LOS ANGELES — Ross Dodds and Russel Pinkard are the owners of three thriving laundry businesses: Wash on Western, a full-service Laundromat they refurbished and reopened in 2017; a self-service Laundromat in West Hollywood; and a brand-new venture, Wash Club LA, offering residential and commercial laundry pickup and delivery service.
Their distributor, Western State Design, says Dodds and Pickard are savvy not only about finding the right locations and figuring out how to maximize return on investment but they understand the importance of serving customers’ needs and providing a superior laundry experience.
To facilitate their newest business, they licensed software from the New York laundry pickup and delivery service, Wash Club NYC.
Initially, then ran the service out of one of their Laundromats, during off-hours. The business proved successful but quickly required 24-hour operation and using more and more of the store's washers and dryers. Customers were not thrilled with the arrangement, which was short-lived, fortunately.
The partners acquired and built out a dedicated laundry service facility that had opened a couple months earlier. They again turned to Michael Ambrose with Western State Design for help specifying and equipping the new plant with an optimum mix of state-of-the-art on-premise laundry equipment.
They purchased a mix of Dexter and Milnor laundry machines that enables them to run their business efficiently now but also scale up over time.
Dodds, who says he’s learned a lot about commercial laundry equipment over the years, is pleased with their choices, starting with the automated soap dispenser:
“An automated soap dispenser is key. Many people don’t realize what a major expense soap is. You can train employees over and over again on how to use soap and they still won’t understand the precise concentration to use. It’s best to have the machine do it.”
He also appreciates the reversing dryers, saying they “are great because they prevent sheets and towels from getting tangled. Tangling not only causes wrinkling, it keeps the load from drying properly, requiring human intervention and additional dry time.”
The new industrial washer-extractor is worth mention, too.
“My new high-capacity Milnor washer is a solidly built piece of equipment that is also incredibly efficient,” Dodds says. “Its high G-force extraction leaves the laundry practically dry, which minimizes dry times, reducing energy costs.”
LANDING COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS
In addition to their complement of residential pickup and delivery customers, Dodds and Pinkard have landed a number of new commercial accounts. Wash Club LA services mid-sized businesses such as gyms, yoga and boxing studios, and spas. Mostly they have gained this business through word-of-mouth and social media, though they do some digital advertising as well.
The partners took advantage of having developed dependable employees in their other businesses, transferring them to the new enterprise so they could start with an experienced staff.
Whereas competing service companies may outsource work to subcontractors, Wash Club LA handles and processes all laundry received in its own facility using its own personnel. The business owns and operates its laundry equipment as well as the three pickup and delivery vans and company car.
Dodds and Pinkard are not content to rest on their laurels and say they have big plans to branch out into other promising, nearby Los Angeles neighborhoods where they believe there is demand for their brand of service.
Slowly but surely, they’re changing the retail laundry landscape, to the benefit of local laundry customers.
Miss Part 1? You can read it HERE.
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