export management company.
Today, Regan, who holds degrees in
communications and political science from the State University
of New York, serves ADC as the company’s vice president
of sales and marketing.
The CLA Board of Directors is comprised
of store owners, distributors and manufacturers representing
the CLA membership and the industry at large. All directors are
volunteers who spend their personal time and talent to guide
the direction of the CLA.
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