Jordan Berry [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Laundromat News Today, where we bring you all things Laundromat related from around the world. I am America’s favorite Laundromat news anchor, according to my mother, Jordan Berry. And I’m bringing you all kinds of interesting news this week. Actually, we’ve got a lot to talk about, so we’re just going to jump right into it. And first and foremost, I’ve got a wish, a very, very happy birthday, 250th birthday to the old US of A. Happy birthday, America, and happy 4th of July. Everybody out there, if you’re watching this, listen to this. When this comes out, freedom, let it ring.

Jordan Berry [00:00:42]:
All right, let’s jump into it with we’re gonna check the Alliance Laundry holdings ticker like we normally do when we start this off, because they went public not too long ago and it’s sitting about right about even over the last week or so at about $25.86 when I recorded this, and still up over the last month, about $0.86. And from, from its IPO, its initial public offering, it’s up from about $21.40, $0.39 up to about $25.86. So it has been on the move. It’s been relatively level, though, since, you know, about mid April or so. It hasn’t really moved. Got up and down a little bit, but been mostly flat since mid April. However, with that said, it’s Alliance Laundry holdings on the New York Stock Exchange. Its rating has been improved from a B2 to a B1 rating and Moody’s rating system there.

Jordan Berry [00:01:47]:
So listen, I, I talk a lot about alliance because they’re kind of the behemoth in the industry. They’ve gone public, they’re making all kinds of moves. They’re acquiring distributors, they’re, you know, streamlining their services. They’ve got investors they’re beholden to now. So there’s a lot kind of going on with alliance, and so I want to keep an eye on it. So I wanted to dig in as alliance receives its credit ratings upgrade from Moody’s to see what are the implications here. What do we need to be paying attention to? And this is something that nobody, I don’t hear anybody talking about this. And so it needs to be talked about.

Jordan Berry [00:02:24]:
In fact, I might do a full podcast episode on this because there’s a lot going on right now. There’s a lot of implications for us, and we need to be paying attention to it. So keep an eye out for that podcast episode. Might come out soon because Like I said, there’s a lot going on and we need to be aware of what’s happening. We need to be talking about what’s happening here. So what is actually happening right now, and you know, what’s happening is alliance has been cleaning up their debt and their debt fell from $2.1 billion to $1.4 billion in 2025. And then in Q1 of 2026, they paid off another $65 million in debt. So their, their net leverage is now 2.6 times EBITDA.

Jordan Berry [00:03:14]:
So and they’re, and they’re shooting for being around that 2x mark by the end of the year. So I know you may or may not know what that even means or what any of those things means, but here’s kind of some of the potential implications that we need to be aware of. And again, I might just do a more in depth episode on this because this is important stuff here, but let me just tell you some of the implications that are our potential here. Number one and probably, you know, hits closest to home is that pricing pressure is not going away. We saw prices jump up when we had the supply chain difficulties a while back. And while a lot of other things came back down to earth a little bit pricing wise, we saw like lumber went way up, pricing came back down. You know, there’s a whole bunch of stuff like that that did not happen in our industry. Equipment costs have stayed high and I don’t think that’s going away anytime soon.

Jordan Berry [00:04:07]:
And here’s the thing is it’s not about paying off their debt because they’re strengthening their position right now and that, you know, in their, in their books and it’s, it’s not, they’re trying to pay off debt more. There’s going to be more pricing pressure here because the, the balance book actually, you know, getting that in line actually gives them more strength in order to price more confidently and not negotiate as much when it comes to pricing. So, you know, it’s worth paying attention to again, what’s happening with these guys because that, that’s, that’s our pocketbooks right here. That, that it’s hidden. Right. So, okay, so that’s one thing that we need to pay attention to. Again, I might get more into detail with some of that stuff and dig into it a little bit more trying to hit the highlights here because there is a lot to get through today. But they’re, you know, we’ve been talking about how they’ve been buying up distribution.

Jordan Berry [00:05:06]:
That vertical integration in the distribution is actually probably even a bigger story than the deleveraging Q1 we talked about. They purchased another big distributor in New York, which is a huge market over there. And what they’re, what it seems to me like they’re doing is they’re professionalizing everything, right? They’re standardizing everything. That means there’s going to be fewer independent distributors, which we’re already seeing and opportunity to negotiate is going to dwindle things are standardizing pricing, standardizing financing terms we’re going to talk about here in a second are standardizing as they control that whole sales channel. So they’re doing the financing, the distribution and obviously the manufacturing. And you know, on the positive side, there could potentially be better service and parts availability. So we’ll, we’ll see about that one too soon to tell, but I know that’s been a big pain point in our specifically the service in our industry. And I’ve actually had a lot of calls with quite a few of you guys who are interested in tackling that problem.

