National Clothesline

Sometimes, just staying in business one more day seems like an impossible prospect. If the economy isn’t shrinking, then the competition is growing. If the equipment isn’t breaking down, then surely the customers are giving you a nervous breakdown. Or, if you are like most plants, all of these things will hit you simultaneously. Indeed, one day can often seem like a lifetime in itself, which is why it’s so incredible that a San Francisco-based cleaners has stayed open for over 55,000 days!

On the front page, you may have noticed an article on G.F. Thomas Cleaning, which opened its doors in 1854, a mere three years after Isaac Singer invented the first commercially successful sewing machine and only four years before Hamilton Smith patented the rotary washing machine. Technology has improved a little bit since then, making cleaners’ lives a little easier (and, arguably, a little more difficult). Yet, despite such advances, the road hasn’t been any easier for cleaners, especially if you consider all of the tricky stains, complex fabrics, public misconceptions and government regulations that they have faced over the past 15 decades. Yet, somehow, one cleaners passed through four generations of family ownership and survived all of it, dealing with every difficult problem one day at a time.

Unfortunately, it appears there won’t be a fifth generation of the family taking over the helm of G.F. Thomas Cleaning. Current proprietor Emile Thomas, Jr., plans to retire and close the doors soon. Still, the ending of such an era is cause to celebrate, not mourn. The Thomas family persevered and succeeded mainly by following a simple game plan: They always tried to take care of the customer and take care with the cleaning process. Perhaps, that advice alone is not nearly enough for a plant to turn one day into 55,000, but it’s a good place to start. Meanwhile, cleaners who continue struggling in an effort to make it through to tomorrow can take solace in the fact that if one cleaning company can stay alive for that long, then there is certainly some hope for the rest of the industry, as well.

Each year we look forward to the release of the latest figures on perc consumption in the drycleaning industry. And each year, those figures tell us that drycleaners are using less perc than the year before. It has been so for over 25 years now.

The numbers just released by the Textile Care Allied Trades Association show that in 2004, 37 million pounds, or about 2.8 million gallons, of perc were used by drycleaners in the U.S. That represents a decline of 2 million pounds from the previous year’s perc consumption

That in itself may not seem like much, but it’s part of a continuing trend in which the industry has cut its perc consumption to about 10 percent of what it was in 1979. But you don’t need to go back that far to see a dramatic drop-off. Perc consumption last year was about half what it was as recently as 1998.

Some of the decline is due to decreasing drycleaning volume, especially in the last 15 years. But not even the painter of the worst case scenario would suggest that volume is half what it was in 1998 or 10 percent of what it was in 1979. If that were the case, we would see not just a big drop in perc consumption but also a huge decrease in the number of cleaners.

Also cutting into perc consumption is the growth of non-perc cleaning methods. Over the past 10 years, cleaners have expanded their use of wetcleaning and, in some cases, replaced perc machines with new equipment that uses one of the new alternative solvents. Even so, perc remains the predominant solvent in most drycleaning plants. A recent survey of cleaners in California — a state where cleaners have been “encouraged” by the government to move away from perc — found that 85 percent of cleaners are still using perc.

Most of the decrease in consumption must be attributed to more efficient equipment and better operating practices, and that is a credit to the industry — the people who manufacture, sell and maintain the machines as well as those who use them. The industry has been responsive to concerns about perc exposures in the environment and the workplace. This should ensure that perc remains one of the tools available to garment care professionals.