Cleaner Conversations

This week on Cleaner Conversations, we talked with Chris White from America’s Best Cleaners. Chris is the owner and executive director of America’s Best Cleaners, one of the most recognized certification, consulting, and business development organizations in the garment care industry. Through ABC’s Couture Care certification, annual audits, secret shopping, accelerator calls, affiliate meetings, a...

This week on Cleaner Conversations, we talked with Ryan Fish from Red Hanger Cleaners in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ryan bought his first dry cleaning business at 23 years old with no background in the industry. Since then, he has built routes, sold a business, bought back in, led through COVID, expanded into restoration, and become one of the most respected voices in garment care. In this episode, we...

This week on Cleaner Conversations, we talked with Arika Williams from Curtis Cleaners in Lowell, Michigan. Arika started by pressing pants inside a dry cleaning plant. Now, millions of people have watched her show what really happens behind the scenes in garment care. In this episode, we get into Arika’s journey from the production floor to becoming one of the most recognizable dry cleaning profe...

Jan Barlow is the owner of Jan’s Professional Dry Cleaners in Clio, Michigan and one of the most respected voices in the garment care industry. With more than four decades of experience, Jan has served as president of DLI, earned international recognition, and built a small family business into a globally recognized operation while staying deeply connected to her local community. In this episode o...

Kermit Engh is the owner of Fashion Cleaners in Omaha and a longtime leader with Methods for Management, where he helps garment care owners and operators better understand their financials, operations, labor, and long-term business value. With experience building, buying, selling, and consulting across multiple businesses, Kermit brings a practical and straight to the point perspective on what it...

Ken Sandy is the managing partner and co-founder of Dryy Garment Care and part of FRSTeam Restoration, serving the Washington, DC metropolitan region and beyond. With a background in hospitality, real estate, technology, branding, and service, Ken brings an outsider’s perspective to an industry built on trust, relationships, and operational excellence. In this episode of Cleaner Conversations, we...

Nathaniel Dubasik has spent nearly 20 years helping dry cleaners understand automation, operations, kiosks, and the technology shaping the future of the industry. After years with Metal Progetti and firsthand experience growing up around dry cleaning, Nathaniel brings a unique perspective on what actually works inside a plant. In this episode of Cleaner Conversations, we dive into customer communi...

We sit down with Dave Coyle, one of the most respected operators and business minds in the dry cleaning industry. Dave shares the real story behind building In The Bag Cleaners from the ground up, surviving chaos, scaling through uncertainty, battling addiction while growing the company, and eventually creating Maverick Drycleaners, a community built around helping operators think bigger and lead...

We kick off Cleaner Conversation with Cohen Wills. Cohen didn’t enter the dry cleaning industry through a traditional path. What started as a concentration risk in another business quickly turned into a crash course in survival, customer acquisition, marketing, and adaptation when COVID hit shortly after entering the industry. In this episode of Cleaner Conversations, we talk through the story beh...

James Peuster, better known by many as “The Knockfather,” has spent decades helping dry cleaners grow pickup & delivery operations across the country. After thousands of ride-alongs with route drivers and years of hands-on consulting, James has seen firsthand what separates average route operations from elite ones. In this episode of Cleaner Conversations, we dive into route sales, customer se...

Major Bauknight joins Cleaner Conversations to share the story behind taking over a long-standing dry cleaning business at just 23 years old, only months before COVID changed the industry forever. In this episode, we talk through the realities of buying a legacy cleaner, rebranding Brashier Polk into Major Cleaners, surviving the uncertainty of the pandemic, scaling pickup & delivery, leadersh...