Bada laundry: 7 Different Categories of Laundry Business!

 

Different Categories of Laundry Business

Laundry, in short, is defined as a place where cleaning, washing, drying, and ironing of clothes and other items is carried out. It comes under the hospitality and housekeeping section of the institution.

It is further divided into Laundromat, Retail Laundry, On-Premises Laundry (OPL), Industrial Laundry, Institutional Laundry, Off Shore laundry, Government Sector and so forth as per the applications.

Here we will discuss in detail how these different sectors operate.

1.    Laundromat: 

The most successful businesses in the world are those which genuinely meet the peoples’ personal needs. Businesses that provide the basic necessities of the people and make them feel comfortable, attended and looked after. Coined operated laundromats do not have huge operational overheads, so in a good way, they break into the entrepreneur space.

This is generally self-operated laundry, it is also known as coin-operated laundry, coin-op laundries, or coin laundries.

Laundromat is a concept where you install commercial washer-extractors and dryers in retail stores and get paid by the customers for the use of machines and chemicals.

The customer wants fast and economical washing and drying with easy to use machines.

Laundromat is a recession-proof business, needs less staff, steady income and has up selling benefits like selling laundry accessories, detergents, vending tea, and coffee, etc..

 

2     Retail Laundry:

As long as there is a social gathering, offices, educational institutions, and industries working there will be a need for clean and hygiene laundry. This fact itself designates the profitability of the laundry business.

The retail laundry offers garment washing and ironing service to the customers. The retail laundries may have a dry cleaning and wet cleaning process; in some cases they do the pre-wash repairs on the laundry if required. Often it is found that people visiting the retail laundry store to dry clean or need special treatment for their garment may be for persistent stains, which they cannot do at home.

  

3.    On-Premises Laundry (OPL):

On-premises laundry is also termed as in-house laundry. Many big hotels, pharma companies, hospitals, etc. build their own laundry on their premises.

In this type of laundry setup, huge investment is involved by the management. This type of arrangement is always advisable for big turn over a business house, where a huge number of clothes and linen are washed every single day.

OPL gives good control over the linen wash. The quality of the final washed clothes can be closely supervised. The loss of clothes in transit, as is observed when linen is out-sourced, is avoided. Timely delivery of the clothes in a particular department can be smoothly handled by the laundry or housekeeping staff as the case may be.  

In pharma and hospital industries, where hygiene and disinfection in clothes or linen is expected, it can be maintained in the in-house format of the laundry.

 

4.    Industrial Laundry:

Industrial Laundry is a laundering activity on a very large scale. Large industries require a constant flow of garments on regular basis, like hotels, hospitals, engineering companies, college hostels, etc. Those industries who cannot afford to start their in-house laundry, outsource their clothes to industrial laundry. Industrial laundry is a bigger concept than commercial laundry.

Industrial laundries are situated in government allotted industrial areas, where there is a good supply of water and uninterrupted electrical supply. Having a good drainage system nearby. Laundry is always situated near the drainage system, where the laundry wastewater is drained out of the system.  

They collect the clothes from engineering, chemical, pharma, hotel, etc. industries and deliver them after the laundry process is completed. Industrial laundry has a very good future for development, in the developing industrial area. Because this service is necessary in all sectors of the business.

5.  Government Sector Laundry:

Many government sectors have their own in-house laundry. These laundries are constructed and run in different manners as compared to others on premises laundries (OPL)/ In-house laundries.

There are many central and state government sectors, where thousands of workers work. They have an in-house laundry setup. Here the local government body floats a tender to install and run the laundry, this system is called as BOOT Laundry tender (Built, Operate, Own, and Transfer).

The applicant must have a laundry operation experience. The applicant installs the laundry equipment at his own expense. Later, the government authority makes the payment on a monthly basis for the next 10 years.

 

6.    Institutional Laundry:

Many institutes install laundry equipment on their premises. Like Engineering colleges, MBA institutes, Pharma and Medical colleges, etc. These institutes have boys and girls hostel situated near the college building. Here the hotelier takes the advantages of the laundry service made available in the house.

These equipment are generally coin-operated. The candidate takes the prepaid laundry card and self operates the washers and dryers installed in the premises.

This is additional facilities provided by the college to the hostel staying college students.  

7.    Off Shore Laundry:

Standards and values are applied for safety and reliability in the offshore laundry sector. All the washer-extractors, tumble dryers, ironers used in the offshore are inspected by government-appointed third party inspection agencies and or the local bodies itself.

The important points considered while selecting the laundry equipment are, the time, the chemicals used-how hazardous they are and whether they are inflammable, vibrations produced due to the mechanical operations of the machines and the temperature of the hot water required to launder the clothes offshore.

The most important point while selecting the washing machines is the type of steel used to manufacture the machines. These machines will have to face the salinity of the water while washing the clothes and also the saline winds flowing around. Because normal stainless steel gets corroded in the saline water. Hence special steel is used in manufacturing the laundry machines.

There is a frequent voltage fluctuation on the off-shore rigs. The winds flowing in the sea have high wind pressure. The installations have to be done in such a way that the laundry equipment should be strongly installed, to withstand the wind shocks developed frequently.

Immense care has to be taken to avoid the use of hazardous chemicals, equipment producing sparks, influencing fire. Proper safety and preventive majors has to be taken, prior to installing and using the laundry machines.