If you own a laundromat and are looking for ways to increase revenue, adding a wash-dry-fold service may be worth considering. The concept is simple: customers drop off their laundry, and your staff handles the washing, drying, folding, and preparation for pickup. For customers who are short on time, have large amounts of laundry, or simply don't want to do it themselves, the convenience can be appealing.
But is offering wash-dry-fold service actually a good investment for a laundromat owner?
The answer depends on your market, available space, equipment, staffing, pricing, and ability to manage the additional workload.
What Is a Wash-Dry-Fold Service?
A wash-dry-fold service allows customers to leave their laundry with a business rather than handling the washing and drying themselves.
The basic process typically involves:
- Customers Drop Off Their Laundry
- Laundry Is Sorted
- Items Are Washed
- Clothing Is Dried
- Laundry Is Folded
- Clean Laundry Is Packaged
- Customers Pick Up Their Orders
Some businesses also offer pickup and delivery, allowing customers to have their laundry collected from their homes or businesses and returned when it's finished.
The appeal is convenience. Instead of spending several hours doing laundry, a customer can drop off a bag and let someone else handle it.
Why Add Wash-Dry-Fold to a Laundromat?
The biggest reason to consider a wash-dry-fold service is the opportunity to create another source of revenue from equipment and space you already have.
A traditional self-service laundromat earns money when customers operate the machines themselves. With wash-dry-fold, the business charges for the labor and convenience involved in handling the laundry.
That creates a different revenue model. You aren't simply charging for a washer cycle. You're providing a service.
Who Uses Wash-Dry-Fold Services?
Before adding a wash-dry-fold service, think about whether your local customers are likely to use it. Potential customers may include:
- Busy Professionals
- Parents With Young Children
- Older Adults
- College Students
- People With Large Amounts Of Laundry
- Customers Without Access To Transportation
- Short-Term Rental Owners
- Small Businesses
- Families With Limited Time
Commercial customers can be particularly interesting because they may need laundry handled regularly.
Depending on your location, potential commercial customers could include salons, restaurants, cleaning companies, gyms, spas, massage practices, and other businesses that regularly handle towels, uniforms, linens, or other washable items.
How Much Does Wash-Dry-Fold Cost?
There isn't one universal price for wash-dry-fold service. Pricing can vary depending on your location, competition, labor costs, order size, turnaround time, and the type of laundry being handled.
Many businesses charge customers by the pound, although some specialty items may be priced separately.
Before establishing your pricing, research other laundry services in your market.
Ask:
“What are local competitors charging?”
You should also consider what your price needs to cover:
- Labor
- Water
- Electricity
- Gas
- Detergent And Supplies
- Packaging
- Equipment Maintenance
- Payment Processing
- Overhead
- Profit
The goal isn't simply to match the cheapest service in town. Your pricing needs to make sense for the actual cost of providing the service.
Do You Need Additional Equipment?
Maybe. One of the advantages of adding a wash-dry-fold service to an existing laundromat is that you may already have much of the equipment required.
However, your existing equipment may not have enough capacity to handle both self-service customers and drop-off laundry during busy periods.
You may eventually need:
- Additional Washers
- Larger-Capacity Washers
- Commercial Dryers
- Folding Tables
- Laundry Carts
- Scales
- Storage Shelving
- Bagging And Packaging Supplies
Your equipment needs will depend on how much wash-dry-fold volume you expect.
How Much Space Does a Wash-Dry-Fold Service Need?
Space is another consideration that is easy to overlook.
A self-service customer loads a machine, waits or leaves, and returns to retrieve the laundry. A wash-dry-fold operation requires your employees to handle the laundry through multiple stages.
You'll need space for:
- Incoming Laundry
- Sorting
- Clean Laundry
- Folding
- Packaging
- Completed Orders
- Customer Pickup
- Supplies
You also need a system that keeps customers' laundry organized throughout the process.
