The shirt service brings people back every week, says Julian Berger, and hopefully encourages them to bring in more drycleaning too.
Mr Berger runs Bernard Berger Cleaners in an upmarket area of Prestwich, about five miles north of Manchester’s city centre.
The business has been at its current site since 1981, and has been offering a shirt service for about 20 years, adapting limited space in order to do so.
It handles around 500 to 700 shirts a week. With an “upmarket clientele”, designer shirts account for a large proportion, indeed the business specialises in this area, and is recommended by designer retailers.
In itself, the shirt service is not a particularly good money spinner, but it encourages more frequent repeat business, according to Mr Berger. Customers don’t think of drycleaning as a regular task, but they do want shirts done each week. They will drop them in at the beginning of the week and when they return to pick them up, they may bring in some drycleaning too.
Though regular, the shirt business is price sensitive. It’s difficult to charge a good price, explains Mr Berger. Currently a standard shirt costs £1.35 and a dress shirt £1.99. He’ll probably try to put prices up in the new year, to £1.50 and £2.25 respectively, but it won’t be easy. Customers grumble about even a small increase.
Shirt services are labour intensive. The equipment manufacturers talk about 50 to 60 shirts an hour, and yes, he says, you can achieve that sort of rate by working flat out. That’s not his way, for he believes in a personal style of service, taking time and care with everything. Space is limited, there is no room for a cabinet finisher or an automated former set up, just a single former and a pressing table, with the folder downstairs.
Three operators
We employ three girls on the shirt service, says Mr Berger. One looks after the washing and the final bagging of the shirts. A second hand-presses the collars and cuffs and a third prepares and dresses the shirts on the former.
The quality of the service is what counts, another reason why maximum volumes are not the priority.When shirts arrive in the shop, the first step is to decide whether they should be drycleaned or washed. They are then sorted according to fabric and colour, and after cleaning or washing, a decision is made as to whether they should be hand ironed or finished by machine.
The collars and cuffs are scrubbed before washing and the importance of stain removal is recognised.
But probably the most important ingredient is a quality finish. That is the main reason customers use a shirt service, says Mr Berger. On the whole, the shirts are not particularly dirty as they will often have been worn only once.
So he’s prepared for a gentler rate, that allows the operator time to get the garment right. He reckons she produces around 25 shirts an hour. She works five hours a day and if she produces around 100 shirts that’s fine, as long as the quality’s right. One advantage of having three people involved in the operation is that three pairs of eyes check each garment.
As to presentation, most customers prefer garments to be returned on a hanger, but he does offer the option of a folded, bagged shirt.
Hangers preferred
Mr Berger prefers the hanger presentation too. When you unpack a folded shirt, the folds are still there, although they do drop out. Customers do complain if they think an item hasn’t been bagged properly. It’s also more difficult to spot any problems once the item is folded.
As to the future, Mr Berger doesn’t see shirt services as a particular growth area. Although he has only one independent competitor (about one mile away, and on the other side of Prestwich), there are a growing number of ironing services in the area, that attract business.
Mr Berger, however, discourages iron-only trade although customers do ask for it. The clothes can arrive in a poor state: they’ve not been dried properly or they’ve been dried too hot.
In spite of the difficulties, the shirt service is one that Mr Berger wants to provide and takes great trouble to do so, not only to draw customers but as a service for their convenience Its also a service his customers want. Apart from a sign in the window, he does not advertise it, but recommendations for the business spread in a way that amazes him. “You wouldn’t think people would chat about drycleaning but they do”.
