HowTo Start Laundry Service  Business In India 

Overview

From the times our moms entered into a hassle or bargain with the dhobi for getting a cloth or two less, ripping her off with high prices, deciding to change the dhobi bhaiya, yet get in to the same viscous cycle the next time he gets stains on this clothes, We Indians have come a long way with 3 million of our households requiring professional laundry services and trusting them with our clothes.

India, today has around a 100 startups dealing in providing top-notch laundry services to the households, taking the advantage of all the problems laundry slams the working class and our maids with and making business worth $ 76 billion out of it.

Yes, a business out of people’s dirty linens! But the linens they cannot do without and now neither can you!

Market potential and uses

It is now that the potential of laundry services in India is seeing some light. Because pulling 5 years back laundry was considered to be a private chore practised by the maids, housewives and Dhobis because of less working class population, Lower disposable income, and lesser economic opportunities.

Now India’s demographics have seen to be changing where they aren’t profiled on gender while targeting a product as much but instead focus on the disposable income their household makes in total and the time they’d spend on the use of the product or service.

An opportunity laundry service took advantage of.

Uses

The households would make use of the laundry service you provide in the following ways:

• To get rid of the stains, odours and dirt off the clothes
• To get the clothes ironed mostly: offices wear, occasional outfits etc
• To get rid of the loose threads, wrinkles and fading colour issues of your clothes
• To ensure proper and crisp folding of your clothes so that they’re ready-to-wear
• To get the clothes washed on a routine basis and also to ensure the clothes don’t get under  each other’s colours for making those laundry spaz’s work easier

Target consumers

You can enter into the laundry service depending on the nature of business you want to get into, so you could either set up a

• Laundry franchise business
• Home pick up and home delivery services
• Coin laundry store

Irrespective of the nature of the business you aim to establish, the target customers for your laundry service would be:

Working class : Involves all the men and women’s formal and casual clothes, with lack of time on their hands and increased disposable income, which needs a laundry service eg: aprons, coats, blazers, occasional outfits, dresses etc

Old people : Old people who physically need help with their clothes because of their inability to wash off their clothes : whites, trousers, dresses etc residing in their own houses or old age homes etc

Healthcare spaces : Healthcare calls for uniform dresses for nurses, patients and doctors which require a thorough cleaning, free from all the possible infections, viruses, bacteria etc use laundry services for professional cleaning

Kids : Kids living off their own might require laundry services for their routine and casual clothes  because of it’s affordability and inability to do it eg: uniforms, shirts, T-shirt’s etc

Incase you are aiming to set up a home pick up and delivery service here are the following requirements for the same:

Licenses required

The licenses required to run a laundry service in India :

• Health department licence
• SSI registration
• GST registration
• PAN Card and Aadhar card

Investment required

The investment required to set up a laundry service in India

Profits made

The profits made from this laundry service business in India is around ₹5-6 lakhs per annum

Business model and growth

Since, it’s a delivery bases laundry service you can start off by developing an app for the customers to reserve slots and track the delivery of their clothes

Also specifying the services you provide :

• Washing , drying and ironing
• Dry cleaning and folding
• Laundry for spa
• Tailoring, cutting off loose threads, trimming etc
• Laundry delivery

Value proposition: The unique selling point (USP) and the value proposition the laundry service business is likely to provide you with is :

• The additional services that comes with your laundry service which is not offered by the traditional dhobighats
• Consistent Routine demand for your service and increased  demand during occasions and festive seasons

Target consumers: The target consumers for the laundry services you provide with is as follows:

• Working class
• Old people
• Healthcare and hospital spaces
• Kids

Competitor review: With around 100 startups and a large unorganised sector of laundry services the competitors to your business would be:

• The laundry basket
• Wassup laundry
• PickyMyLaundry
• Uclean

Marketing strategy: The marketing strategy that your laundry service must adapt are as follows

Advertising: In terms of Tv commercial, social media, highlighting the user friendliness of your app and the unique services you provide

Sales promotion: In terms of loyalty pints, discounts, vouchers etc to the consumers

Paid-advertising: Advertising on the platforms like google and YouTube through paid and pop up ads

Digital and print media: Using print media like news papers with your logo and highlighting your services and on billboards etc

Growth

The laundry services has the potential and has witnessed the growth prospects in the following ways:

• The laundry market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.9% annually ( 2020-2023)
• In India, both the organised (apps and delivery laundry services) and unorganised sector ( dhobighats) in total are valued at ₹5000 crore

Area required

The area required to set up a laundry service business would be 600-700 sq ft

Raw materials required

The raw materials required to run a laundry service in India would be:

• Gloves
• Cleaning chemicals
• Soaps and detergents
• Laundry carts
• Uniforms

Machinery required

The machinery required in setting up a laundry service in India would be :

• Washers
• Dyers
• Card system
• Detergent vending machine
• Coin machine
• Steamers
• Steam boilers
• Ironing machines

Manpower required

The manpower required to set up a laundry service business would be:

• 5-Washers
• 10-Delivery men
• 1-accountant

Profit margin

A laundry service business provides you with a profit margin of 40%

Suggestions

While you search for a change to give to your laundry delivery man, we have some fact-Checkers for you:

• Firstly, The increased and increasing working class of India and its immense labour intensive market brings in more demand for the laundry services in India

• Secondly, The exceptional services of ironing, dry cleaning and tailoring which are not offered by the traditional dhobi ghats has makes your service a one stop shop for everything, at  an affordable price reaching every niche and accessible to every consumer market

• Thirdly, a laundry service stratum comes at a minimal capital and manpower at suffice profits