A clean, well-organized workspace is essential when you're handling multiple customers' clothing at the same time.
How Do You Keep Wash-Dry-Fold Orders Organized?
Organization becomes extremely important once you begin accepting drop-off laundry. Each order should have a system that allows employees to track:
- Customer Information
- Order Number
- Weight
- Special Instructions
- Date Received
- Expected Completion
- Payment Status
- Pickup Status
You also need a process for identifying clothing and keeping individual orders separate.
The larger your wash-dry-fold service becomes, the more important these procedures will be. A system that works for five orders a day may become difficult to manage when you're handling dozens.
Should You Offer Same-Day Service?
Same-day service can be an attractive selling point, but don't promise a turnaround time you can't consistently meet.
Consider your:
- Staffing Levels
- Equipment Capacity
- Order Volume
- Store Hours
- Peak Self-Service Times
- Available Processing Space
If your laundromat is already extremely busy in the evenings and on weekends, adding large volumes of drop-off laundry during those same periods could create a capacity problem.
Instead, you may want to establish specific drop-off and pickup windows.
Could Pickup and Delivery Be the Next Step?
Once you've established a successful wash-dry-fold service, pickup and delivery may be a natural extension.
Instead of requiring customers to visit the laundromat, you collect their laundry, process it, and return it to them. This can potentially expand your service area beyond the immediate neighborhood surrounding your laundromat.
However, pickup and delivery also introduce additional expenses, including:
- Vehicle Costs
- Fuel
- Commercial Auto Insurance
- Driver Labor
- Scheduling
- Routing
- Customer Communication
For that reason, it's generally worth getting the wash-dry-fold operation working well before adding delivery.
Is Wash-Dry-Fold Worth It for Every Laundromat?
No. A wash-dry-fold service may not make sense if your market has little demand, you don't have enough space, or you don't have the staffing necessary to handle the work.
It's also important to consider whether your existing laundromat can absorb additional laundry volume without negatively affecting self-service customers.
Before investing in additional equipment or hiring employees, research the market. Talk to potential customers. Look at competitors. Determine whether businesses in the area already use outside laundry services.
And most importantly, calculate the numbers.
How Can You Tell if Wash-Dry-Fold Will Be Profitable?
Start by estimating your potential volume. For example, consider:
Expected pounds per day × price per pound = potential daily revenue
Then subtract the costs associated with providing the service.
Those costs may include labor, utilities, detergent, packaging, equipment maintenance, rent, insurance, payment processing, and other operating expenses.
You should also account for your investment in equipment and any construction or remodeling required to create the service area. A service that generates significant revenue isn't necessarily profitable if the cost of providing it is too high.
Promote the Service to Existing Customers
One advantage of adding wash-dry-fold service to an established laundromat is that you already have potential customers walking through the door.
Consider signage and marketing that clearly explains:
Don't Have Time to Do Your Laundry? We Can Do It for You.
You can also promote the service through:
- Your Website
- Google Business Profile
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- In-Store Signage
- Local Business Partnerships
Commercial accounts can also provide recurring business if you identify companies in your area that regularly need laundry services.
Talk to a Commercial Laundry Equipment Professional
Adding a wash-dry-fold service can be an opportunity to generate additional revenue while providing a valuable convenience to customers. But it works best when it's treated as a business operation rather than simply adding a sign that says "laundry drop-off."
Before getting started, evaluate your market, available space, equipment capacity, staffing needs, pricing, and projected operating costs.
T&L Equipment Sales Company has been helping laundromat owners and commercial laundry businesses throughout North Carolina and South Carolina since 1976. In addition to commercial laundry equipment, T&L provides planning, installation, financing, parts, and service.
If you're considering adding wash-dry-fold service to an existing laundromat, T&L can help you evaluate the equipment and layout considerations involved in expanding your operation.
For some laundromat owners, the next opportunity for growth isn't opening another store. It may be finding another way to serve the customers they already have.
