A dry cleaning business cleans, presses and finishes garments that can’t go through a regular wash, then hands them back on a set turnaround. It’s a smaller industry than it was before 2020, but still a big one. To do well today, you need the right model, a plan for EPA’s perc phaseout, and drop-off and pickup that work at any hour.
This guide covers it all, from startup costs to software. Every market figure is sourced, vendor and franchisor numbers are labeled, and product details come from our own pages.
- The industry is smaller but still big. IBISWorld counts about 27,600 US dry cleaning businesses in 2025, and Census puts 2022 revenue for dry cleaning and laundry services firms with paid staff at $7.8 billion.
- Pick your model before your equipment. A full plant, a drop store, a route, and a franchise carry very different startup costs.
- Plan around solvent rules. EPA’s 2024 rule phases perc out of dry cleaning by December 19, 2034, and new perc machines are already off the table.
- Convenience is the growth lever. Pickup and delivery, plus 24/7 locker drop-off, let customers use you outside counter hours.
- Run it on software that tags every garment, tracks every order, and texts customers when work is ready.
The dry cleaning business in 2026
Dry cleaning is a mature, local service business. Store counts are shrinking, but total sales are still large. IBISWorld counts 27,649 dry cleaning businesses in the US in 2025, down 1.3 percent from 2024 (IBISWorld). No single company holds more than 5 percent of the market, so independent owners still compete on service and convenience (IBISWorld).
Revenue took a hard hit in 2020 and has not fully come back. Census tracks dry cleaning and laundry services together (not counting coin laundries), for firms with paid staff. That revenue fell from $8.13 billion in 2019 to $5.62 billion in 2020, then recovered to $7.85 billion by 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau via FRED). Industry jobs slipped too, from about 106,900 in 2023 to 95,100 in 2025 (BLS via FRED).
What changed? Industry groups point to remote work. The Drycleaning & Laundry Institute’s CEO said some cleaners lost as much as 80 percent of their business in 2020. The National Cleaners Association said people don’t dress up for work like they used to (Bisnow, 2022). In a year-end 2024 reader poll, 56 percent of operators still named changing consumer habits as their top concern (American Drycleaner). The magazine calls that poll unscientific. Customers still want clean garments. They just want them on their own schedule.
Choose your dry cleaning business model
Your model decides your startup cost, your staffing, and how much of the solvent question you own. Most owners pick one of four.
Full plant
You clean, press and finish garments in your own building. You get the most control and the best margin per piece. You also carry the biggest build-out, the solvent permits, and the most staff.
Drop store
A small storefront takes in orders and hands them back. A central plant, yours or a partner’s, does the cleaning. Rent and equipment costs drop, and it’s a quick way into a new neighborhood.
Pickup and delivery route
A van collects from homes, apartment buildings and partner sites on a set schedule. Some owners start route-only and send the cleaning out. Route density decides whether it pays. This is what most people mean by mobile dry cleaning.
Franchise
You buy into a brand with a playbook, suppliers and marketing support. Franchise disclosures put initial investment anywhere from about $41,000 to nearly $800,000, depending on the brand and format.
Lockers aren’t a separate business model. They’re a pickup point you add to a plant, a drop store, or a route. Customers drop garments and collect finished orders any hour, and you service the locker on your normal schedule. See how dry cleaning lockers work.
How much does it cost to start a dry cleaning business?
It depends almost entirely on the model. We could not find a government or trade-association figure for dry cleaning startup costs. The ranges below come from franchise disclosures and the one independent-store estimate we found, from a software vendor. Treat them as rough planning numbers, not quotes.
| Format | Initial investment | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Independent store (vendor estimate) | $207,000 to $395,000 total, with machines at $30,000 to $100,000 | Xplor Spot, a dry cleaning POS vendor |
| Martinizing franchise | $40,900 to $796,742 | Franchise disclosure via Entrepreneur |
| Dryclean USA franchise | $261,500 to $606,500 | Franchise disclosure via Entrepreneur |
The line items that move the total most are rent and build-out, cleaning and finishing equipment, environmental permits, payroll, delivery vehicles, and software. A drop store or a route start trims the first two, which is why many new owners start there.
How to start a dry cleaning business in 7 steps
Follow these in order. Each step narrows the decisions in the next one.
Study your local market
Map the cleaners within a short drive. Note their hours, prices and pickup options, then look for gaps. Areas with long commutes and lots of renters tend to value pickup the most.
Pick a model and write the plan
Choose plant, drop store, route or franchise. Then build your dry cleaning business plan around it: services, pricing, staffing, and a 12-month cash forecast. Lenders will ask for it.
Settle your solvent and permits
Decide on a cleaning process before you buy machines. Check state environmental registration, air permits, local business licenses, and insurance. Add vehicle coverage if you deliver.
