The old adage in real estate, “location, location, location,” couldn’t be more accurate in the self-service laundry industry. Choosing the right location is important, not only because of the need to be in the proximity of your potential customers, but also consider that a laundry is not easily moved. You will be well-served by a basic understanding of demographics and how they influence laundries, before you make your investment. During this program, panelists will discuss the importance of demographics in the self-service laundry business; the need for a professional demographic analysis of potential sites; key demographic characteristics and why they are important; and how to review results of a demographic survey.

Panelists:
– Russ Arbuckle, Wholesale Commercial Laundry Equipment
– Karl Hinrichs, HK Laundry Equipment
– Ted Ristaino, Yankee Equipment
– Facilitator Brian Wallace, President/CEO, Coin Laundry Association

The cost to attend this program is $49. Each person who registers will receive a recording of the program.

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Panelist Bios:

Russ Arbuckle As a 32-year veteran of the laundry industry, Russ has accumulated a vast knowledge base of all phases of our industry. This includes vended laundries, in-house on-premise laundries, as well as large automated industrial laundries.

His first job in the industry was as a service technician with a small parts and service company, Telematic Company Inc. that serviced predominately domestic household laundry equipment. The company then began to focus on the commercial side, including vended and on-premise laundries. As he progressed from service to installations and then to sales, the company owner, who also owned several very successful laundromats, gave him a great education on what makes a successful laundromat. From location, demographics, equipment mix, visibility and all the other pieces of that puzzle, Russ was able to build some of the largest most successful stores for customers in our market. He has also owned and operated 6 different stores, and still owns 4, with 2 being existing stores they purchased and rehabbed and 4 being new locations. The stores range in size from 2,400 to 5,000 square feet and all have been extremely successful operations.

Karl Hinrichs has spent most of his life in laundromats, growing up revolved around the family distributorship. At the age of 13, he carried his father’s toolbox and started to learn how to fix washers and dryers. At 16 he was collecting laundromats and fixing machines. Every summer during school, he was working on the HK installation crew or running the distributorship while his father was on vacation.

After college, Karl worked for 3 years as an environmental research chemist before his father “gave him an offer he could not refuse.” Karl has been in the laundry business full time since 1980 and purchased his father’s distributorship in 1995. HK Laundry Equipment is 53 years old and has been a Huebsch distributor since its inception in 1967. Karl & HK Laundry Equipment won the Huebsch distributor of the year in 2013. Karl is a past CLA board of directors and routinely contributes to Planet Laundry with articles and commentary. Currently, Karl owns and operates five laundromats along with the HK distributorship.

Ted Ristaino is the co-founder and former owner of Yankee Equipment Systems, Inc., in Barrington, N.H., New England’s leading distributor of commercial laundry equipment. Ted served as executive vice president of Yankee from 1988-2003, then president from 2004-2016 and now as chief operation officer. Since its inception, his primary responsibility was the growth and long-term viability of the company. He accomplished these goals by developing and maintaining long-term relationships with their customer and vendor stakeholders. Marketing, strategic planning, financial management, operational controls and customer relations were the main tasks he performed in the 50 FTE organization.

Prior to Yankee, Ted worked at Craig Supply Co., Inc. in Durham, N.H. from 1975-1987. Craig Supply was a distributor of laundry and dry cleaning supplies and equipment throughout New England and the Southeast. He held various positions, including operations manager, assistant vice president of operations, vice president of operations and vice president of supply sales. From 1989-2000, Ted also co-owned three laundromats and a dry cleaning operation on the seacoast of New Hampshire.