OSHKOSH, Wis. — The Laundry Bar is California’s newest “laundry drop and coffee stop,” according to owner Karen Marriott.
Developed in 2020 and located in densely populated Studio City, the business provides premier commercial and residential laundry service, in addition to gourmet java prepared by trained baristas.
While all the good stuff takes place in the front of the business, like grabbing that morning jolt, the dirty stuff, specifically laundry, takes place in the back.
A customized mix of Continental Girbau® equipment allows staff to quickly and efficiently process a variety of laundry, including clothing, towels, bathmats, bed sheets, duvets, table linens, comforters and more.
This allows Laundry Bar to serve both residential customers and commercial accounts, including salons, moving companies, restaurants and small hotels. Even better? Every laundry load is sanitized using environmentally friendly ozone.
HOPING TO FRANCHISE
While most of Laundry Bar’s business is drop-off, Marriott offers pickup and delivery services according to demand. She also subcontracts drop-off dry cleaning.
The plan, according to Marriott, is to ultimately franchise the coffee/laundry concept and Laundry Bar brand—an idea she’s had in her head for a number of years.
DEVELOPMENT & EQUIPMENT MIX
Marriott developed the business for success with help from Jason McAninch of Continental Girbau West, a full-service laundry equipment distributorship in Santa Fe Springs, California.
He recommended and installed a 60-pound and two 40-pound-capacity Continental E-Series Washers, three 45-pound-capacity dual-pocket Continental ProDry2 Dryers, a 13-inch Continental Express Flatwork Ironer and an Aquawing®ozone system.
Highly efficient, the equipment works to lower natural gas, water and energy consumption, as well as maximize productivity and quality.
The seamless laundry process involves collecting and keeping each client’s laundry together throughout the entirety of the laundering process. Once cleaned and ironed, it’s perfectly folded with like items and then wrapped in craft paper and tied with twine.
WASHERS MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY USING LESS ENERGY, WATER
It all starts inside a Continental E-Series Washer. The highly programmable soft-mount machines are freestanding and reach high-extract speeds of up to 408 G-force. In doing so, they remove more moisture from laundry during extract, which can shorten drying time up to 50% when compared to lower-speed hard-mount washers.
“This not only cuts natural gas costs to operate dryers, it results in drastically improved productivity,” says McAninch, “allowing Laundry Bar to get through more laundry per shift for quick turnaround times.”
Each washer is programmed by load type to precisely control water levels and temperatures, number of baths, mechanical and rotation action, extract speeds, automatic chemical injection, cycle time, and more.
This allows operators to simply load the machine, select a program number and press start. Meanwhile, ozone is automatically injected into the washer for boosted cleaning power while sanitizing laundry for customer peace of mind.
OZONE SYSTEM SANITIZES LAUNDRY
Because Laundry Bar harnesses the power of ozone, which works to relax fabric fibers and break down organic compounds, Laundry Bar saves on water heating costs. This is because ozone works best in cool water.
“Items come out softer, brighter and fresher,” says Marriott. “A lot of people who rent apartments don’t want to use their central laundries because of contamination issues. They like the idea that every load here is sanitized.”
Once washed, dry work items such as towels, clothing, blankets and comforters are dried in dryers programmed by item type. Whereas, bed sheets, pillowcases, duvets, table linens and napkins are fed by two operators directly into the Laundry Bar’s flatwork ironer.
FLATWORK IRONER DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY FINISH, PRODUCTION
As linens pass through the Continental Express Ironer, they’re automatically dried and ironed.
“A unique strap-tensioning system applies three-and-a-half times more pressure to linen than traditional roll-type ironers,” says McAninch. “This system, combined with an integrated stainless steel vacuum manifold and high Btu input, evaporates moisture quickly—making one-pass ironing possible without dryer conditioning.”
At the end of the day, the ironer helps Laundry Bar stand apart from the competition. Most vended laundries and dry cleaning facilities—Marriott’s main competition—lack ironing services.
Since opening its doors, Laundry Bar hurdled the COVID-19 pandemic with steady growth, according to Marriott, and is now firing on all cylinders.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
