By Becca Anderson

I stopped in to chat with David Haick at Parker’s Cleaners in Oakville, ON the other day. Parker’s as a brand has been around since 1876, but David has had his plant for 30+ years. Prior to that he was involved with Embassy Cleaners. His father, Emile Haick, was president of Embassy for many years.

I wanted to see how the average cleaner—the one-shop, family-owned, working day to day cleaner—was faring. That’s the bulk of the Canadian industry, so if it describes you, you are not alone in your struggles and victories.

David was open with the challenges of an operation like his today. He’s old-school in his approach. His plant has two full time people besides himself, and family members and a part time tailor fill in the rest. As I watched him take in garments and issue thermal invoices, attach paper tags, he said, “I could get a POS system, or I can have people working in the back.” That’s the reality. He prefers to do it the old way and forego the bells and whistles.

The same goes for his equipment. It’s solid, reliable and in constant use. His dry cleaning machine is Bowe running perc, his wet cleaning system is Imesa, his finishing is done on Trevil and Sankosha/Ajax machines. He’s happy with them. If he decides to continue on and has to replace his dry cleaning machine, he will get something running a different solvent.

Does that sound like you? I imagine some of you are high-fiving him right now.

I asked David about his struggles. He said the top issue is finding staffing when he needs it. “Younger people don’t want to do this work,” he said. And after 30 years, he’s considering his options regarding how long to continue, himself.

The other aspects that create challenges are landlord issues and financing. David’s plant is quite small and located in a good shopping center. Over time he has carved off pieces of it and sold them to the retailers on either side of him (a pancake house and a vape shop). That helps with his costs, but squeezes his workspace. He’s fortunate; his landlord doesn’t care about his solvent choice. Many cleaners his size are fighting that fight on a monthly or annual basis.

As far as finances for things like new equipment, he tends to go with pay-over-time agreements with his distributors, rather than deal with banks. “They tend to not like to loan to dry cleaners,” he said. That’s surprising, since in any other industry a 30-year track record should get whatever loans are necessary.

COVID-19 hit Parker’s Cleaners hard. “I was delivering pizzas for a while,” he said. And even since the pandemic, he’s seen only about 60% of his business come back. “We all changed during COVID,” he said. “People wear different clothes now, and their habits changed.” His racks were full when I visited, and he was unsure why. “The people I expected to come in haven’t picked up yet.” That will sort itself out in a few days, he felt.

When asked how a cleaner like himself can continue to stay in business in the “new” climate, he said the shift to wet cleaning is essential. “I do everything except suit coats in wet cleaning, if I can,” he said. “I was astonished that one day, for the first time in my career, I never even turned on the dry cleaning machine. All of it went wet cleaning. It was the selection of garments I had that day, but on average I’m running 60% wet cleaning, 40% dry cleaning anyway.”

Parker’s Cleaners has a beautiful website that explains very clearly the advantages of wet cleaning, and includes a video of the finishing process that will convince any customer that they can’t do it that well at home. Haick also offers alterations and tailoring with a part time tailor who has a work area in the plant. He doesn’t do Social Media, but his website store front is solid.

There are hundreds of plants just like Parker’s Cleaners across the country, run by hard-working families or individuals who take pride in their work and are cutting costs wherever they can but still giving customers a great product. It may feel like you are unnoticed and alone. You aren’t. You are part of a proud group that sustains the Canadian industry. Good for you!

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