2023-24 State of the Industry Survey (Conclusion)

CHICAGO — Further removed from the COVID-19 pandemic and having watched inflation fall over the last two years, many self-service laundry owners and operators had a strong year in 2023.

The American Coin-Op State of the Industry Survey report provides many statistics valuable to store owners and investors who wish to compare their operations to the industry average. This year’s survey focused on 2023-24 business conditions, vend pricing, equipment, turns per day and utilities cost.

When asked about their 2023 business results, respondents were given the opportunity to state whether their results were up, down or unchanged. (Surveys conducted prior to 2012 asked only if business was up or down, so keep this in mind if you’re making comparisons to results from that period.)

The annual survey is an unscientific, online poll of American Coin-Op readers who operate stores. Some percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding or other factors.

Part 1 examined characteristics of the self-service laundry audience—store numbers/types, labor, payment types accepted, etc. Part 2 looked at wash-dry-fold, commercial laundry and vending sales performance. Wash/dry vend pricing was the focus of Part 3. Let’s conclude:

2023 EQUIPMENT PURCHASES

Nearly 53% of respondents purchased at least one piece of equipment (washer, dryer, water heater, vending machine, or other) in 2023, which is a couple percentage points above our last annual survey.

Following is a breakdown of 2023 purchases by respondent (percentages do not total 100% because some buyers purchased equipment in multiple equipment categories):

20.5% purchased at least one top loader, with the average buy being 5.9 machines.
75.3% purchased at least one front loader, with the average buy being 12.8 machines.
42.5% purchased at least one dryer (single or stack), with the average buy being 13.4 machines.
27.4% purchased a water heater.
13.7% purchased a vending machine.

Credit card readers, washer/dryer combos, ATMs, POS systems, changers, ozone sanitization systems and scales were also among some of the equipment listed as having been purchased.

THIS YEAR’S SHOPPING LIST

We also asked the laundry owners if they have purchased, or plan to purchase, new equipment in 2024.

Roughly 31% of respondents have acquired, or plan to acquire, some type of equipment (washer, dryer, water heater, vending machine, or other) for their mix in 2024. By comparison, last year’s percentage was 45%.

Following is a breakdown of purchases that operators have already made in 2024, or they plan to make by the end of the year (percentages do not total 100% because some buyers purchased or plan to purchase equipment from multiple categories):

20.9% of respondents have purchased, or plan to purchase, a new top loader this year, with the average buy being 4.4 machines.
65.1% of respondents have purchased, or plan to purchase, a new front loader this year, with the average buy being 8.9 machines.
41.9% of respondents have purchased, or plan to purchase, a new dryer (regular or stack) this year, with the average buy being 13.3 machines. (Editor’s note: This accounting includes a small number of operators who have purchased or will purchase more than 50 machines.)
25.6% of respondents have purchased, or plan to purchase, a new water heater this year.
9.3% of respondents have purchased, or plan to purchase, a new vending machine this year.

UTILITIES COST

We asked operators about their 2023 utilities cost (as a percentage of gross). The responses ranged from 5% to 75%. Collectively, respondents paid an average of 21.6%, down slightly from 21.8% in last year’s survey.

The most common individual response—as it has been the last two years—was 20%. Whereas 57.5% reported a utilities cost of 20% or less last year, 60.4% reported the same this year.

FORECAST FOR 2024

Roughly 59% of respondents are optimistic that their 2024 total business will be better than 2023’s. Thirty-six percent expect their business to be about the same, while 5.1% say their business won’t perform as well in 2024 as it did in 2023.