Cleaning up with a laundry service

Former Morgan Stanley trader Rick Rome was tired of his dry cleaner mangling his clothes with harsh cleaners. Looking around for a business opportunity, he also came to believe that almost everyone who had to use one was sick of the laundromat.

Rome — working with an initial investment of $2 million — started WashClub to relieve the toil of taking clothes to the laundromat, then waiting or having to return later to pick them up. Rome says he can eliminate that — for a price.

“You pick the date and time for your clothes to picked up, as well as the best time for them to be delivered,” Rome says. “We pick up and then we give you an e-mail alert when the driver is 30 minutes away or less with your clothes.”

WashClub orders can be placed via app, desktop computer or phone. Clothes are washed or dry cleaned and returned in one or two days.

Rome, once an institutional market maker at Morgan Stanley, started WashClub some three years ago. It competes with traditional laundromats, an industry that is facing problems.

“The laundromat industry is in the decline stage of its industry life cycle,” writes researcher IBISWorld. It recently reported “decreasing profitability, decreasing employment and decreasing industry value added.”

But Rome isn’t seeing any of that and says the service is profitable.

He is recording in the neighborhood of 12,000 orders a month. That will “double over the next year,” he predicts.

WashClub has around 180 machines at its headquarters in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The service is available in most of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Rome is eyeing Queens.

WashClub, Rome adds, uses GreenEarth, an eco-friendly cleaning solution that is gentle on clothes.

WashClub offers a full range of dry-cleaning and tailoring services that can be combined with the wash-and-fold service. Laundry is returned in 24 hours.

Rome believes his service justifies a premium price. A typical WashClub laundry order costs $30. That’s about $20 more than doing it yourself.

Rome, justifying the cost, said, “How do you value being able to go on a bike ride with your daughter? Or whatever it is you like to do?”

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