But changing consumer, environmental and market trends are making it harder to be a dry cleaner.Consumers are using less dry cleaning today due to the casual dress trend in the workplace, increasing use of home dry-cleaning kits, and changing fabric trends and care labels.
Stricter environmental laws regulate the use of perc, a carcinogenic substance in dry cleaning solvents. That in turn has led to higher hazardous waste disposal costs, expensive changes of equipment to new cleaning methods, and loss of leases by landlords concerned about environmental issues.
And finally, increases in minimum wages and intensified competition have taken their toll.
Despite all these issues, the dry cleaning industry is expected to grow at a modest 4% annually over the next several years, according to Integra Information.
Successful dry cleaners are dynamic and taking the industry issues in stride. They are making a number of changes to compete successfully.
First, they are migrating toward environmentally friendly methods of cleaning, eliminating the use of perc.
Second, and most importantly, they have gotten much better at customer service. The best ones have even become innovative.
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