When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Economy

The Uberization Of Dry Cleaning, New Apps Deliver As Old Model Shrinks

Startups are shaking up the dry cleaning industry by offering more convenient options for customers. The industry, which has shrunk by half in the last few decades, is also coping with gradual limits placed on using a common cleaning substance.

Dry cleaning 2.0: soyezBCBG founders in Paris
Dry cleaning 2.0: soyezBCBG founders in Paris
Marion Kindermans

PARIS — Imagine dry cleaners with no physical location, tickets or visible irons. After taxis and banks, this sector is the latest to be Uberized.

Cleanio, a fledgling Parisian startup with five employees, was launched in March 2014 with the idea of ending the endless queues in local dry cleaners. With one click, on its website or via the app, it's possible to schedule the pick-up of clothes, which are returned, cleaned and ironed, 24 to 48 hours later. It operates seven days a week until 11 p.m. To do that, the company is creating partnerships with dry cleaners all over the capital. Rapidity and flexibility are the goals to match the modern habits of customers.

Locally launched mobile app services in Europe follow those like Washio, which has expanded to six U.S. cities. Several French companies are stepping into this realm of dry cleaning 2.0: soyezBCBG, La Cleanbox, Decompressing. The historic leader in the field, 5àSec, understood that it too, had to get up to speed, offering more convenient options for customers. The company will release an app for smartphones in early 2016.

"There are needs in the cleaning field," says Nicolas Boucault, the new head of 5àSec. "But we have to create new types of dry cleaning, like Uber did with taxis. This type of structure will allow the industry to bounce back."

The heavyweight even swallowed Groom Box, which specialized in concierge services for companies, another cleaning niche that is expanding. Dry cleaners must change because the industry has been tumbling for a good 50 years. The network shrunk from about 12,000 shops in the 1970s to 5,000 today. It's a question of survival.

The regulatory constraints, made in March 2013 and reinforced in September 2014, have worsened the difficulties for the industry, whose profit margins were already weak. To eradicate the use of Tetrachloroethylene, the carcinogenic chemical also known as "perc," machines working with this solvent are set to gradually and definitively disappear by 2022.

There's still work to do. According to the French federation for dry cleaners and laundries, 50% of the machines will have been replaced by the end of this year, and a good half by wet cleaning products (and another part by alternative solvents). And this transformation is anything but benign. A number of small artisans, often independent, have closed down because they were unable to adapt.

"The "perc" ban accelerated the closing down of shops," says Olivier Risse, president of the federation. He says that 10% of dry cleaners have disappeared every year because of the change in technology. "The investments needed are big, even though there are state grants," he says, adding that the grants cover 40% to 70% of the purchase of a new wet cleaning machine, depending on the region. In the case of alternative solvents, this figure drops to 15-30%.

The Ministry of Ecology says that, as of June 30, 2015, the government had spent 13.2 million euros in subsidies to help dry cleaners to replace their machines.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Geopolitics

U.S., France, Israel: How Three Model Democracies Are Coming Unglued

France, Israel, United States: these three democracies all face their own distinct problems. But these problems are revealing disturbing cracks in society that pose a real danger to hard-earned progress that won't be easily regained.

Image of a crowd of protestors holding Israeli flags and a woman speaking into a megaphone

Israeli anti-government protesters take to the streets in Tel-Aviv, after Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Galant.

Dominique Moïsi

"I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat," reads the t-shirt of a Republican Party supporter in the U.S.

"We need to bring the French economy to its knees," announces the leader of the French union Confédération Générale du Travail.

"Let's end the power of the Supreme Court filled with leftist and pro-Palestinian Ashkenazis," say Israeli government cabinet ministers pushing extreme judicial reforms

The United States, France, Israel: three countries, three continents, three situations that have nothing to do with each other. But each country appears to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown of what seemed like solid democracies.

How can we explain these political excesses, irrational proclamations, even suicidal tendencies?

The answer seems simple: in the United States, in France, in Israel — far from an exhaustive list — democracy is facing the challenge of society's ever-greater polarization. We can manage the competition of ideas and opposing interests. But how to respond to rage, even hatred, borne of a sense of injustice and humiliation?

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest