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LUXURY LAUNDRY

Hand-ironing, 24-hour access set toxin-free Oxxo apart from other dry cleaners

By Neil Janowitz

There is a fundamental irony to the dry-cleaning industry: The business whose sole function is to clean clothing is itself anything but clean. Consider the pungent musk of chemicals in the air and the ever-present threat of a disastrous solvent leak.

At least that was the case before 2000, when Salomon Mishaan, founder of Oxxo Care Cleaners, was just another disgruntled dry-cleaning customer. “I took a look at my own dry cleaning,” said Mishaan. “I would get it back with marks or burned buttons, or I’d go in near the end of the day and they’d tell me I had to pick it up the following day, because they were closed, and I said, ‘There has to be a better way.’ ”

And so there was. Mishaan’s enlightenment began that year, on a trip to Spain, where he met Jean Paul Aziza, who owned a dry-cleaning company called Oxxo. Its clean, inviting interior was striking. “It looked more like a European boutique than a dry cleaner,” Mishaan said. He knew immediately that the concept was ripe for American consumers.

Mishaan, founder and owner of a packaging company he still operates, returned home with the goal of cleaning up the dry-cleaning business. He created yet another company, MUSA, of which Aziza is a minority partner and through which he runs Oxxo Care Cleaners, independent of the Spanish entity.

Mishaan’s first tool for this new business was GreenEarth, an environmentally friendly cleaning agent used as an alternative to the perchloroethylene (or perc) that was nearly ubiquitous at traditional dry cleaners. Perc is a double-edged sword. It is remarkably adept at removing stains without harming fabrics. But spills of the chlorine-based solvent result in expensive, if not irreparable, damage to the land beneath the facility and to any human handlers of the substance. GreenEarth, a silicone-based cleaning agent spills, simply breaks down into sand.

Next, Mishaan focused on giving his stores a delicate, personal touch. Customers walk into a tastefully designed interior with ceramic tiles, drop ceilings and air conditioning. Behind the counter, the entire laundering process unfolds in plain view. After shirts are washed, they are placed on mannequin-shaped dryers blowing warm air. This keeps their shape and prevents marks on the fabric. As a final touch, the garments are ironed by hand at the front of the store, capping a dry-cleaning experience in which the customer “sees, smells and feels the cleanliness,” according to Mishaan.

Of course, none of this is of much value if the stores are not convenient to get to, so Mishaan spent lots of time researching and developing the 24-hour, drop-off-and-pick-up windows at each unit. With a swipe of his Oxxo card, the customer can leave or retrieve his dry cleaning at any hour by means of a mechanical sorting system attached to an exterior window. This ATM-like system has turned out to be the most buzz-worthy aspect of the concept, says Gregory Stitt, who runs an Oxxo franchise in Fair Lawn, N.J. “When you took the environmental-friendliness and 24-hour ATM and wrapped it with the look of the stores, the hand-ironing and the general approach, I knew it was something different than a mom-and-pop store.”

But that kind of experience comes at a cost. Literally. Mishaan concedes that Oxxo’s services are among the highest in the business, a fact that Stitt’s customers have duly noted. “The only complaint I hear is, ‘You’re more expensive than other cleaners,’ ” he said. Indeed, general dry cleaning at his shop costs $4.95 per garment, and laundering costs $1.95 per item — about $1 more than conventional local prices in each case.

Still, Mishaan says his target demographic, which he classifies as “high-to-middle-class, white-collar customers,” can handle the cost. “People just love the overall concept,” said Mishaan. “We get a lot of people coming into the stores to tell us how easy and satisfying we are to work with. And because the process unfolds in front of them, many customers will stay to watch the machines work or the employees iron.”

Landlords are happy to have a dry cleaner without the hazards of perc. “Many of the past stores we’ve purchased have had contamination,” said Michael Fimliani, executive vice president of Woolbright Development, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based real estate investment firm that manages Glades Plaza, the open-air center home to Oxxo’s Boca Raton unit. “Before working with Oxxo, we were always proponents of eliminating dry-cleaning plants from our properties.”

Oxxo’s expansion has been rapid since its debut in November 2002. today there are 15 units, with eight more set to come on line by year-end. The current units are Florida and New Jersey, and the new ones are to open there and in California and Michigan as well as New York City and Washington, D.C.

The original store, the headquarters in Hollywood, Fla., is the only company-owned unit. The other 14 are all franchises. For now, company growth will center around franchising, though Mishaan says there will eventually have to be additional regional headquarters as expansion continues. Each franchise costs roughly $300,000 to get off the ground and measures about 1,500 square feet.

Mishaan declined to disclose sales per square foot figures, but he did say that with the 24-hour units drawing customers at all hours, Oxxo lures shoppers to the shopping centers even when the dry cleaners themselves are closed. “Landlords are thrilled,” said Mishaan.

The future of the dry-cleaning industry belongs to nonperc stores, says Dan Eisen, a Port St. Lucie, Fla.-based private consultant for dry cleaners. “A few states, such as California and New Jersey, are in the process of banning perc,” said Eisen. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but that’s the direction the industry is taking.” (He has no business relationship with Oxxo.) Indeed, California is even offering grants to help stores switch to GreenEarth.

All of which helped Oxxo bring in $3.5 million in revenues last year, and the company says that will jump to at least $5 million this year. Mishaan set out to clean up his industry. Now, four years later, it’s Mishaan himself who is cleaning up.