Jordan Berry [00:06:09]:
So if you’re interested in talking more about that, hit me up. I’d love to talk about that because I think that’s a problem that can be and should be solved. But going back to it, the third kind of highlight thing that we need to be aware of and we’re already seeing this happening, some of you guys are already seeing this is at financing terms are tightening up and that was true, that’s been true with Eastern Funding, who is an industry lender. But alliance also has been tightening and standardizing their lending terms more and more. So again, something to be aware of because that directly impacts our purchasing power as we buy new equipment, retool our stores, add larger machines, whatever we got going on there. Something, you know, this is kind of along the same lines is that, you know, and I’ve mentioned this before in the news episodes, is that, you know, alliance now is beholden to its shareholders. It needs to drive revenue and net income and that needs to continue to increase over time. They need growth over time.

Jordan Berry [00:07:14]:
And so that growth comes from us. Right. And what we’re seeing is that that pricing is not necessarily, it doesn’t seem like it’s coming from more sales from, from where I’m standing, I don’t see that necessarily happening. I see it coming from increased prices and so, you know, again, directly affects us. So something we should be aware of and talking about. And then finally, you know, they’re, they’re professionalizing stuff here. And so this is looking more and more I don’t want to use this word lightly. And you know, don’t, don’t take it too far, but it’s monopoly ish over here as a supplier because they are owning everything from manufacturing through distribution, lending and parts service, all of that.

Jordan Berry [00:08:07]:
And so you know, again, that they’re just strengthening their position in our industry. Good or bad? I don’t know. They’ve definitely had some questionable practices over the years that have negatively impacted us as owners. So again, another reason to pay attention to what’s going on, but we need to be paying attention here to what they’re doing. We need to be talking a lot more about it. Okay. That’s way longer than I normally spend on any one news story, but. And again, I might do a full episode on this because I think it’s so important, but just want to make you aware of kind of what’s going on over there with alliance from my perspective.

Jordan Berry [00:08:44]:
And if you’re from alliance and would like to talk more about this, I don’t want to paint an all negative picture here, but these are just things I’m piecing together. So if you want to, you’re out there and you’re with alliance and you want to, you know, have a conversation about that either, you know, privately or, or on the podcast or something, I would love to do that, too. So reach out Jordan J O R D a n@laundry resource.com okay, awesome. Let’s keep it moving with another big company that is moved into our industry that we’re keeping an eye on. That’s Tide Laundromats. They’re hitting Chicago hard over there, and we got to be keeping an eye on what Tide Laundry is doing again. Right now they’re still a very small player, but they’re buying chunks of. Of laundromats or building chunks of laundromats all at a time.

Jordan Berry [00:09:29]:
And it’s one of the few potential viable ways for private money to be getting in our industry. Because one big hurdle for private money getting in our industry is buying enough volume quickly enough to deploy that capital, and Tide is giving them a way to do that. So we, again, we need to pay attention to what’s happening with Ty over there and they’re moving into Chicago. So keep an eye on that. And let me just take a second to remind you that you can get links to all of these stories as long as you’re subscribed over there along my resource.com to our newsletter. The links go out and, and we’ll summarize all this here, here. Okay, let’s Get a little smaller, a little more local, into the LA market where Whisk Whisk laundry service is rolling out mobile pickup and delivery options. Again, we’ve been talking about how this part of the industry is been growing.

Jordan Berry [00:10:24]:
It’s starting to boom even more. It’s growing even faster. Just anecdotally from my observation, talking to a lot of you guys, seeing what’s happening around the country and, and you know, just seeing more about it in the news. So paying attention there. And speaking of growth, Laundromat payment system market is growing rapidly, not just in the US but worldwide overall. And there’s a, you know, brief kind of PR article that you can check out again, kind of naming, you know, the big players in the industry. CCI Laundry Works, Kia Soft esd, Spiderwash, Dexter Pay, Nayax Pay Range. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:11:06]:
Card Concepts Inc. Cci. So, you know, these are growing more and more in popularity. I’ve made my opinion on this pretty well known, that this is where the industry’s going, guys. If you’re still using quarters, there’s nothing wrong with them. I can tell you how to run your business, run your business how you want to. But the benefits in my view far outweigh any negatives of having this car card payment system or you know, digital payment systems, card app, those kinds of things. So I think that they are not only growing in popular, I think they’re becoming a necessity.

