RALEIGH, N.C. — Financial information company Sageworks reports that privately owned dry cleaners and launderers anticipating higher costs for hangers due to anti-dumping tariffs are either not yet seeing a major impact or are somehow offsetting the additional costs, based on preliminary analysis.
Trade rulings this summer regarding steel wire hangers made in Vietnam as well as similar tariffs on hangers made in Taiwan could push hanger costs higher.
“Whatever may happen to their costs going forward, our data doesn’t show that increasing costs have been much of a problem for private dry cleaners or laundry services in the past few years,” says Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman. “Profit margins have been increasing or at least holding steady for the past few years.”
There has been an emphasis on recycling programs to help alleviate cleaners’ hanger expenses. For example, members of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute have reportedly recycled 25 million hangers.
