Zoots fails
total recycling
need... The lights are on today, the staff knows nothing -- but it seems
risky to take things in there... The property sub-lease is already on the
market; see below.]
Zoots Dry Cleaning
1833 Centre St
West Roxbury, MA 02132
617-469-2202
zoots.com
===
High-concept cleaner in tatters
Backers lose millions as Zoots collapses
The Boston Globe / May 15, 2008
When Staples founder Tom Stemberg launched Zoots in 1998, during the height
of the dot-com craze, it was supposed to be at the cutting edge of all
things dry cleaning: 24/7 service and a website where customers could check
the status of orders and schedule home deliveries.
A decade later, Zoots has collapsed, closing nine stores in Massachusetts
and New Hampshire and laying off about 80 employees at a shuttered plant in
Connecticut. In total, investors lost more than $150 million in the failed
effort to build the Newton business into the nation's premier dry cleaning
operator, according to two investors who asked not to be named because of
confidentiality agreements.
At its height early last year, Zoots was one of the country's biggest
chains, with about 75 stores and roughly 115 delivery routes across eight
states, serving more than 300,000 customers. Now, the $65 million company
is in pieces, with stores and delivery routes being sold off to rivals
across the country. The private Zoots corporation, which finally turned a
profit in late 2006, dissolved quietly in April. Two former executives
bought 17 local stores and the rights to use the Zoots name.
Investors blame Zoots' unraveling on a combination of a shrinking industry,
tightening credit market, and a chief executive who left the company last
year in the middle of a fund-raising campaign, just weeks after Zoots
forgave a $500,000 loan it had made to him.
"We had the chief executive and chief financial officer abruptly leave to
take other jobs as credit problems across the industry happened," said Todd
Krasnow, the former chairman of Zoots who co-founded the company with
Stemberg. "It forced the company's hand to sell off the business. We're all
very frustrated because there was so much time and money that had gone into
the business, and it had finally turned a corner."
Stemberg, who had been a Zoots board member until the company dissolved,
declined to comment. Kyle Gendreau, the former finance officer, could not
be reached for comment.
Jim McManus, the former Zoots chief executive who left the chain last year
to run yachting business Hinckley Company, wrote in an e-mail: "In addition
to devoting 4 years of my life to Zoots, other investors might not realize
that I (unselfishly) invested and lost a substantial amount of personal
funds in the company."
McManus added: "After several years of incredibly hard work with a
management team that successfully turned Zoots' operating losses to a
profit, I was presented with an opportunity to head the pre-eminent luxury
boating manufacturer in the U.S. As a life-long boater, the opportunity to
head up Hinckley was too good to pass up."
Dry cleaning analysts say Zoots faced an uphill battle from the start,
trying to turn a mom-and-pop industry with razor-thin profit margins on its
head. When Zoots was conceived, Stemberg brought many of the principles
that had made Staples, the Framingham office supplier, a smashing success:
make it easy for customers, make it cheaper, and make it efficient. Zoots
offered 24-hour service, e-mailed invoices, and built plants that could
clean thousands of garments from its many stores and offered pick up and
delivery.
By 2002, Zoots had raised more than $50 million in capital and attracted
investors, like Unilever, a consumer products giant. But from the
beginning, the chain, as it rapidly expanded, had major trouble with
quality, spending six percent of revenue on claims for lost and damaged
clothes, about six times the industry average, according to company
officials. By 2006, Zoots had made progress with the missing items by using
permanent garment identification tags, but problems remained.
Over the years, attempts to build large dry cleaning chains with
company-run stores like Zoots have largely failed, said Bill Fisher, chief
executive of the Dry Cleaning & Laundry Institute, a trade group. Unlike
fast-food chains that standardize all the food and cooking techniques, dry
cleaners deal with thousands of different garments with unique issues on a
daily basis.
"And customers are more attached to garments than they are to a
cheeseburger," Fisher said.
Anna Whitten stopped going to Zoots in Auburndale months before the
unprofitable shop was shuttered. After Zoots ruined her faux suede winter
jacket last December, Whitten said, the store refused to offer any kind of
compensation and blamed the coat, even though it had been dry cleaned
previously without a problem. "It just seemed unbelievable that they
offered us nothing," Whitten said.