Lock in the location and equipment
A plant needs space, ventilation and utilities for cleaning and pressing. A drop store or route needs far less. Either way, plan where customers hand off and collect garments.
Set up software and garment tracking
Every garment gets tagged to its owner. Orders are counted against the invoice before they go on the conveyor (Drycleaning & Laundry Institute). Pick a system that handles tagging, routes, payments and customer texts.
Plan your pickup options
Offer more than one way in: the counter, a pickup and delivery route, and 24/7 lockers. Lockers let you take orders after close without paying anyone to wait at the front.
Launch and market it
Start with a tight service area. List the business on Google and map apps, and partner with nearby apartment buildings for pickup points. Track repeat orders from day one.
The EPA perc phaseout: what it means for your plant
Perchloroethylene (PCE, or perc) is the solvent most dry cleaners have used for decades. In December 2024, EPA finalized a rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act that phases it out of dry cleaning in stages (EPA fact sheet). EPA estimated that about 6,000 dry cleaners still used PCE, most of them small businesses (Federal Register).
Status as of October 2026: EPA asked for public comment on the rule in 2025 (Federal Register) and has said it plans to propose amendments (EPA). A July 2026 final rule moved several workplace-protection deadlines into 2027. It did not change the dry cleaning dates above (Federal Register). Check EPA’s PCE page before you buy equipment.
For a new owner, this shapes the build. You can’t run PCE in a machine acquired after June 16, 2025, so a plant built today needs a different process. Commenters on the rule pointed to professional wet cleaning as a workable alternative (Federal Register), and other non-PCE solvents are on the market. Some states set tighter rules than EPA, so compare options with your state environmental agency before you buy. A drop store or route that sends work to a compliant plant skips most of this decision.
Running the business day to day
Three things decide whether a dry cleaner runs smoothly: labor, policy, and the handoff.
Labor and counter hours
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers earn a median of $16.78 an hour, or $34,890 a year, in 2025 wage data (O*NET, citing BLS). That covers the job across all industries, not just dry cleaners. Labor is a cost you can control, and counter hours are where it leaks: someone has to be at the front for the last pickup of the night.
Unclaimed garments
Rules vary by state. New York lets cleaners donate garments left more than six months if they post the required notice (NY GBL §399-BB). North Carolina allows disposal after 90 days with certified-mail notice (N.C. Gen. Stat. §66-67). Post your policy and check your state’s law.
Turnaround and tracking
Customers judge you on two things: the work and the handoff. Promise a turnaround you can hit every time. Then make pickup easy, with a text when the order is ready and a way to collect it after hours.
Dry cleaning software: what to look for
Dry cleaning point-of-sale (POS) systems typically cover ticketing and tagging, garment tracking, route management, customer texts and email, sales reporting, and staff time tracking (American Drycleaner). Use this list when you compare options.
- Tagging and ticketing. Ties every piece to its owner and its invoice.
- Order tracking. Shows where each order sits, from intake to pickup.
- Route management. Plans pickup and delivery stops in a sensible order.
- Customer messages. Texts or emails customers when work is ready.
- Payments and reporting. Takes payment and shows sales by day, service and location.
- Locker control. Assigns doors to orders and sends pickup codes, if you add lockers.
Our laundry management software runs the locker side of the business. As listed on that page, it covers real-time order tracking, automated text and mobile notifications, multi-site support, and analytics on drop-off patterns, turnaround times and revenue.
How to grow: dry cleaning pickup and delivery, lockers and add-ons
Dry cleaning pickup and delivery reaches customers who can’t make it to your counter. Lockers do the same job at a fixed spot. Put a locker tower in your storefront entryway, an apartment lobby, or a partner site. Customers drop off and collect on their own schedule.
- Customer drops garments. They load an open locker and start the order in the app. No counter line, any hour.
- You clean and press. Your driver or store team gets a notification and clears the locker on the next stop.
- Customer collects. Finished garments go back in the locker, and the customer gets a pickup code by app.
For a route, a locker bank turns many scattered stops into one. That raises route density, which is what makes delivery pay. In our DashLocker case study, monthly sales grew from about $6,000 to $13,500 after the operator added 24/7 lockers. Results vary by market and volume. See more on pickup and delivery lockers and pickup and delivery margins.
Setup is light, per our dry cleaning lockers page. The system runs on a standard 110V outlet with ethernet or a cellular modem, so there’s no plumbing or contractor, and most sites are running in under two hours. You can add towers up to 24 lockers per controller as volume grows. There’s no revenue share and no per-order fee: you buy the hardware and pay a software subscription, so what you charge stays yours.
Other ways to grow
- Add services customers already ask for. Alterations, household items like comforters and drapes, and wash and fold raise the value of each order.
- Win steady commercial accounts. Restaurants, salons and other local businesses send uniforms and linens on a fixed schedule, which smooths out your volume.
