The Laundry Industry is expected to reach USD 70 billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6-7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) basis and yet the industry is highly unorganised and it is dominated by the local dhobis because people don’t have options, however, this scenario is changing, Anurabh Sinha, CEO of UClean in an exclusive interview with BW Retail World.
“Today, when we are talking about an industry close to USD 50 billion in size, 95 per cent of the industry is unorganised and controlled by the local dhobi,” he said.
The change is happening in the laundry industry as the market share of organised players has moved to 5 per cent from zero. However, it is still very small and because only about two and a half to USD 3 billion is controlled by the organised players, Sinha added.
While talking about UClean’s business, the CEO revealed that 90 per cent of its business in India comes from laundry, dry cleaning and shoe cleaning.
Sinha believes that the company’s biggest attraction would be amongst people that are living alone at home bachelor’s students or double-income families where a husband and wife don’t have time.
Furthermore, he highlighted that the most successful sales of his business come from non-metro cities.
“Itanagar is our best-performing store consistently for the last year and if you look at the composition of the audience at Itanagar, it is predominantly families which have washing machines at home and families that have maids at home, they’re also outsourcing their dirty laundry to UClean, primarily because it is time-consuming,” he explained.
While talking about the growth of the outsourced laundry market, Sinha said, “I think the biggest driver behind the adoption of outsourced laundry in India is that people don’t have time and because of that people are constantly seeking convenience.”
According to Sinha, UClean’s outlets in Delhi witness varying audience compositions, with student-dominated areas like the North Campus of Delhi University and Amity University contributing 80-85 per cent of the business, while areas like Dwarka see around 50 per cent of customers being bachelors and family-centric locations like Green Park, Vasant Kunj, and GK II attracting approximately 60 per cent families.
Looking ahead, the laundry company aims to grow 100 per cent YoY this fiscal year in terms of revenues as well as in terms of the number of outlets compared to the last year.
Currently, UClean has created a network of over 370 neighborhood laundry stores across 110 cities in India.
