SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Running a coin-op in horse country is a whole different animal. Just ask Dave Harbour, whose family has been doing just that here downtown for more than a half-century.
He knows all too well the stink created when residents toting baskets meet stablehands saddled with blankets. While other owners ban the barn, having had their fill of hair and odor, all this guy smells is money.
ALL TRAILS LEAD TO THE REAR
Harbour is a rare breed, happy to have horse laundry trade carried through the door — that is, if it’s brought through the right one. All trails lead to the rear of Harbour Laundry Systems, where the third-generation operator carries on a long tradition of serving the entire community by rolling out the blue carpet and welcoming boarding stables to the Backdoor Equine & Pet Laundry.
Leave your horse back at the farm. Those stalls out back are for four wheels, not four legs. And don’t mistake the galvanized steel pipe racks for hitching posts. Just toss on your blankets, grab a broom or hose, and shed them of a winter’s worth of caked-on mud and hair.
Inside the compact, 400-square-foot triangular-shaped back space, there’s no room for horsing around. The stainless steel thoroughbred washers and 180 pounds of combined dryer capacity are hard at work along two sides, while folding tables, seats, and a bill changer line the other. Up above is a wall gallery sporting a who’s who of prominent equestrians and race champions, leaving no doubt you’re washing in the winner’s circle — scratch that — winner’s triangle.
If you’re a regular who uses the front of the house, you wouldn’t even know the goings on in the back corner where, the owner reports, processing piles of dirty and smelly blankets ring up $1,000 or more in daily sales during a peak 10-week stretch starting in late April.
Given its close proximity to Moore County’s fence-lined equestrian farms, the laundry has always seen a steady stream of blankets and other garb.
“In the early days, we let horse people wash and didn’t think that much about it until a competitor moved in and he banned them from his place and we started losing customers,” Harbour recalls. “We realized, ‘Oh goodness, people are upset washing behind horse people.’”
Attempts to win back fleeing residents by designating a handful of equine-friendly machines on the main floor and prodding do-it-yourself horsemen to run post-wash cycles and spray disinfectant ultimately failed.
With the rival’s horse-free zone still retaining a percentage of his core patron base and not wanting to close the barn door completely on the lucrative blanket business, Harbour was left with one option: physically separate the two. So, seven years ago, he pulled out a game lounge tucked away at the back of the coin-op and built out a new — albeit small — enclosed processing area devoted to animal laundry.
BLANKET BUSINESS GALLOPS ALONG
By design, the well-publicized rear access area with adjacent parking ensured the hairy, debris-laden items weren’t dragged through the front door. But what didn’t go according to plan was what happened once they crossed the threshold.
“We set it up as a mini-Laundromat. But it turns out most of our business is full-service,” Harbour says. “They not only don’t have the time to mess with it, they’ve got plenty of money and would rather pay somebody else to look after it.”
With nearly eight out of 10 opting to leave the dirty work to the professionals, Harbour’s regular residential wash-dry-fold service, which had been trotting along nicely, was soon galloping with the expanded base. Today, it generates a combined one-quarter of total laundry revenues. He credits his staff for much of the good fortune, keeping pace with the spurts while maintaining quality and consistency.
“I never believed we’d be so successful. I just thought a few people would need that little space back there, but it really has been great,” the owner grins. “We’d much rather do a hundred pounds of horse blankets than a hundred pounds of baby clothes — that’s a no-brainer. It’s a smelly, very dirty business, but it’s really very simple.”
The bulky yet lightweight horse blankets, intended to keep the animals warm and protected from the elements, can either be laundered on a self-service basis in the coin-activated vended washer and dryer trios or processed by staff at $1.50 per pound, with the average wrap weighing in at 8 pounds. Most patrons opt for the $10 waterproofing, boosting per-piece processing over the $20 mark.
Professional, full-service laundering of other equine accessories — ranging from saddle pads, fly sheets and even leg wraps — are also offered on a per-pound-basis.
A handful of blankets is the norm, but some farms pull up with 20 to 50 at one time once there’s no chill in the air, says Harbour, who has built a following through word of mouth in a swath of southeastern North Carolina.
Thursday’s conclusion: Segregating orders is critical to keep things running smoothly
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