Martin Blažek had a very promising business. Together with his partner, he operated four of his own laundries within the Quickwash network of self-service laundries, two each in Prague and Pilsen.
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They invested around 15 million crowns in the course of five years until the company’s start-up in 2015 and subsequent expansion, and this year they wanted to slow down and improve services so that their investment would begin to return. A year ago, however, they set a bold plan to get one new corporate client every week, whether a small guest house, restaurant, hotel, massage parlor or sauna.
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Although it seemed bold, they managed to fulfill the plan until the summer, and even today, when almost no one is washing, they continue to persuade new customers and succeed in gaining the promise of future orders.
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“By expanding our customer portfolio by the sixth sense at the end of 2019, we were able to withstand the first wave of coronavirus, even though it cost us a lot of money and effort, and fought our way to the holidays, which brought us to zero thanks to the domestic-fueled season. From September, however, we began to fall sharply into restrictions and bans, and although we are not closed ourselves, our customers do, so we have no one to wash for, ”says Blažek.
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About two-thirds of the sales of PM Laundry, which operates four laundries, come from corporate clients. The largest part of them were hotels and boarding houses, which rounded their laundry orders to one tenth of the standard volume. Another large segment of customers – restaurants – combed orders due to their operation reduced to zero service windows, as well as reduced orders for saunas, fitness centers, beauty salons or massage parlors, hairdressers or retailers.
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In addition to the ladies from the hotels, there are only individual clients left in the laundry room, who in standard times accounted for about a third of the company’s turnover, but today it is less than half.
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“With the closure of retail and people restricting their journeys, even the last customers of ordinary citizens actually stopped coming, because half of them think we also closed, and others have a job at the home office and do not need to wash because they work. all week in one of sweatpants and a T-shirt at home, and when they go shopping, they don’t change, “Blažek describes the current reality.
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And although the laundromat has started delivering laundry, it is still looking for new customers, washing individual pieces of laundry for the remaining customers from the street and starting cleaning of shoes and handbags from Monday, its sales fell by 80 percent year on year.
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Of the fifth of the remaining income, it is not able to cover fixed costs in the amount of CZK 300,000 per month for rent, employee wages, energy and leasing. And even though she receives a 60% salary contribution under Antivirus B, she still has expenses of 230,000 crowns a month, which she spends on money set aside last year for investments.
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“During the first wave, we said to ourselves: We will give that, we still have 1.5 million in the account to buy more machines, so we will dissolve them to cover the losses. However, this money ran out and we have already paid almost 200 thousand crowns from personal money. Yesterday we sat with a companion on a bench, looked at the dryer and said to ourselves that we don’t know what to do next, “confides a businessman who turned from a part-time worker at McDonald’s into not one of the largest branches of a fast food chain in Florence director of the My department store in Liberec.
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According to him, it would help the company if it reached a similar level in the level of compensation as the gastronomic segment, to which the state contributes to employees’ wages in full during the closing period and at the same time pays half of its rents.
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“We would also need to pay rent in the middle of it, but because we have some sales, we do not demand help with employees’ wages on obstacles at work in full, but only at the level of 80 percent. In this way, we could survive until April, when it will hopefully be better and the economy will start to grow, “explains Blažek.
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According to him, the worst is to perceive the helplessness of employees. “Girls are great. They don’t complain about anything, but when they describe how they need money to run a household and a mortgage, I can’t say anything other than that I understand that and I’m very sorry. But the helplessness of people will remain in a person and they have to fight it somehow, which is very difficult, “says the owner of the laundries.
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And can’t the laundry be closed and hibernate for a while, as some restaurants do? According to Blažek, this variant is similar to the bankruptcy of a company, because it will have fixed costs, but it will also lose years of hard-earned customers, who will then miss it if it reopens. In addition to customers, he may lose experienced employees, who will then be very difficult and expensive to look for.
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“When you start confusing your customers about how and whether we work, that’s the way to hell,” he rejects this option as a possible solution to rescue Blažek.
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The Association of Laundries and Dry Cleaners (APAČ), in cooperation with the Association of Trade and Tourism, is trying to negotiate similar compensations for its members as the HORECA segment (hotels / restaurants / cafés). About three weeks ago, she was invited to a meeting with the Minister of Industry and Trade, Karel Havlíček.
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At his request, she gave him suggestions on what he expected and under what conditions. He does not want compensation on a flat-rate basis, but only for those companies that received sales from HORECA customers of 50 percent and total sales of 30 percent. He has been waiting for a response ever since. “At the moment, we only have information that, in the case of compensation and support programs, the government still refuses to recognize secondary sectors such as ours. We will continue to fight, “says Jana Puškáčová, President of APAČ.
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According to the latest survey of the association, more than 70 percent of its members face existential problems. The remaining companies will survive the crisis because they supply their services mainly to healthcare, industry and the food industry. The black scenario says that up to 50 percent of companies in the industry could end up. That would mean the end for 200 companies that employ 4,000 workers, “adds Puškáčová.
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According to her, there were 403 laundries in the Czech Republic last year, which employed 8,200 people and washed and cleaned laundry for almost 6 billion crowns.
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