Census shows ranks of cleaners declining;
some revenue growth
Fewer cleaners chasing more drycleaning
dollars. A bigger pie with bigger slices. That’s a
picture many in the industry would like to see. And it’s
the picture painted by recently released figures from the U.S.
Department of Commerce.
According to the department’s
economic census of businesses, which is taken every five years,
27,066 drycleaning firms had total receipts of $7.75 billion in
2002. That’s 873 fewer cleaners taking in $660 million
more dollars than in 1997, the previous census year. That
year’s tally showed 27,939 cleaners with total receipts
of $7.20 billion.
On a per-plant basis, average revenues
increased to $286,440 in 2002, up from $253,840 in 1997.
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The five-year improvement is mostly
negated when inflation is taken into consideration. The rate of
inflation over that five years was approximately 10 percent, so
when the 2002 revenues are adjusted accordingly, the picture is
more one of stagnation than modest growth. That average plant
revenue of 253,840 in 1997, for example, would need to rise to
$279,224 just to stay even with inflation. Thus the 2002
average, with inflation factored in, increased a modest $7,216.
And that takes into account that there are fewer cleaners
dividing a larger pie. When adjusted for inflation, total
industry revenues were off by about $170 million.
The Economic Census is designed to provide
a detailed portrait of the nation's economy, from the national
to the local level, covering nearly all of the U.S. economy in
its basic collection of establishment statistics. Census forms
were mailed to more than 5 million companies in late 2002 to be
returned by February 2003. Each form is customized to
particular industries, and all but the very smallest companies
receive a census form.
A company operating at more than one
location is required to file a separate report for each store.
In addition to tallying the number of
plants and counting dollar revenues, the census also
counted payroll and number of employees in drycleaning
establishments. For 2002, the census showed 188,538 employees
with a total payroll of $2.74 billion. That represented a 7.5
percent decrease in employment and a 6.3 percent increase in
payroll. Overall, payroll consumed 35.3 percent of industry
revenues, a one percentage point decrease in the five-year
period.
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The big cleaners
The census report included a separate
table showing statistics for the largest drycleaning firms
based on revenue. In that grouping the 50 largest firms, which
included 1,034 locations, had gross receipts of $687.5 million
in 2002. This equates to an average of 20 locations per firm
and an average revenue of $665,000 per location, better than
twice the overall industry average. Those same firms had 13,479
employees. That represents an average of 13 employees per
location compared with the industry-wide average of seven
employees per establishment.
Firms that had no paid employees are not
counted in the census. These could include self-employed
individuals or partnerships operating businesses that have
chosen not to incorporate. The census bureau has no numbers to
indicate how many such firms may exist in the drycleaning
business, although in the broader “Personal and Laundry
Services” category — which includes beauty, barber
and nail shops, one-hour photo finishing, “death
care” services and a huge number of “other”
services. The non-employer types businesses number in the
millions.
The rest of the industry
While drycleaning establishments represent
the majority of firms in the broader laundry and drycleaning
field, the census also counts coin-operated laundries, linen
and uniform supply firms, and industrial launderers. The
aggregate total all of these is 41,881 firms. Of those, there
are 12,185 coin laundries, 1,142 linen supply firms and 1,488
industrial launderers. Each of those categories, like
drycleaning itself, showed a decline in numbers since the 1997
census. Unlike drycleaning, however, coin laundries and
industrial launderers showed improved revenue growth even after
factoring in the rate of inflation.
The total for all industry segments showed
41,181 firms, down about 3,000 from 1997, with receipts of
$20.5 billion, up by $2.6 billion. These firms had 370,828
employees and an annual payroll of $6.6 billion.
The payroll figures show the industry with
about 25,000 fewer employees on 2002 than in 1997 with total
payroll up about $700 million.
Historical data
The economic census was first taken in
1810, but the regular five-year cycle did not begin until 1967.
Over the years, methods of tallying and classifying the data
have been adjusted, but it is still possible to get a
statistical historical overview by looking at the numbers.
For example, in 1967 the census counted
30,625 drycleaning plants. That fell to 28,422 five years later
as the infamous "Polyester Recession" kicked in. The
number of plants continued to decline before bottoming out at
21,257 in the 1987 census.
The two censuses conducted in the 1990s
showed growth in the number of plants. The 2002 census, with a
slight decline, is the first sign of reversal of that trend.
The increase in receipts for all the
industry segments compared favorably to recent years. From 1992
to 1997, total receipts were flat, rising from $17.6 billion to
$17.9 billion during the five years. More than half of that
growth came in the area of linen and uniform supply, and within
that segment, industrial launderers led the way.
