When picking a company to take good care of that $300+ suit, the stakes can be very high. You’ll need a team that you can grow to know, like, and trust. Look no further than Deluxe Cleaners. They guarantee quality cleaning at a great price. Most, if not all, of the staff have been in the dry cleaning industry for 10 years or more. We are a local business with a high client return rate, meaning there are great lasting relationships happening here.
Meet LeeAnn Gentry!
At the head of the company is LeeAnn Gentry. She started out with a Fashion Merchandising Business Administration degree. After graduating from Marycrest College in Iowa, she was ready to go into the world of women’s retail. She opened several stores across the Midwest working with staffing and increasing business income. LeeAnn entered the dry cleaning industry with Prime Valet Cleaners in 1999. She operated 5 retail stores with 4 home pick-up delivery routes that totaled annual sales of $2.5M. After Prime Valet sold to Widmer’s in 2004, LeeAnn decided to open her own facility. Her core business was commercial/wholesale dry cleaning. She took over the Prime Valet plant and started knocking on business doors. She found that there was a need within the industry to leave the technical skill of dry cleaning to others so they could focus on customer service. In 2015, she had to move her plant and sustained her business for 11 months while waiting on the purchase of Deluxe Cleaners to finalize. It was difficult to run the business without a plant. Those 11 months went by almost causing her to give up on her dream. Her patience eventually paid off. In January 2016, Deluxe was negotiated for and started to become the place it is today!
Let’s meet the rest of the team behind the dream!
Deluxe is blessed to have such bustling business! They do on average about 120-200 articles of general dry cleaning, 200 shirts, and 660lbs of medical apparel every day. What drives such impressive numbers? It’s the staff! You will be hard pressed (Get it? “Hard Pressed”… Ha Ha! Sorry… we couldn’t resist) to find a staff that has more experienced people that love what they do than at Deluxe Cleaners.
Dora has been LeeAnn’s right-hand woman for a little over 20 years. Her presence during the tougher times was appreciated. In the photo to the right, she is showing how the pressing machines work. They seem intimidating if you are not sure what you are doing, but she has them down to a science.
Another one of Deluxes’ employees is Reggie. He’s been connected to dry cleaning ever since he learned to walk, over 45 years, through his family business. He actually loves to press pants. He also keeps the spirits up throughout the place. His humor and candor is very much appreciated, as the temperature can get up to 100 degrees or more!
A dry cleaner won’t stay in business long if they cannot remove stains. Chris does an amazing job working her magic to get out the toughest of stains.
Aidee and Idalia combined have 25 years’ experience as shirt pressers.
Another integral role behind the scenes is John, who has been delivering for LeeAnn for 14 years. He’s retired, but still works a few hours each day to make bank deposits and runs the daily delivery shuttle. He’s happy to continue with the work!
Nothing happens without a good customer service team. Tiffany, Paula and Koree as well as a few others do a great job running the front counters, making sure things run smoothly. For the Deluxe team, the average production employee has 21 years within the dry cleaning industry. During a time when there are so many careers to go into, this team has stayed loyal and happy. Is it magic? Nope! Just a great company and rewarding industry to go into! It’s all about the people. LeeAnn considers her employees her family. The tough times outweigh the frustrations, ten fold!
Moving Forward for Deluxe Cleaners
Challenges within the garment industry constantly change. Fast fashion and over production have caused brands to cut corners, resulting in inaccurate care labels, over saturation of dyes, and quality issues. None the less, Deluxe pays special attention to care labels and carefully examines each garment prior to processing. This addresses the day-to-day challenges that dry cleaners are experiencing, so that Deluxe Cleaners customers are delighted with their dry cleaning and customer service. There is lasting gratification in giving the customer the perfect finished product that really satisfies the soul.
At the end of the day, the drive of being a top professional provider within this industry gives LeeAnn the motivation to boldly move forward. She feels there will be more consolidation within the dry cleaning industry and that Deluxe Cleaners will be the go-to place in the area. So far, Deluxe’s future is looking bright, with a recent nomination for Best of the North! Stop by our wonderful local business today to support a quality outcome at a reasonable price.
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