Plant Design Awards: Special Honors, Outstanding Plant-on-Premises: Skylark Dry Cleaning

Article | January 15, 2013 | By Bruce Beggs

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Skylark Dry Cleaning employs nine full-time workers and generates $14,000 in weekly sales. (Photos supplied by Skylark Dry Cleaning/Cleaner's Mentor Consulting)

Skylark extends its blue-and-green motif throughout the building, including the lobby.

The Outstanding Plant-on-Premises is no doubt a little busier these days.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Skylark Dry Cleaning, owned by Andrew Gaspard, started with route service from a plant in an industrial area. When looking to expand, the business purchased a freestanding building to add a retail store front. Skylark offers dry cleaning, wet cleaning, alterations, in-car service, a 24-hour lobby with lockers, and retail sales from soda to soap.

The production floor in the 6,236-square-foot plant features a Union dry cleaning machine with GreenEarth, Micell CO2 dry cleaning machine, Wascomat wet cleaning equipment, and Unipress finishing and tensioning equipment and shirt units. SPOT Business Systems software is utilized for computer-assisted assembly.

Skylark employs nine full-time workers and generates $14,000 in weekly sales.

Sheldon Bray of Cleaner’s Mentor Consulting created the plant layout. McMonigal Architects served as project architect.

About the Author

Bruce Beggs

Editorial Director, American Trade Magazines LLC

Bruce Beggs is editorial director of American Trade Magazines LLC, including American Coin-Op, American Drycleaner and American Laundry News. He was the editor of American Laundry News from November 1999 to May 2011. Beggs has worked as a newspaper reporter/editor and magazine editor since graduating from Kansas State University in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications. He and his wife, Sandy, have two children.