By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

EMPLOYEES at Spotless Cleaners, the dry cleaning chain, were yesterday left without a job work as the company announced the permanent closure of all 10 Nassau locations.

“The closure is with immediate effect. We are closing all locations. Persons are being asked to come in and pick up their orders,” an employee told Tribune Business yesterday.

Attempts to reach the Cowderoy family, owners of the decades-old dry cleaning chain, proved unsuccessful. But Tribune Business understands that a significant fall-off in the dry cleaning business generally, the roadworks and family business succession-type issues may have all been factors in the closure decision.  

Superwash president, Dionisio D’Aguilar, said the overall market for dry cleaning services had shrunk significantly over the years.

“It’s really unfortunate; Spotless Cleaners has been around forever,” said Mr D’Aguilar.

“Things aren’t the way they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. People were much more formal and wore clothes that needed dry cleaning. As time went on, people started to dress down. There were days when you couldn’t go into a bank where everybody wasn’t wearing a suit.

“The overall market for dry cleaning has declined. I think people are buying clothes they don’t have to dry clean any more. It’s very hard to adjust that business to accommodate the change in lifestyle. Dry cleaning is an expensive undertaking, and with tough economic times people aren’t into that sort of thing any more.

“At Superwash we don’t do a lot of dry cleaning; we do pressing, which people still want done. We do it more as an add-on business to our wash, dry and detergent business.”

The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce & Employers Confederation (BCCEC) chief executive, Winston Rolle, said news of the closure was “discouraging”.

He added that apart from being a well-established business and employer, Spotless Cleaners had also been a good corporate citizen over the years.

“In its heyday Spotless cleaners did a lot in the community, and I know that Ken Cowderoy was an avid sports fan and they sponsored a lot of sporting teams and activities as well,”

he said.

“ It’s discouraging to hear what has happened but the industry has changed over the years. I don’t know how many persons they actually employed, but any addition to the unemployment numbers is sad to hear. They were rather progressive with their implementation of technology in their stores as well, so as to improve on customer service.”