Nothing about the path of Bobby Patel’s life points towards a highly successful career in the drycleaning industry and
yet every choice he has made (and some he did not) steered him in that
direction.
Born in 1968 in a little farming village about 200 miles north of Mumbai, India,
it’s safe to assume that the word “drycleaning” was never in young Bobby’s vocabulary.
His grandfather worked hard as a tobacco farmer but ultimately could not afford
to send his sons to college. Fortunately, he didn’t let that stop him.
“My grandfather borrowed money to send his sons to college,” Bobby noted. “Two of the sons became lawyers; my dad is a lawyer. The other became an
accountant. That’s the way he wanted the family to get ahead in life, through education.”
In addition to possessing a law degree, Bobby’s father, Ramesh, had an affinity for real estate and business. In 1970, he
decided to build a movie theater on one of the family farms.
“There was a need for a movie theater, so they built one,” Bobby explained. “My dad tells me I was playing in the trenches where they put the foundation of
the theater.”
While Bobby was fond of watching many films over and over again on the farm,
hard times soon hit and the family was forced to move when he was eight. So,
they packed up and moved to Zambia.
“We moved to Africa where my dad got a job as a public prosecutor there. That was
in 1976,” he recalled. “It was very difficult in the beginning because I had no education in English. At
first, I had to learn English. Once I learned it and made friends, I had a
really good time.”
After ten years in the country, Bobby graduated high school and wanted to
continue to a local college. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t possible.
“Citizens in Zambia have a preference in universities,” he said. “I wasn’t a citizen there and they only take one percent of non-citizens in
universities. So, I wasn’t able to make that.”
Just as education had been a priority for his father, Ramesh Patel insisted that
his children had the same opportunity he enjoyed. To make that happen, the
Patels opted to move as a unit to the U.S. Bobby’s uncle on his mother’s side, a dentist in Los Angeles, petitioned for the family to immigrate.
“Our whole family moved out here including my dad,” Bobby said. “He wanted the whole family to be a support system for each other.”
When he first arrived in Los Angeles, Bobby vividly remembers feeling culture
shock.
“I remember coming from the airport and looking at all the palm trees growing by
the freeways,” he said. “At night when I went out beyond the freeway to look at all the lights, they were
all around me.”
It was an unsettling experience. Luckily, it did not prevent him from being
hired for a job at Target on the very same day he landed in the city.
“I started working immediately, $3.65 an hour,” he laughed. “They trained me for half a day and put me on the cash register. When a customer
would pay me with coins, I had to look to check the number because I didn’t know what a dime looked like or what a nickel was. It was quite a challenge.”
Meanwhile, his father bought a drive-thru dairy business to help support the
family. Bobby worked there, as well. In fact, he wore many hats at various jobs
while he earned an AA from Fullerton Junior College in 1990 and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from California State Long Beach in 1992.
“While going to college, I had a job at a travel agency. I was a delivery driver
for them originally, then I got into the computer side,” Bobby noted. “I also had a small business that I was doing on the side. We hired salespeople
to sell Ginsu knives door-to-door. Another business that I had was a small used
car dealership. I don’t know how I did it back then.”
Such an eclectic resume would only help Bobby later on professionally. He didn’t know it, but having experience in engineering, customer service, running and
managing his own small businesses, installing and running computers and even
working as a delivery driver were all components that he would eventually
incorporate into his Kona Cleaners plant when he bought it in 1995.
“I saw this business in Costa Mesa. It was run-down, but I didn’t know any better,” Bobby recalled. “I really didn’t know anything about drycleaning and this place had been for sale for two
years. Nobody would buy it. Then, here I come along and buy the place.”
He probably couldn’t have picked a worse starting business if he tried. True, Kona had been around
since 1950, but it had been struggling for quite some time. The
3,000-square-foot facility had too many employees and too much space. It also
yielded too little production. Still, Bobby was confident that he could
eventually fill the place up.
It probably didn’t hurt that he had been laid off from his travel agency job when they discovered
he bought the plant, so he now had more time to run it. It was supposed to be a
business venture for the whole family, but it soon became his full-time
occupation.
“For the first month all I did was walk around with my hands in my pockets just
looking at the cleaning process,” he said. “We had an old machine. The still was never cleaned. The shirt machine broke
every single day. The spotter would smoke while spotting and pressing silks,
and come back from break drunk. I had to deal with it because I couldn’t fire him. I didn’t know anything.
Fortunately, it didn’t take Bobby long to learn what he needed. Within three months, he instigated
changes that quickly turned the fate of the company around.
He didn’t have money to buy a computer system, but knew he needed one so he bought one
used computer and even traded for another with $500 worth of drycleaning.
“The day I did that, I made 15 percent more immediately,” he emphasized. “When I buy equipment, I always see how much it’s going to save me. I don’t look at the price. I take care of my family first and whatever remains I use
to take care of the business.”
Using that philosophy, he pumped profits back in order to improve the store. He
remodeled the plant to look newer and better and spent money on graphics for
his delivery van. He upgraded all of the machinery and added numerous storage
conveyors. Every change seemed to help the business grow more.
He has even used his engineering background to design a more efficient plant
every few years. Sure, he has had to move his office four times, but that’s a small price to pay for higher productivity and profitability.
“The way I have my plant set up right now, people are amazed when they come in
that we can do so much work in so little space,” he said. “I try to have my people walk the least amount of steps. It’s very efficient.”
He has also specifically planned the layout to appeal to his customers. In the
past 15 years, Kona has been transformed from a fixer-upper to a sleek,
well-oiled machine.
Bobby’s plant now features GreenEarth technology, five storage conveyors, a shirt unit
with a robotic arm and a MetalProgetti connected to an automatic twist-tie
machine and an automatic bagger.
“So, once we scan the garment and put it on the MetalProgetti it comes out ready
and bagged at the other end. The way I’ve placed the bagger is where the customers can see it. They see the technology,” he said.
Since 1995, Kona has come a long way. It expanded from 10 to 35 employees and
now boasts six locations, two of which are plants and four that are dry stores.
Bobby has grown as an entrepreneur, as well. He may have started out lost, but
now he is able to monitor his business’s computer and security systems from a distance with his iPad.
“I’m as enthusiastic or maybe more enthusiastic about drycleaning than when I
started,” he beamed. “I’m so full of energy now that I just want to grow my business. I see a lot of
drycleaners who, after so many years, are tired because they do the same thing
over and over again.”
According to Bobby, one way to offset the malaise of monotony is to be active in
trade associations and exchange ideas with other cleaners.
Though he didn’t know about such organizations when he started, he is now a Premier Club Member
of the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute, a member of America’s Best Cleaners, a board member of the Southern California Cleaners Association
and the current Vice President of the California Cleaners Association. He is
slated to be president this August at the Fabricare Show in Long Beach.
The position will be a good fit for Bobby, who really enjoys trying to help
fellow cleaners. After all, he remembers how hard it was for him. Fortunately,
it has become a bit easier.
“There are no secrets in drycleaning,” he said. “It’s simple. You have to put out a good product at a fair price and try to
distinguish yourself from your competition.”
While such factors have contributed to Kona’s success, Bobby believes one particular asset has helped the most.
“In everything I did, my family was with me all the way,” he said. “My parents sacrificed the good lives they had to come to this country to support
their children. Without them, I could not do this.”
