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What It Takes to Go Commercial (Part 3)

Acquiring this new business could impact equipment, space and, ultimately, your walk-in customers

CHICAGO — It’s one thing to handle drop-off work but taking on commercial accounts may require a different approach entirely.

What must you consider? How do you identify potential accounts? How does taking on such work impact equipment, space and staff? How do you balance doing commercial work with serving walk-in customers?

American Coin-Op reached out to some manufacturer reps and distributor reps this month, as well as some store owners, to ask them for their analysis of what it takes for the average self-service laundry to “go commercial.”

Q: How might serving commercial accounts impact a store’s available space?

John Antene, president of Coin Laundry Sales and Marketing, Coin-O-Matic: A store’s available space may be impacted by the addition of these accounts. If the laundry is on the smaller side, with its available square footage, the addition of the new larger accounts would overrun the washers and dryers that would normally be available to the coin customers. If the number of available washers and dryers are sufficient to service both venues, additional commercial accounts will not be an issue.

Owners may consider processing their commercial accounts at off-peak hours or overnight. Another alternative to the additional loads would be to invest in more energy-efficient equipment dedicated to the commercial accounts.

Tony Regan, senior vice president Global Sales, American Dryer Corp.: Space can be measured in two ways: space for equipment and space for workflow. Walk-in customers want the convenience of available space to move, load, unload and fold laundry. If floor space is now taken up by the need for additional equipment or the folding tables and floor space makes it difficult for patrons to do their laundry comfortably, they may look for another place to do laundry.

Christopher Brick, regional sales manager, Maytag Commercial Laundry: Commercial accounts can have a not-so-positive impact on a store if it isn’t equipped with ample work or folding stations, or storage space for the incoming and outgoing linens is lacking. Walk-in customers need to have space to separate and fold their laundry. If patrons feel like they don’t have space, there’s a chance they will find another store.

John Olsen, vice president, Vended Laundry Products, Laundrylux: (This depends) on the volume of the commercial account and frequency of the pickup and delivery schedule of work being processed. The Laundromat may need to store the work for a day or two, so it’s important to have ample storage space available.

Q: Is it necessary for a store to be “attended” in order to successfully process commercial work?

Brick: For a store to successfully handle commercial work, it must be attended. The cleanliness and well-maintained atmosphere of an attended store, not to mention the attendants, help a potential commercial customer feel more comfortable in the store’s capability to correctly process its linens.

Olsen: Typically, the Laundromat attendant would also process the commercial work. Many Laundromat owners start off utilizing their daytime attendant, then as the commercial business takes on additional accounts, they hire separate staff to process commercial accounts during off-peak hours.

Regan: Someone will need to process the laundry, and it’s usually the attendant.

Tom Weisheipl, regional sales manager, Speed Queen: The store does not necessarily need to be attended to process commercial work. There are situations where the store is not attended, but there is an employee that only does commercial work. This could be during or after business hours. Typically, commercial work is done on a regular schedule, so store owners could have one person who handles just that work.

Q: How might serving commercial accounts impact a store’s staff?

Olsen: Commercial work will require additional employees, but the labor cost will be offset by the additional revenue generated.

Regan: If the attendant is already there and has time to process the commercial work, then it wouldn’t affect the staffing. However, depending on volume, staff is needed to process the laundry, load washers and dryers, and fold laundry.

Weisheipl: You want to be sufficiently staffed to handle the commercial accounts and the walk-in business if you are an attended laundry. There are stores that are attended and it is the attendant’s duty to watch over the walk-in business and do commercial work. Store owners whose commercial business is growing at a rapid rate may have to hire more people to handle that aspect of the business as it grows.

Brick: The acquisition of commercial accounts impacts a store’s staff in a myriad of ways, including: time management, communication with a different audience, and the added responsibility of handling funds related to the commercial accounts.

Dirty Laundry Services, Kenner, La.

Len Bazile owns three coin-operated laundries in the New Orleans area: Hollywood Laundry No. 1 in Kenner, La. (since August 2006); Hollywood Laundry No. 2 in Jefferson, La. (since November 2009); and Division Washland and Quick Stop, a coin-op/convenience store combo in Metairie, La. (since August 2011).

It is from the 3,000-square-foot Hollywood No. 1 where he operates Dirty Laundry Services, a commercial linen service. Bazile estimates that the business processes 400,000 pounds annually using the store’s 27 washers (10 are top loaders) and 22 dryers, all made by Milnor. He says 55% of the location’s revenue comes from commercial work.

After acquiring his first store, only a few months passed before he started taking on commercial work. His investor partner had owned a party rental business with roughly 4,000 pieces of table linen prior to Hurricane Katrina.

“I think he was going to throw away probably 2,500 (pieces) of those linen and he said, ‘Do you want to see if we can try to wash them?’ … Some of the linen were 50, 60, 70 dollars (apiece). We wound up salvaging 60% of the linen with the help of a local chemical supplier.”

Word got around to another catering company, Bazile started making a few sales calls, and Dirty Laundry Services was born. Most of his business comes thanks to relationships with larger laundry businesses in the area that direct smaller accounts to him.

The store is fully attended from open to close. Regular staff includes three full-time attendants plus a manager; as many as three more temporary workers may be added depending on commercial contracts.

“We typically, for Dirty Laundry customers, we process Tuesday through Thursday, those are our main three days when we try to get everything done,” Bazile says. “Sometimes, we do go into Fridays. Typically, we start between 6 and 7 a.m.—during which we don’t have a lot of customers coming in to use the machines—and we typically process to 1 or 2 in the afternoon.”

Should there be walk-ins while Dirty Laundry work is being processing, those customers are given access to the equipment while the commercial work waits. It’s rare that a customer will become upset, leave and not come back, Bazile says. It’s his policy to give walk-ins credit toward drying, for example, if a machine is not available for 25 minutes.

Dirty Laundry Services uses a diesel pickup hauling a 16-foot trailer to make its pickups and deliveries in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas, and Bazile is now looking into acquiring a box truck.

Bazile says he’s never marketed Dirty Laundry Services; all of his business has come from word of mouth and through his many contacts in and around New Orleans. He recently hired a business coach to help him better define his market and how to reach potential accounts.

“By no means can I tell you that I’m at max capacity,” Bazile says. “There’s always room to grow.”

Check back Tuesday for the conclusion!

And if you missed the earlier parts of this story, read them now: Part 1 and Part 2

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(Photo: ©iStockphoto/Baloncici & DonNichols)

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].