National Clothesline

As casual dress styles persist and the demand for drycleaning remains stagnant, cleaners have been looking beyond the traditional bread and butter garments for new services that can help their businesses grow.

Two of those growth areas were covered at the recent International Drycleaners Congress Convention by cleaners who have walked the talk and found success in the areas of fire restoration and wedding gown preservation.

Malcolm MacGregor, president of Browns Cleaner and Tailors, Ltd., in Ottawa, Canada, told the IDC gathering that his expansion into fire and flood restoration has been a great benefit to his 47-year-old business. Sally Lorensen Conant said wedding gown cleaning has been a significant addition to her company’s bottom line. Both related their experiences and gave advice to other cleaners who might be thinking of entering either of these two fields.

MacGregor said that of all the diversifications his company has tried over the past 47 years, fire and flood restoration has been the fastest growing.

But it took outside help to make it happen.

“For many years we had tried it on our own,” he said. “It wasn’t until we joined an international association that we realized its true potential.”

The benefits, he said, came from sharing expertise, knowledge, ideas and suggestions with other members, and from getting help from the association office.

“When you are part of a large group, you immediately become more credible,” he said. “Standing alone, no matter how big your company is, in the eyes of an insurance company you are quite small. An association will help you deal directly with insurance companies and adjusting firms. This usually means you get paid more quickly, also.”

One of the first things he learned from other operators is the importance of having a manager and sales person dedicated to the restoration part of the company’s operations.

Suffering a fire or flood is traumatic for a homeowner, and the cleaning company has to be ready to deal with these emergencies as soon as they arise.

“Someone has to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” MacGregor said. “Our staff is trained to be compassionate, caring and understanding.

“In the cases when all of the customer’s clothing has been damaged, we have to do emergency cleaning for them so they have something to wear.”

Adjusters and insurance companies want quick response, too, he noted. They like to have a cost estimate within 48 hours.

On the other end of the transaction, cleaners have to be prepared to wait. Some companies in this field take 90 to 120 days to pay, MacGregor warned.

Cleaners have to be prepared to handle the work, too. MacGregor noted that his company opened a 4,000-sq.-ft. plant dedicated to its restoration service. Specially trained staff at the plant take in all orders and clean all the items the typical drycleaning plant can’t process, including sporting equipment, blinds, wall hangings, shoes, boots, purses, baby carriages, umbrellas, stuffed animals and lampshades. More typical drycleaning items are cleaned in the company’s nearby plant.

Two other important elements are a large storage area and a large ozone room, he said.

“We need 100 feet of rail to store $100,000 in sales,” he said. “We sometimes need to store these orders for three to four months or longer.”

MacGregor has found uses for the ozone room in his company’s regular drycleaning operations, too. Items with very strong odors on them — perspiration, urine or skunk — can be processed in ozone, for example.

“An unusual one that we have just encountered is tire smell on a huge warehouse of paper products,” MacGregor said. “Scott Paper Co., locally, has just recently come to us with this problem. We did a test for them and determined we could remove the smell. We are currently doing 14,000 cases of Kleenex, napkins and paper towels, etc., which the company was ready to dispose of.”

While a cleaner needs to educate himself before getting into the business, once in it, he needs to educate others.

“We are constantly trying to educate insurance companies and adjusting firms to the savings we can offer them,” he said. “The cost of cleaning the whole house and its contents is approximately 15 percent, whereas to replace everything is 100 percent. Some adjusters like to take the easy way out and just pay the customer cash.”

The restoration associations also help in this regard.

“The first we belonged to was the Alliance of Professional Restoration Dry Cleaners, a not-for-profit group. There were only two of us in Canada and this didn’t benefit us enough,” he said.

“We now own a Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network franchise. This is an aggressive organization with many franchises across the U.S.A. and Canada. They are also in England. Owning a franchise means we have a protected area of a 100-mile radius.

“Both these organizations have a first rate group of members,” he added.

Gaining from gowns

When it comes to wedding gowns, Sally Lorensen Conant is both an association representative and a practitioner of the craft. She operates Orange Restoration Labs in Orange, CT, one of the larger gown preservation services in New England, and is the administrative coordinator of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.

Handling wedding gowns, she said “are a huge responsibility and, in fact, cleaning gowns can be very hard work.”

“As with all specialty gowns, you may have to cover the beads with fabric or take off flowers or buttons or bows before cleaning and sew them back on afterward,” she said.

“You may even have to find a way to clean gowns in a solvent you do not normally use. You can never forget you are in the ‘perfect’ business.”

And you have to get it right the first time, she warned.

“Once brides see something they do not like, they will often go on seeing it even after you re-do it over and over and over.”

What does a cleaner need to do to add on wedding gown service to an existing business? Probably nothing, in terms of tools, she said. “You are already in the drycleaning business, so you probably have all the equipment you need to process wedding gowns.”

But your solvent must always be perfectly pure because silk dresses will pick up any impurities in the solvent and once the damage is done, it can’t be undone.

Access to a solvent other than perc helps, too. Perc may clean better than other solvents, she said, but unless you can lower the washing temperature in the perc machine, you will melt the beads. And don’t trust the “dryclean only” label on a gown. Those decorative beads may not be able to withstand perc.

“If you expect to be a success as a highly-regarded, high-quality, high-end gown specialist, you should not hide behind the care label,” she said. “You are supposed to know what you are doing, and the word will spread quickly if you do not stand behind your work.”

Conant said three things are needed to ensure a good result in gown cleaning and preservation.

First, the gown has to be completely clean. All of the stains must be removed — not just the ones you can see, but also those you cannot, or the dress will have major problems years later.

Second, acid-free materials should be used for storage. Acid in ordinary paper will scorch the gown and even pH neutral materials aren’t really good enough, she said.

She also warned against shrink-wrapping. “No textile conservator I know recommends that technique,” she said. Plastic can trap moisture and in some cases allow the growth of mold. It can also lead to set wrinkles that can be difficult or impossible to remove later on.

The third key may beyond the cleaner’s control, but it should be noted for the customer. Gowns should not be stored where there are extreme changes in temperature and humidity — in attics or basements for example.

But the real trick in the gown preservation business, Conant said, is differentiation — setting yourself apart from others in the market.

“Our branded, acid-free containers carry a recognizable logo and the written guarantee honored by all members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists and is an important part of our sales presentation,” she said. “Many brides come to us because they see the association’s brand on the care labels in their gowns and then look for the nearest member of the association.”

A balanced marketing program includes not only your own and other wedding websites but also participating in bridal fairs, bridal magazines, bridal mailings, and networking with other bridal professionals, she said.

“You have to spend some time learning ‘bridal speak’ and where to use it,” Conant said.

The customer service staff needs to know how to talk to brides, too.

“Your CSR’s have to be trained to answer the questions the bride will ask about how you will care for her gown,” she said. “It takes even more training to remember to present all of the features and benefits of your service before answering her questions about price.”

And about those prices? Look at the major wedding websites or look through bridal magazines to get an idea of price ranges and develop a schedule of charges, she advised.

For a bride, bringing in her wedding gown is not just another trip to the cleaners.

“It is an emotional transaction that prolongs the wedding-day experience. She will do research before she chooses a service, and she will expect you to have the answers to her questions. Then and only then will she trust you with her gown.”