The Recent Situation in the Hong Kong Laundry Industry

The laundry industry is one of the traditional industries in Hong Kong. It has a history of more than 100 years.

Usually, there are three operating models of laundry in Hong Kong daily life.

❑ Individual traditionally operated laundries

❑ Franchised and chain-operated laundries

❑ 24-hour self-service laundries

Laundry Service Models

The laundry service models are different from those in the mainland of China. There is usually dry cleaning and pound washing. Hong Kong is not big in area and people in Hong Kong are normally busy at work. As a result, people take their suits and coats to the laundry for dry cleaning and take normal clothes to the laundry for pound washing.

Different Laundries

The laundries are equipped with washers and dryers. The clothes for pound washing will be handled at the laundries. The clothes waiting for dry cleaning will be sent to the outside laundry factories for cleaning. Their customers are mainly public customers.

The process of dry cleaning in franchised laundries, chain-operated laundries, and 24-hour self-service laundries is handled by their own central laundry factories. The customers of laundry factories are mainly in the commercial market. For example, provide laundry services for the hotel, catering, aviation, and so on.

Changes

❑ Customers

In recent years, especially after the pandemic era, the working models have changed a lot. Many people work from home and their pursuit of clothes reduces. In addition, the consumption pattern of clothing has shifted to light and sportswear, so the dry cleaning business has continued to decline because of material changes, climate change, and society’s strong advocacy for environmental protection.

Ten years ago, the ratio of dry cleaning to pound washing was about 6:4. However, the ratio of dry cleaning to pound washing is about 3:7 now.

❑ Enterprises

In addition, the rent in Hong Kong and the income keep increasing, and the costs of operating an offline store become higher. Many enterprises want to open unmanned stores to save labor costs and improve profits.

● Plus, Hong Kong has a large population with relatively little land. More people in Hong Kong contribute to less living space for each person so people have no space in the house to install a washing machine. As a result, the emerging laundromats have seen explosive growth in recent years.

According to market research, the current number of laundry enterprises in Hong Kong is about 1800 and the practitioners are about 15,000. Self-service laundromats account for about 12% to 15%, that is about 200.

Difference

In mainland China, the shoe-washing business and luxury care business develop quickly. While in Hong Kong, there is still a gap in this area, which is also a business opportunity.

Compared with enterprises in mainland, China, the laundry market in Hong Kong more focuses on service quality and customer experience. While the laundry market in the mainland, China more focuses on the expansion of the scale and the control of costs.

In the following articles, the characteristics of digital marketing in the laundry industry in Hong Kong will be shared.