In addition, the increasing acceptance of casual work wear and technology
advances like wrinkle-free and stain-free garments has contributed to
slowing sales in recent years, according to a March report from research
firm IBISWorld. In 2008, IBISWorld forecasts the dry-cleaning and laundry
industry will generate revenue of $9.4 billion, in constant 2006 prices,
representing a decline of 2.1 percent compared to 2007.
Last year, Zoots set out to raise $16 million to infuse the business with
more capital to open more stores and pay off debts. But halfway through the
fund-raiser, McManus and the company's chief financial officer left Zoots
for other jobs. The bank lending Zoots money then cut its line of credit
because it did not have enough cash to pay debts coming due, forcing the
business to sell off its assets, according to two investors. Since last
fall, Zoots has sold stores to rivals in Virginia and Connecticut and
elsewhere.
"It was difficult to watch a company that has grown over the last 10 years
be split up," said Rick Simoneau, Zoots' former vice president of
operations and now one of two investors who purchased in March the 17 area
stores in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Simoneau moved the headquarters into Zoots' Brockton plant, and tried to
accommodate most of the several thousand customers affected by the store
closures by consolidating them at existing shops or moving them to delivery
routes.
"At least we get to stay in Massachusetts. We believe in the brand. We have
profitable stores," Simoneau said. "I want to set out and finish what we
started in 1998. I believe we can do it."
===
http://www.nationalcommercial.com/pdf/wroxbury.pdf
Available for immediate sub-lease on busy Centre Street in West Roxbury, MA.
Rare opportunity for a free-standing building with excellent visibility,
signage and drive-thru!
Locate across from municipal parking lot and commuter train. Within one
block of Roche Brothers Supermarket and Starbucks Coffee.
FOR SUB-LEASE:
Zoots Sub-lease
1833 Centre Street, West Roxbury, MA
Term: January 31, 2015
2,813 Square Feet
Available Space - 2,800 SF
Traffic Count - 19,900 ADT
Parking - 7 spaces
Availability - Immediate
Radius
Population
Avg. HH Inc.
1 mile
24,461
$81,429
2 mile
71,233
$75,675
3 mile
136,800
$78,572
For more information:
Paul Rittenberg
National Commercial Brokers, Inc.
75 Second Avenue, Suite 315
Needham, MA 02494
Phone: 781-453-0360 Fax: 781-453-0390
www.nationalcommercial.com
===
We are proud to share that ZOOTS was recently recognized by Inc. magazine
as one
of the top 50 Green companies in the USA. From skateboards to industrial
solvents to food products, Inc. found the top 50 most intriguing green
companies in various industries across the country. ZOOTS was the only dry
cleaner selected because of our continued commitment to a perc-free
cleaning process.
Thank you for using ZOOTS and supporting our commitment to offer a
healthier environment for our customers, employees, and our community.
Because ZOOTS' cleaning fluid is 100% biodegradable, you are helping to
save the planet each time you choose ZOOTS.
ZOOTS has used a perc-free, healthier cleaning process since we opened our
first store in 1998. We feel good about doing the right thing, and knowing
that we are
offering our customers a healthier and more environmentally-friendly dry
cleaning alternative.
---
Cleaners told to `green' up their act
EPA ruling forces some to end use of chemical solvent
Boston Globe
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency, more accustomed to going
after large-scale polluters like smoke-belching factories, is cracking down
on neighborhood mom-and-pop dry cleaners, forcing them to switch to greener
cleaning agents instead of relying on a powerful stain remover linked to
various health risks, including cancer.
Last month the EPA announced that many dry cleaners in urban areas must
phase out the use of perchloroethylene , a heavy-duty solvent that removes
dirt and grease from suits and jackets and sometimes leaves the familiar
chemical smell on newly dry-cleaned clothes.
The agency cited studies showing that exposure to the chemical can cause
headaches to neurological damage and increases the risk of cancer if it
seeps into the air or water...
More>>
---
Study suggests environmental links
to breast cancer in city neighborhoods...
Newton Tab
Researchers investigating elevated breast cancer rates in Newton closed
their five-year probe with a hypothesis that exposure to pesticides and
dry-cleaned clothing may put women at greater risk for the disease.
The Silent Spring Institute last week released the results of the $100,000
Newton Breast Cancer Study at a press conference at the Newton Free Library.
Among the institute's findings: Women living in three wealthy Newton
neighborhoods
with the highest breast cancer rates were more likely than other city
residents to
dry clean their clothes...