Tide Cleaners bets big on expanded services
can you survive and thrive in an industry that was nearly wiped out by the pandemic?
That’s the question that David Reitz faces every day as he operates his four Tide Cleaners outlets in Connecticut.
“It takes a lot of focus; you’ve got to wear many hats,” Reitz said. “I work on the acquisitions, business development, and HR, and some of the marketing. We’re wearing all these different hats, but I enjoy the challenge.”
With new Tide Cleanersbrand stores in Oxford, Meriden, Southington, and Woodbridge, Reitz has bet big on the dry-cleaning business, although dry cleaning is just one of the services offered. You can also get your clothes washed and folded laundromat-style or altered to fit by a tailor.
The stores also draw on the expertise of the Tide brand and its corporate parent Procter & Gamble to guarantee stain removal and whitening. Tide Cleaners has its own app and texting platform that allows for instant notifications and better customer service, Reitz said.
The investment has paid off: Revenue is up 75 percent at the first Tide Cleaners opened by Reitz and his business partner, Miguel Lopez. That store was a rebranding of an existing cleaners in Meriden.
Now Reitz and Lopez are looking to add more dry cleaners to their portfolio, talking to several operators looking to sell and scouting out locations. Many drycleaning operators are immigrants who are looking to retire, exit the business for another opportunity, or because their children don’t want to take over.
“It’s a business that takes a lot of focus, so we offer them to be able to exit with some so they can either retire,
or in one case, one owner just wanted to kind of downsize and focus on some laundromats,” Reitz said.
From back office to franchisee
A former corporate employee of Ohio-based Procter & Gamble, Reitz started in the cleaning business after selling a manufacturing company he helped grow.
Lopez, a longtime friend, researched the cleaning business and suggested the two invest as franchisees.
“I kind of wanted to work with smaller, faster-growing companies,” Reitz said.
Both were familiar with Tide Cleaners, a chain launched by Procter & Gamble in 2008 as both a site to do research on customers’ cleaning needs and a marHow
keting experiment. Then they found a dry cleaners at 467 Broad St. in Meriden that was still in operation but on the market.
“It was a great location that had great equipment, and we thought it would be something to invest in,” Reitz said. The partners were trained by Tide Cleaners and started expanding the range of services offered to include wash-and-fold and tailoring.
The store debuted as the first Tide Cleaners in the state in November 2022.
Next came a location at 911 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in the Plantsville section of Southington, then a third at 297 Oxford Road in Oxford, which hosted a grand opening in November 2023.
The most recent Tide Cleaners in Connecticut debuted at 210 Amity Road in Woodbridge late last year, Reitz said. Now the partners, doing business as NashClean CT LLC, are seeking to open two to four new locations in New Haven County, likely a
mix of rebranded stores and organic new stores.
Reitz said he appreciates the acquisitions side of his company. “It’s really nice to work with the business owners as they kind of plan for what they’re doing next, and then to be able to offer the employees continuity and the community continuity of service.”
Chain grows despite pandemic impact
Tide Cleaners has expanded
nationally even as the drycleaning industry as a whole has been hit hard by the pandemic and its aftermath, CEO Andrew Gibson said.
“In terms of the past five years, the dry-cleaning industry has really gone through a massive shake-up,” Gibson said.
Business plunged 80 to 85 percent at most dry cleaners within two weeks of the pandemic’s start, Gibson said. The lasting work-from-home trend has extended losses in volume into the present, he added.
Connecticut dry cleaners have also been impacted by
the pandemic and its aftermath, with state tax revenues collected from stores dropping by 25 percent between 2019 and 2021 even as prices rose. Even with significantly higher prices due to last year’s inflation, tax collection in 2023 was still below the pre-pandemic peak, according to state data.
Recent listings on BizBuySell.com showed dry-cleaning businesses on the market in Fairfield and New Britain, and Newtown, with an average price for a single outlet of $233,000.
Tide Cleaners entered the
pandemic as the No. 2 dry cleaning chain in terms of number of stores but rose to No. 1 between 2021 and 2022, with a growing market share. After launching with a single store in Kansas City, Kansas, in 2008, the chain has since grown to 187 stores nationwide.
Gibson credits trust in the Tide brand, locally owned franchises and customerfriendly offerings with the chain’s growth. Tide Cleaners has won awards for its retail experience.
“We have so many ways to be convenient and access your
clothes,” Gibson said, citing drive-thru windows, Sunday hours, and same-day service. “A lot of these things sound very basic and standard … When we entered into this market 15 years ago, they were very uncommon.”
The company anticipates strong growth this year, with more stores planned for the East Coast, Gibson said.
“We’ve got a great group there in Connecticut — David and Miguel do such a good job of taking care of folks,” Gibson said. “We think that’s hopefully just the start of our expansion in the Northeast.”