FDD Talk: The Martinizing Dry Cleaning Franchise Opportunity (Financial Performance Analysis, Estimated Costs, and Other Important Stuff You Need to Know)

In this FDD Talk post, you’ll learn the following:

• Section I – Background information on the Martinizing Dry Cleaning franchise opportunity, including relevant news updates

• Section II – Estimated initial investment for a Martinizing Dry Cleaning franchise, based on Item 7 of the company’s 2015 FDD

• Section III – Presentation and analysis of Martinizing Dry Cleaning’s financial performance representations, based on Item 19 of the company’s 2015 FDD, including information on the:

• 2014 average, high, and low gross sales for the first quartile, second quartile, third quartile, fourth quartile, and all 34 Martinizing Dry Cleaning Royalty Franchisees open as of December 31, 2014 and reported their gross sales to the franchisor for the full Measurement Period

• 2014 average labor, rent, utilities, total expenses, and gross profit percentages for Martinizing Dry Cleaning’s Partner Advisory Council, which is comprised of six franchisees of varying sizes from six different states who are leaders within the Martinizing franchise network and upon whom the franchisor relies for input and feedback on Martinizing initiatives

• monthly gross sales related to Locker Services from the company-owned Huntington location from January 2014 to June 2015

Section I – Background Information

Martinizing Dry Cleaning Still Going Through Changes Under Huntington

Martinizing Dry Cleaning, which was acquired in November 2014 by The Huntington Company, continues to go through changes under its new ownership, which also expanded Martinizing through rebranding of three other franchises that will operate under the Martinizing umbrella.

The Huntington Company, which is headquartered in Berkley, Mich., purchased Martinizing Dry Cleaning from Martin Franchises Inc. The acquisition made Huntington the largest dry-cleaning franchisor in the nation. Partners Wayne Wudyka and Jeffrey Snyder have been steadily acquiring and launching dry-cleaning brands over time.

Huntington, which started in 1950, chose Martinizing in part because it had locations across the country, as well as eight international locations. The brand will continue to be known as Martinizing Dry Cleaning.

The Huntington Company and its affiliates are privately held companies. In addition to Martinizing Dry Cleaning, its brands include Huntington Cleaners & Shirt Laundry, Huntington Window Fashions, Wesch Cleaners, 1-800-DryClean, bizziebox, Pressed4Time, Dry Cleaning Station and Certified Restoration Drycleaning.

Martinizing Founder Introduced Revolutionary Non-Flammable Solvent

Martinizing Dry Cleaning, originally named One Hour Martinizing, was founded in 1949 by Henry Martin, a New York chemist who introduced a non-flammable solvent that enabled dry cleaning to be done more quickly and made it possible for dry cleaning plants to be located among other stores where people did their shopping.

The use of Martin’s solvent revolutionized the dry cleaning industry. Previously, the use of flammable solvents meant that dry cleaners had to have remote production facilities. Customers would drop off their dry cleaning at a store and pick the items up later after they had been delivered to the production facility, cleaned, and returned to the store.

Martinizing Expands Through Rebranding

In November 2015, The Huntington Company announced a rebranding of its affiliated route brands, 1-800-DryClean, Pressed4Time and Dry Cleaning Station. They will be rebranded as Martinizing Delivers. The expansion adds 210 franchises to Martinizing Dry Cleaning.

Also in November, through an investment into DRYV, an app development firm based in Chicago, Martinizing Dry Cleaning added locker-based and on-demand services. The change makes the company more versatile in a changing environment.

Martinizing Still in Franchise 500, But Sliding

Martinizing Dry Cleaning has steadily been ranked in the Entrepreneur Franchise 500, but it dipped to 413 in 2016, its lowest ranking in recent memory. Martinizing reached its highest rank of 200 in 2009 but dropped to 319 the following year. It dropped from 288 in 2013 to 396 in 2014 and was No. 399 in 2015.

Entrepreneur lists the company as having 1.9 percent unit growth with a gain of eight units over the past three years; however, it lost eight units in the past year alone.

Section II – Estimated Costs

• Please click here for detailed estimates of Martinizing Dry Cleaning franchise costs, based on Item 7 of the company’s 2015 FDD.

Section III – Financial Performance Representations (Item 19, 2015 FDD) and Analysis