Upon arriving in Kenya, one day, he sent some garments for dry-cleaning and had to wait in a long queue to enter their premises. Upon requesting for a one-day service, which was the norm in South Africa, the receptionist laughed and said his clothes would be ready in one week.

“He was appalled and realised the opportunity in laundry services and immediately settled on dry-cleaning business, marking the start of the company in 1952 with its first outlet in Nairobi’s Industrial Area,” explains Abdullah Seiban, the Managing Director of White Rose Dry Cleaners.

This assured him and he needed not prepare a feasibility study to establish a dry-cleaning operation. All he needed was courage, innovative thinking, well-trained employees, and of course, a commitment to work hard.

After opening the second outlet on Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue a year later, the business faced its first test during the civil unrest in clamor for independence. The business survived, only closing occasionally.

“There was huge potential among the Nairobi business community, foreigners coming for conferences, new hotels coming up and that’s how White Rose Dry Cleaners cemented its customer base,” says Abdullah.

Abdullah says that family businesses usually start off very well with the younger generations learning the trade but upon the founder’s demise, sibling rivalry kicks in and the once big thriving business begins to fall. The Keshavjee family however took steps to insulate the venture.

“Ours is a third-generation business and the company re-designed the governance structure in the 1990s where the family decided to handle over management of the business to a professional management team and with that came professionalism,” explains Abdullah.

Abdullah says that when you have brothers, sisters, uncles running the business, family feuds may come into play which may bring divisions leading to staff aligning themselves with various camps and with those divisions, the business cannot survive.

“At White Rose Dry Cleansers, staff allegiance is to the management, not to the family. The founder’s family has stepped out of the day-to-day management of the business even though we still consult with them on strategy,” he says.

He adds that when he took over, he knew exactly what the family wanted which was to take the business to the next level and generation hence could not betray that trust and that became a source of motivation.

Abdullah says dry cleaning is a unique business and White Rose Dry Cleaners’ secret to success since its inception is hinged on providing ambiance, convenience and having visibility and that if they could have remained in some of those old locations with issues like parking challenges, they probably could not have survived.

“Convenience and visibility are key in this kind of business. If you don’t have that you will not survive.”

Abdullah says that the firm’s strategy has been the same since 1952, and adds that as an entrepreneur, once you know what your brand stands for, stick with it and you will never go wrong as long as you take care of customer needs.

“Our customers expect quality and timely delivery. Sometimes money is never the problem and all they need is their garments cleaned on time with quality service,” he says, adding that once you deliver that and fashion your brand to connect with customers, you can never go wrong, and they will keep coming back.

He emphasises that with excellent customer service, a business will not go wrong even as he acknowledges that competitors may copy your model and strategy but it will never come out as perfect as the actual design and fashion of the original strategy and plan.

Abdullah admits that at times, they observe the good business practices from other companies across the world but they sit and break down them to fit White Rose Dry Cleaners way.

He adds that on product development, they’ve learned to listen carefully to the market and that was a short time in the past when they didn’t do this so well, and this error translated into a tough time for them can but can now anticipate consumer trends in the industry.

Compared to other dry cleaners where payment for services is done upon collection of the garments, the 72-year-old firm has a different approach.

“When you practice something over time, you realise there are certain areas you need to revisit or re-strategise on. We’ve been having garments left with us for long which then become a burden to us after cleaning, pressing and packaging,” says Abdullah.

He says that after conducting a study on the best model to overcome that conundrum, they realised that customers were willing to embrace upfront payment model because either way, they will still have to pay for the services. This he says has gone a long way in improving the company’s cash flow.

With the three categories of service packages – VIP, Golden Service and Blue Diamond Package, Abdullah says the strategy is to appeal to appeal to different customer segments emphasizing that at times, one has to use a particular service package to penetrate the market in a particular segment.

“Some customers want to feel special and treated well so we designed these service categories to cater for all their needs. We realised that each service package works well in certain areas than in others,” he adds, emphasizing that in affluent neighborhoods, customers don’t mind spending, but you have to give them a bit more extra than what they expect so you price those extra higher services while in other market segments, all they want is their garments cleaned with no extras.

Abdullah says that cost of power for cleaning and pressing is one of the major inputs in laundry business and its very difficult to keep up with the ever-changing power costs, so they try acquiring power efficient machines to cut down on energy costs.

“The other major expanse item is dry-cleaning chemicals which are quite expensive and with occasional global supply disruptions, stock inventory has to be high to avoid hiccups in operations and this affects cash flow,” says Abdullah.

He advises that in dry cleaning businesses, you need to keep your unit costs very clear to know the final price and if not, it could lead to a quick ending even as you keep customer value proposition very clearly and re-visit it every year to cater to new trends in behavior.

“This industry is management intensive, and being in the service industry you can’t always please everyone all the time.”

Abdullah says that even though Covid-19 pandemic hit the company massively in terms of reduced customer traffic flow with some branches having to close and supply disruptions, they have managed to grow using internally generated revenue with occasional credit a little from banks to guard against unpredictable interest rates. Current number of branches stand at 63 in Kenya and 9 in Uganda.

“We have also invested heavily in modern machines to serve hotels and Airbnb’s, separate from the main business because their demand and processes are different from the walk-in customers as they are served on short notice service,” Abdullah says.

Abdullah concludes by saying that they try to live within their means, keep investments within specified financial metrics so they are sure never to over-spend, and always have enough cash to comfortably get through any crises.