Buying a dry cleaner in Florida

A dry cleaner cleans and presses clothing and household items. Most have a plant, where the cleaning machines, presses and boiler sit, and some have drop-off stores or lockers that feed it. Many add wash-and-fold laundry, alterations, wedding gown preservation, comforters and drapes, pickup and delivery routes, or commercial accounts such as hotels, restaurants and uniform customers.

Customers pay per item or by the pound, and the best ones come every week or two. Revenue depends on how people dress for work, so the long shift toward casual clothes and working from home matters a great deal. Delivery customers and commercial accounts can bring steadier volume. The main costs are labor, utilities, solvent and supplies, rent and equipment upkeep. A typical shop has counter staff, one or two pressers, a spotter and cleaner who treats stains and runs the machines, perhaps a tailor, delivery drivers, and an owner who often runs the plant.

• Loyal customers who come often, and a growing delivery or commercial business that doesn't depend on office dress codes.
• A plant with modern, well-maintained machines that don't use perchloroethylene ("perc"), the solvent EPA is phasing out of dry cleaning. Newer machines also use less solvent and energy, but they do nothing about what older machines left in the ground.
• A clean environmental record at the site, backed by testing.
• Several revenue sources: wash-and-fold, alterations, household items, commercial work.
• Experienced pressers and spotters who plan to stay. A good spotter saves garments, and customers notice.
• A long lease with a landlord who understands the business and its environmental history.
• Turnaround times customers can count on, with few lost or damaged items.
• Point-of-sale software that tracks customers, orders and garments.

Florida doesn't license dry cleaners as a trade, but environmental rules are central. The business owner or operator and the property owner jointly register each plant with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and renew every year; suppliers can't sell solvent to a plant that can't show its certificate (section 376.303). Plants also register with the Department of Revenue and pay a 2 percent gross receipts tax on dry cleaning charges, which pays for contamination cleanup (section 376.70). Perc plants operate under a DEP general air permit; ask DEP what a new owner must file.

The state's Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup Program pays to clean up eligible sites, in priority order, and shields the business and property owners from paying for it under state law (not federal law). But it stopped accepting applications at the end of 1998, so a site that isn't already eligible generally can't get in now, and a sale doesn't change a site's status (section 376.3078).

EPA's 2024 rule bars perc in newly acquired machines and phases it out of existing ones over about ten years. EPA is reconsidering parts of it, so check current deadlines before counting on a perc machine's remaining life. Expect a county or city business tax receipt.

• The site's environmental history: at least a Phase I environmental site assessment (a records and site review), and likely soil and groundwater testing (a Phase II) if perc was ever used there. Cleanup costs can be large; talk to an environmental attorney before you sign anything.
• The plant's DEP registration, whether the site was accepted into the cleanup program before 1999 (and still qualifies), and what DEP's online records show.
• Equipment age, solvent type, boiler condition and maintenance records.
• Revenue for five years, by service.
• Customer counts and delivery routes.
• Utility costs, which run high for boilers and presses.
• The lease, including environmental clauses and who is responsible for contamination.
• Unclaimed garments and customer damage claims.
• Drop-off stores and lockers: leases, volume, and whether they're worth keeping.

• What solvent do your machines use, and how old are they?
• Has perc ever been used here, and has the site ever been tested for contamination?
• Is the plant registered with DEP, and was the site ever accepted into the state cleanup program?
• How has your revenue changed over the last five years?
• How many delivery and commercial customers do you have?
• Who runs the plant day to day?
• What does your lease say about environmental issues, and what does the landlord know?