The Benelux laundry and drycleaning sector looks towards future with optimism due to the everincreasing demand for the industry’s services despite the generally high level of inflation and the ever rising costs.
According to Statistics Netherlands, the Netherlands’ statistical service, the annual average inflation rate in the country is around 3-4%, being significantly higher in utilities, water, energy, where these figures exceed 10-11%. Almost the same situation is observed in Belgium.
That puts serious pressure on the industry, forcing leading regional players and global players, operating in the local market to consider more active introduction of new industry’s technologies and concepts in order to remain competitive in the local market.
Still, despite the ever-rising costs, the industry shows generally good dynamics these days. According to experts of the Federation of Textile Management of Netherlands (FTN) – a public association, which unites leading local laundry and drycleaning operators in the Netherlands, the industry has good prospects for further growth, which is mainly due to the development of new markets, which provides additional opportunities for leading domestic players.
According to FTN, the Netherlands has a mature well-developed textile sector, which consists of about 500 companies, of which 10-20 companies are positioned as large, controlling the bulk of the market. In value terms, the industry is estimated at EUR 900 million.
At the same time the textile care sector of Belgium is comprised of about 400 companies that employ about 7,000 workers. More than half of the companies are located in Flanders – the Dutchspeaking northern portion of Belgium. The 20 largest laundries alone account for more than half of overall number of workers in the industry and about half of its value.
The segment of health care remains one of the major customers of laundries of dry cleaners in Belgium at present, with working clothes accounting for most of treated types of clothing and textile in the country.
In the meantime, the Benelux laundry and drycleaning sector has always been within the interests of global players, most of which have traditionally considered the local market as one of the most promising for their growth at least in the EU.
One of such companies is Kreussler, which in recent years has significantly strengthened its positions in the Benelux textile care sector, planning a further expansion.
As Thomas Zeck, commercial director of Kreussler Textile Care told LCNi the company is ready for further development in the region this year. “As for achieved targets, our most important result for 2024 in the Benelux is undoubtedly the significant expansion of our market share in laundry and dry/wet cleaning.”
Zeck adds the company’s current strategy in the Benelux laundry and drycleaning sector involves developing a long-term perspective with each customer through the use of an individual approach. “We also continue to broaden our service portfolio continuously: our new cooperation with Dutch specialist Wientjens provides well- known and reliable hardware solutions to help our customers to optimize their energy and water management in both existing and new laundries,” says Zeck.
The company put big hopes on Texcare 2024 in Frankfurt in November, which traditionally attracts some major customers from the Benelux region. In regard to future market prospects, Zeck expects the market will not expand immediately, but it will change.
“The market is confronted with changing textile qualities and adjustments demanded by regulations and legislation, posing major challenges for not just us, but the whole industry. Different rules and laws sometimes apply in the Benelux than elsewhere in Europe. Partly because of this, the market is very dynamic, requiring fast reactions. Thanks to our service teams as well as R&D department, we are able to always offer the perfect solution to fulfill new market demands to our customers. As we see this reflected in the trust of many satisfied clients, we are happy to look into the future with great confidence,” says Zeck.
In the meantime, the development in the Benelux region remains a priority for another global player, Miele Professional. As Valerie Paumier, regional director marketing, Miele Professional divulges, the company achieved some significant results in the Benelux market, also planning a further expansion this year.
Paumier says: “Benelux’s most significant results have been achieved in the healthcare, real estate and public services sectors. We are seeing an increase in the number of sites equipped with laundry facilities, and we have been able to increase our market share».
Paumier expects the demand for highquality textile care services in the region will only continue to grow during the period of 2025-2026, that will contribute to the growth of the entire industry.
“The demand for laundry services will increase as a result of an ageing society and an increase in the number of residential units with centralised laundry services. Due to a tight labor market and an increasing number of in-house laundry services in real estate, the number of laundromats will decrease. The biggest challenge for commercial washing machine suppliers is competition from outsourced laundry (large sites with large washing tunnels.”
Meanwhile, the analysts of FTN expect the Netherland’s textile care industry along with other regional states will continue to grow during the period of 2025-2026, and that will be mainly due to the more active adoption of new technologies, that will make the entire industry more efficient. As analysts have also said, among the examples of such technologies are robotics and advanced data analysis. In addition, new logistical concepts will be more actively launched, that will contribute to further increase of the added value of the entire industry. For regional, smaller players specialisation in a geographical, product or customer market will be also essential, that will allow them to stay afloat and better compete with larger players.
As for technological developments, there are a number of strong players in the region, working in this field. An example is Landuwasco, the Netherlands’ supplier of equipment and machinery, which has presented its third generation towel robot—a product specifically designed to automate towel processing, saving time and manpower.
Walter ten Hagen from Landuwasco is enthusiastic about this development which was presented during Texcare 2024: “The enthusiasm we saw among visitors confirmed that we can really make a difference to the industry with this robot. People have been waiting for this.”
He believes that automation will be a necessity for the future.“We want to show that we are not standing still,” he says. “We are constantly working on new solutions to make the laundries more efficient. Automation not only helps to save costs, but also offers a solution to the labor shortage.”
