Dry cleaning might appear to be a cut and dry business—and in many cases it is. But in the twenty years that Jon Simon (MBA 1980) has owned Parkway Cleaners in the DC area, he has integrated clever management skills and new technologies to double its revenue and expand the business beyond the basics of shirts and suits, according to a Washington Post story by Thomas Heath.

About three-quarters of Parkway’s business comes from 3,000 core customers, who are close enough to North Bethesda to be serviced by Simon’s three full-time drivers, Heath writes. The rest of his business comes from walk-ins: wedding gowns and formal attire, or a homeowner looking for careful cleaning of an antique rug, for example. Over the years Parkway has tended to White House drapes, tapestries from Embassy Row houses, a quilt that was hand-sewn by a former first lady, and the flag from the booth at Ford’s Theatre where President Lincoln was shot.

He relies on the skills of long-term employees to deliver these specialized services, such as using a bar-code system to track a customer’s particular preferences or to spot- and hand-clean garments before they go into the dry-cleaning process. “Most cleaners don’t do that,” he says.

“That kind of detail isn’t cheap. A laundered shirt that might cost 99 cents to clean at a competitor starts around $4 at Parkway. The average order, which can include multiple items, is about $35. Simon’s troops clean more than 100,000 pieces a year,” Heath writes. These higher volumes and higher prices helped Parkway reach almost $4 million in annual revenue before the pandemic hit last March. “Simon said most dry cleaners consider $1 million in sales a very good year, but many finish at half that number.”

Simon, who earned a degree in engineering and worked in the manufacturing arm of a family business after his MBA, calls dry cleaning “the most challenging industry I have been involved in.”

The full story, located behind the Washington Post paywall, can be found here.

Post a Comment