RIPON, Wis. — Commercial laundry equipment manufacturer Huebsch® has named multi-store owner Teddy Galloway the latest recipient of its Store Owner of the Quarter award.
Since buying his first store in 2002, Galloway has not slowed down in building a stable of 10 locations in southern West Virginia and eastern Tennessee.
“Teddy is a prime example of what success in the laundry business looks like,” says Kathryn Rowen, North American sales manager for Huebsch. “He has selected the right locations, worked extremely hard, and kept the focus always on providing an excellent customer experience. The kind of owner we are proud to work with.”
Galloway is a strong believer in everything happening for a reason, including a serendipitous meeting with his laundry equipment distributor, Stan Bradley at Laundry Systems of the Carolinas.
He was visiting a sandwich shop for lunch when a friend waved him over to introduce him to Bradley, with whom the friend was discussing a Laundromat retool. A week later, Galloway became interested in buying that Laundromat, and Bradley was his first call.
Since that first meeting, Bradley has become far more than a distributor supplying Huebsch equipment as he grows his portfolio of stores; he has become a trusted friend, Galloway says.
“It’s more like an unwritten partnership,” Galloway says in describing the relationship with Bradley and his company. “Whenever I have needed something, they have gone out of their way to help. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Laundry Systems.”
Galloway has grown his business by retooling existing stores and through new construction, utilizing Huebsch equipment and Huebsch Financial Services.
He once worked in the engineering department of a coal company but when his laundry business grew to four locations, he decided to leave his job and focus on the business full-time.
Half the stores in rural locations are open 24/7, while the other city-based businesses are open 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. All are customer-focused, as Galloway’s goal is to create a family-friendly atmosphere within which his customers get the “biggest bang for their buck.” That includes an emphasis on “big” machines. More than 50% of the washers (and every one of the dryers) in his stores are of the large, multi-load variety because “that is what customers want and look for,” he says.
Galloway says the support of his family (wife Amy and sons Ethan and Thomas) along with his distributor partnership has helped make him successful.
Introduced in 2014, Huebsch honors a Store Owner of the Quarter for excelling in entrepreneurism, technology adoption, innovation, and superior customer and community service.
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