The development of the industry will also continue thanks to the ever-expanding range and the number of services provided by leading local operators. Also more and more local players prefer to switch on more environmentally friendly solutions in their operations, making investments in sustainable use of raw materials and water and techniques that reduce harmful emissions. This is also due to serious financial and tax compensations, which are provided for industry’s players for such activities by regional government. For example, in case of the Netherlands, according to local Textiel Service industry’s paper, for 2025, the Netherland’s government has approved €189 million as part of the Environmental Investment Deduction (MIA) and €20 million for the Arbitrary Depreciation of Environmental Investments program, which involves payment of compensations for domestic laundry and drycleaning operators, adopting green principles.
Also the ever increasing use of socalled smart textiles, which have special functional properties will also contribute to the further growth of demand for professional drycleaning and laundry services across the entire Benelux region.
Still, according to a recent report from the Technological Knowledge Centre for Textile Care (TKT), the Netherland’s research agency for textiles, water costs and energy taxes will rise sharply in 2025, and that may a serious pressure on the industry.
The rate of increase will depend on the size of the company and the volume of its resources consumption and will reach up to 33% in case of gas and +20% in case of water. Also the influx of workers from the industry to other EU states may also create problems for the industry. As inflation rate remains high (especially in the Netherlands, which was one of the highest among the other EU nations in December, 2024) many industry workers are not happy with the rate growth of their wages, which may force some to consider migration to other EU states.
Accirding to Marc Callewaert of the Belgian textile care assocaition, FBT: “We are see ing a decrease in numbers of laundries and drycleanings due to the fact that we, in Belgium, mostly have small businesses, often family-run businesses where there is no no succession and new acquirers are also hard to find in these difficult times. On the other hand the number of workers in the sector remains on the same level. – due to the automatic indexation of wages, they have increased by 3.5% since the beginning of this year . As a result, the FBT cost index has also increased.
“We – just like the rest of our European colleagues – will step up our efforts to improve the image of our industry with an emphasis on sustainability, energy efficiency and circularity.
“Especially in Flanders, authorities are focusing on PFAS pollution. The sector is doing its utmost to minimise the outflow of PFAS while, on the other hand, it wants to demonstrate that it is not the polluter (but the manufacturers are).
“We do not have a view on how the federal government will respond to Europe’s obligation to implement the EPR. Similar to packaging or batteries, take-back systems must be set up for textiles in the future. FBT is convinced that the industry should play a proactive role here and, for example, push for the establishment of its own collection and recycling system for leasable textiles. When reporting on sustainability, the Federation will work to ensure that existing circular business models such as textile care can be represented in the planned cross-industry standards for reporting.
“We see the same evolutions among our international colleagues under the European Textile Services Association (ETSA) umbrella and will therefore continue to work with them to adopt a common European position for the sector.
ETSA’s role
ETSA has outlined its main priorities and concerns on EU policy level. The associartion tells LCNi: “ETSA has been actively engaging with EU policymakers to advocate for the interests of the textile services industry, focusing on sustainability, circularity, and competitiveness. This will be the first full year with the new Parliament and Commission, while also bringing significant global changes and challenges. In this context, ETSA has identified several areas for increased advocacy during the first semester of 2025.
“ETSA has routinely emphasised the inherent circularity of the textile services industry and how it is built on principles such as resource conservation and waste minimisation. One of the key legislative frameworks under development by European institutions is the Waste Framework Directive (WFD). ETSA has engaged with policymakers on this issue, advocating for harmonised Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes and improved recycling infrastructure.”
Cinet Awards and World Congress
Netherlands-based CINET cooperated with 35 co-host associations around the world, about 20 country coordinators and close to 100 volunteers to get the Cinet World Congress and Global Best Practices Awards 2024 staged during Texcare 2024.
According to the organisers, 500 participants and visitors registered for the event, and around 10,000 online followers witnessed the Congress programme over two days.
Participants were inspired to meet and interact with fellow professionals which was extremely effective. In-depth discussions resulted in a wide variety of new understandings and business cards were exchanged with both dinners well attended by almost 300 people.
Round Table Talks followed six key topics, including dynamic marketing directions; overviews of the latest technologies with a short- and longer-term perspective; clear conclusions on sustainable/circular solutions; services models designed for B-2-B and B-2-C client demands, and; human resource management issues.
The 20 country coordinators produced Country Reports to provide insights in the market characteristics/ trends in Professional Textile Care (PTC) business developments. More than 40 representatives were introduced and welcomed by Cinet CEO, Peter Wennekes and IDC secretary general, Chris Tebbs. Speakers from all parts of the world shared their insights. Winners of the different categories were:
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- Au Chee Cheong of I-WASH Laundry, Singapore, Sustainability Award 2024
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- Mohd Hafizul bin Razali of LONDRI, Indonesia, Innovation Award 2024,
- Dino Kantzavelos of TSC Wetclean, Canada, Sustainability Award 2024
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- Beijing Fornet Laundry, China, Overall Award 2024
- Jad Halaoui of Washmen Laundry LCC, UAE, Innovation Award 2024,
- Maurits Tiethoff and Ruben van Pelt of DOBBI, The Netherlands, Sustainability Award 2024
The much-anticipated Growth Hacker Award worth €20,000 went to George Tsaknakis, Tsaknakis Carpet Cleaning.
