HYDERABAD: The non-descript laundry business is slowly getting a makeover, thanks to the growth in organised business with many new players entering the space.It is estimated that laundry services market is approximately $30 billion in India, but only 3-5 per cent is being catered to by organised players, says Arunabh Sinha, founder and CEO, U Clean.
“This shows that there is huge potential for growth in this space. Many new companies have come up over the past three years and many will also enter over the next two to three years. But to achieve growth, the existing and new entrants should focus on both back-end and front-end operations rather than just operating as aggregators, for providing quality service within delivery time.”
While the laundry services present a vast market, it also presents some challenges for new players. Several new companies have entered the space, but many have also shut stop or failed to benefit from the growing market.
“The main mistake by some players in the past was they acted just as aggregators without having their own operations. Clothes are very personal for people and one needs to have their own operations to cater customers directly according to their specific needs. Seamless integration of technology at back-end to ensure quality and at front end to acquire customers is needed, for a laundry business to be successful. Commercial laundry services are already a big hit, while domestic laundry market is growing,” said Mangala Chandran, an industry expert.
Most laundry businesses operate in cities limiting their operations to a few pockets. But, there are a few pan-India players, too, who focus on metro cities and now expanding their business to tier-two cities as well.
While on demand services providers like Quikr, Housejoy offer laundry services along other services for households, Pick My Laundry, Wassup, Wish 2 Wash, Laundry Anna, Fabrikare and others are evolving as organised players offering a wide range of laundry services.
“There is more to laundry industry than what appears on the surface. You can’t use the same machinery and model for domestic and industrial uses. Technology should be adopted for ensuring best results. If we ensure quality and make the market really professional and organised, then people will shift to organised laundry players,” said K Naidu of Easy Wash Care laundry services, a Hyderabad based laundry startup.