Jordan Berry [00:11:48]:
So, you know, don’t get left behind. Maybe time to start looking into it. But again, I’m not gonna tell you to run your business, but pay attention to what’s happening and then let’s head overseas to China, who this is not specifically Laundromat related, but China has developed, and there’s some other people coming out with these too, but China’s developed humanoid robots who, who are learning household chores and, and doing it. Massive AI data centers. And one of those household chores is folding laundry, which is the most time consuming and you know, least fun in my opinion. Chores of laundry and chores just in general. And we’ve talked about different robotic or robots, you know, that are, are trying to tackle this laundry folding, which is an easier said than done problem to, to solve, but people are working on it, so keeping an eye on that as well. All right, that was our segment on Spotlight on the Industry.

Jordan Berry [00:12:47]:
So let’s, you know, let’s move on to something a little lighter with laundromats and pop culture. We got a story for you here where Brooklyn Laundromats more and more are paving the way towards Being hangout spots while you’re doing your least favorite chore. And we’ve seen that over and over again. Laundry and Latte Jr. Who’s been featured, he’s been on the podcast. He was a client of mine, and he. I’ve talked about him in the news multiple times. You know, there’s laundry and latte going on over there.

Jordan Berry [00:13:22]:
There’s other cafes, bars, pizza restaurants, coffee shops. All that kind of stuff happening with laundry and really, you know, pushing the bounds of what a laundromat can look like and trying to bring the community back to laundromats, which I think is interesting. So keep an eye on that. All right. Another segment we have here is lessons from Laundromats. Let’s see what we can learn. First thing we can learn here is how to put out a fire. A woman in Australia accidentally set fire to her clothes in a laundromat.

Jordan Berry [00:14:02]:
She was trying to burn the tag off of her clothes, apparently, and it was late at night, and somehow she set her clothes on fire and locked herself out. And so she drove her car through the business’s front doors in order to be able to put out that fire. So a bizarre situation. But listen, just know, have it in your back pocket. Something catches on fire, you can always drive your car right through the front doors there. So, you know, there you go. Don’t say you didn’t learn anything this episode. Also, in pop culture, some royal love was blossoming in a laundromat where a European princess actually ran into a prince from another country, and they hit it off, started falling in love, and when she was asked about it, the princess said, listen, it looks like I’ve finally found my rinse charming.

Jordan Berry [00:14:58]:
All right, that was a joke. Didn’t happen. What kind of prince and princess are in a laundromat? The best kind. That’s the answer. Okay, I want to go over to Jamie Sewell, who’s also been a podcast guest here and is awesome in the industry, doing a lot of good. She acquired Laundry University over there and looking to make some improvements. So congrats to her. I only recently found this out.

Jordan Berry [00:15:21]:
So, Jamie, shame on you for not even telling me. I’d be super psyched to hear about that. But exciting stuff happened over at Laundry University with Jamie. And finally out of the RV park industry. I don’t know. New business model being pioneered over there where you can rent a private laundry room. So instead of sharing a laundry room at these RV parks, you can actually rent the room for an hour, two hours. Interesting.

Jordan Berry [00:15:53]:
Different business model over there. So, I don’t know, just something to kind of kick around, learning from other people, doing this business in unique ways. One of the things that intrigues me most about this industry, it’s such a simple business, and there’s so many different ways that you can run it. And this is just another example of a creative way to run this silly little business that we have of laundry and laundromats. So they’re renting laundry rooms, private laundry rooms, by the hour or two hours or however long. And that way you can do your laundry in peace and not have to fight over those washers pulling people’s clothes, clothes they left in there out and fighting about it later or waiting for somebody to come get their clothes out of the dryer. You can actually rent it out, finish your laundry in peace, and instead of, you know, paying for the wash and dryer, you’re paying for the space. Interesting model.

Jordan Berry [00:16:45]:
So just in case that, you know, got some juices flowing over there, creative juices. Want to throw that out there and shout out to those guys who are trying something new. Seems like it’s working for them. All right, that was a lot. But that’s what we got this week for Laundromat news today. Again, stay tuned for more info on Alliance Laundry, because I’m going to do probably another episode or a podcast episode on what’s happening with those guys and what we need to be aware of just to kind of spark some conversation. So if you have anything, any insight or anything you want to add, shoot me an email. Newsmatresource.com and again, if you’re from alliance and would love to chime in, [email protected] or news at laundromatresource.

Jordan Berry [00:17:27]:
Com. All right, we’ll see you in the next one.