Millennials look at business in a different way. We are more in tune with technology, more willing to adapt to the newest trends, and have a strong understanding for community and the conservation of our environment. As young people begin to occupy the majority of the workforce and start to become directors and CEOs, businesses themselves will also acquire these habits.
Last week I sat down with Kyle Riggle, CEO of Orth Cleaners. Orth is an old company that was acquired by a millennial and improved into a viable business that can appeal to everyone, especially those who are somewhat technically savvy. Orth takes the age-old need for everyone to wash their clothes and integrates new app technology in order to provide seamless delivery to their customer.
Ploymint: When did you get involved with Orth? And how have you guys evolved as time has gone on? How’d you go from your beginnings in 1927 to a phone app?
Kyle Riggle: Orth started in 1927. We acquired the business in October 2014 and we took over operations in February of 2015. So in October we came in and did analysis for how we could best implement the technology solution we had and what needed to be built on the backend and frontend in order to facilitate the current situation. When we got it it was in dire need of help, declining sales, a huge human resources problem, and equipment that they had been using was the same equipment they had in the ’80s. So as you could imagine, very dirty for the environment and not great for our customers. So yeah, once we learned all this, we put a plan together and in February started.
Ploymint: Awesome, that’s quite the change.
KR: Yeah, you know at the end of the day we’re a laundry company and there’s nothing sexy about laundry. So, it’s quite hard to find good talent and we have found out mostly through experience that we are able to not only keep good talent, but more people are coming to us for jobs because we are starting to stand out. We operate more like a tech company so while laundry still needs to get done, we facilitate everything through technology.
Ploymint: Are there any drawbacks from being highly technical or any stumbling blocks you didn’t anticipate that you encountered when you started your business?
KR: Overall, what sets us apart is also something that kind of hurts us. You know, dry cleaning is dry cleaning and whether you order it on the phone or walk to your neighborhood drycleaner at the end of the day the customer expects the same thing in return after using your service and that’s a clean pressed shirt. So we’ve had a tough time educating people on what makes us different. Because it doesn’t really help to send out flyers or Google ads, but at the end of the day in order to understand our value propositions, we need some time talking to you. Because there’s not people doing cool stuff with dry cleaning. So we have kind of a tough time educating the public on why bringing your clothes to us is better than opposed to the guy next to your house.
Ploymint: Do you think that your primary consumer is in the millennial age group? Do you see them use your products more?
KR: The industry has had a hard time getting millennials to use dry cleaning, so we have a larger demographic of millennials using our wash and fold service. Which in general is good for us and it goes along with what we are trying to do which is saving customers time from having to do their own laundry. As far as dry cleaning, our target is the people who wear suits everyday and the people that have an environment where dress up is necessary. So in that regard we get a mix of millennials and older folks and younger folks, it just depends on their profession.
Ploymint: What do you think of the new age starting to take over? Your business is the perfect example, you took an old business, turned it into something new, and now it’s successful. What do you think of people our age starting their own businesses?
KR: I love it man. I live in Brooklyn and I have a coworking space called Joynture. I surround myself with you and other’s like you everyday because of how much it drives me. I’m super passionate about people starting businesses and trying to foster their success and whether they do well or not, at the end of the day, I love to to watch people learn. It’s tremendous watching someone walk into a space with an idea and walk out maybe because he failed, but it’s a completely different person walking out of the door. The businesses that succeed are the ones that go through the change and allow the change to happen, seems to be a lot of the folks that walk through the door that are stubborn and can’t really gain perspective from others don’t tend to do that well.
Ploymint: How have you managed to stay green?
KR: A ton of things. We have gone to recycled biodegradable bags for all in-store customers. We use a convertible bag, which is a real garment bag that’s waterproof and can be turned upside down and be used as a laundry bag for dirty clothes. Which all our root customers get, so we have quite a few customers we go to twice a week, and those customers are the ones that use those. We have around 1,000 of them right now, in use, constantly. The biggest changes are on the actual production side, from new water filtration systems that spit out a much higher pressure with less throughput of water to changing from a perc facility, which is one the most environmentally harsh chemicals that are used in dry cleaning. We got rid of that, decommissioned it, got a new machine called a K4 machine, which is all organic, non-toxic solvents. We do a ton of organic wet cleaning, which is literally a mix of apple cider vinegar detergent. Structurally, we’ve got new fleet vehicles, so now we have fuel efficient vans and we changed our lights to high-efficiency LEDS. We’ve done a lot but it’s expensive endeavor so we do it over time.
Ploymint: Do you have any advice for other millennials that want to start their own business?
KR: Mike said it best, Just Do It. People should really take a risk and put themselves out there. The fact is if you don’t try you’re definitely not going to succeed. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s the truth. Nothing will happen unless you actually do it.
Orth cleaners currently provides dry cleaning and their wash and fold service in the Philadelphia metro area. Be sure to check them out at www.orthcleaners.com. As a guy that used to live in a dorm that looked like an atom bomb of clothes hit it, I wish I had this nifty phone app instead of wasting hours in the laundry room. It’s easy, it saves time, is affordable, and best of all it’s good for our environment.