- Price with intent. Post clear prices and review them each year against your costs, instead of matching the lowest shop in town.
Is a dry cleaning business a good investment?
Repeat local demand. Customers who trust a cleaner tend to keep coming back.
A fragmented market. No company holds more than 5 percent share, so independents can win on service (IBISWorld).
Room for add-ons. Wash and fold, alterations, and household items lift the average order.
Fewer competitors over time. Store counts fell about 1.1 percent a year from 2020 to 2025, which can leave gaps in underserved areas (IBISWorld).
Softer demand for business attire since remote work took hold (Bisnow).
Solvent rules. The PCE phaseout raises the cost of building or keeping a plant.
Labor and counter hours. Staffing the front desk all day is expensive.
Rising costs. In the same 2024 poll, 28 percent of operators named supply and energy costs as their top concern (American Drycleaner).
Our take: it can work if you compete on convenience and keep fixed costs in check. A drop store or route with 24/7 pickup points needs less capital than a full plant, and it meets customers where they already are. If you’re weighing a wash-and-fold add-on too, our guide to starting a wash and fold business covers that side.
Dry cleaning business FAQs
How much money do you need to open a dry cleaning business?
It depends on the model. One dry cleaning POS vendor estimates $207,000 to $395,000 for an independent store (Xplor Spot). Franchise disclosures run from about $40,900 to $796,742 for Martinizing and $261,500 to $606,500 for Dryclean USA. Drop stores and pickup-and-delivery routes usually cost far less than a full plant.
Is a dry cleaning business profitable?
It can be, but public profit data for dry cleaners is thin. In a year-end 2024 reader poll, 64 percent of operators reported revenue growth and 32 percent reported losing money (American Drycleaner). The magazine calls the poll unscientific. Your margin depends on volume, labor, rent and how easy you make pickup.
Do I need my own plant to open a dry cleaning business?
No. A drop store or a pickup-and-delivery route can send work to a partner plant. That lowers startup cost and keeps most solvent and equipment decisions off your plate. Many owners add a plant later, once volume justifies it.
Can dry cleaners still use perc?
For now, with limits. Under EPA’s 2024 rule, PCE can’t be used in machines acquired after June 16, 2025, or in third-generation machines after December 20, 2027. All PCE dry cleaning ends after December 19, 2034 (EPA). EPA is reconsidering parts of the rule, so check EPA’s PCE page for the current status.
What software does a dry cleaning business need?
At minimum, a POS that handles tagging, order tracking, payments and customer messages. If you run routes, add route management. If you add lockers, you need software that assigns doors to orders and sends pickup codes, like our laundry management software.
How do lockers work for a dry cleaning business?
A customer drops garments in an open locker and starts the order in the app. Your driver or store team clears it, cleans the order as normal, and returns it to a locker. The customer gets a pickup code and collects any hour. Our dry cleaning lockers page has the specs and a quote form.
Should I buy a dry cleaning franchise or start an independent store?
A franchise gives you a brand, a playbook and supplier pricing, in exchange for fees and royalties. An independent store gives you full control of pricing and service, and every decision is yours. Compare the Franchise Disclosure Document against your own plan before you commit.
Tell us about your store, your route, or the location you’re planning. We’ll help you size a locker setup and show how it fits your workflow.
Sources (20)
- IBISWorld: Dry Cleaners in the US, number of businesses (2025)
- IBISWorld: Dry Cleaners in the US industry analysis (updated Dec. 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau Service Annual Survey via FRED: revenue, NAICS 81232
- BLS via FRED: employment, NAICS 81232 (updated June 2026)
- EPA: 2024 final risk management rule for PCE, fact sheet
- Federal Register: PCE regulation under TSCA (Dec. 18, 2024)
- Federal Register: PCE and CTC compliance date extensions (July 28, 2026)
- EPA: Risk management for perchloroethylene (PCE)
- O*NET OnLine: Laundry and dry-cleaning workers, 51-6011
- American Drycleaner: Taking stock of 2024 and getting ready for 2025
- American Drycleaner: Point of sale point of view, part 1
- Drycleaning & Laundry Institute: Tracking your order
- New York General Business Law §399-BB
- North Carolina General Statutes §66-67
- Entrepreneur Franchise Directory: Martinizing
- Entrepreneur Franchise Directory: Dryclean USA
- Xplor Spot: Starting a dry cleaning business (vendor guide)
- Bisnow: Dry cleaners are pressed by ongoing remote work trends (Feb. 2022)
- Federal Register: PCE request for comment (July 30, 2025)
- EPA: Update on the TSCA risk management rule for PCE
Want to explore the full locker lineup? See our laundry locker solutions for laundromats, wash and fold, dry cleaning, pickup and delivery, and multifamily laundry amenities.
