A Behemouth, Chinese Robots, & Royal Love | Laundromat News Today, July 3, 2026 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01Welcome to Laundromat News today where
2. 0:04we bring you all things Laundromat
3. 0:07related from around the world. I am
4. 0:10America's favorite Laundromat news
5. 0:13anchor, according to my mother,
6. 0:15Jordan Berry, and I'm bringing you all
7. 0:17kinds of interesting news this week,
8. 0:19actually. We've got a lot to talk about,
9. 0:21so we're just going to jump right into
10. 0:22it. And first [music] and foremost, I've
11. 0:25got to wish a very, very happy birthday,
12. 0:29250th birthday, to the old USA. Happy
13. 0:33birthday, America, and happy 4th of
14. 0:34July. Everybody out there, if you're
15. 0:36watching this, listening to this when
16. 0:38this comes out.
17. 0:40Uh
18. 0:41Freedom, let it ring. All right. Uh
19. 0:43let's jump into it with We're going to
20. 0:45check the Alliance Laundry Holdings
21. 0:46ticker uh like we normally do when we
22. 0:49start this off cuz they went public not
23. 0:50too long ago. Um and it's sitting about
24. 0:53right about even over the last week or
25. 0:56so um at about $25.86
26. 1:00when I recorded this, and
27. 1:03um still up over the last month about
28. 1:05$0.86. And from uh from its IPO, its
29. 1:09initial public offering, it's up from
30. 1:10about $21.40,
31. 1:14$0.39
32. 1:15uh up to about $25.86.
33. 1:19So,
34. 1:19uh it has been on the move. It's been
35. 1:21relatively level though since, you know,
36. 1:24about mid-April or so. It hasn't really
37. 1:27moved. It's gone up and down a little
38. 1:28bit, but been mostly flat since
39. 1:30mid-April.
40. 1:31Um however,
41. 1:33uh with that said, uh it's Alliance
42. 1:36Laundry Holdings on the New York Stock
43. 1:38Exchange, its rating has been uh
44. 1:41improved from a B2 to a B1 rating in
45. 1:45Moody's rating uh system there. So, um
46. 1:48listen, I I talk a lot about Alliance
47. 1:50because they're kind of the behemoth in
48. 1:52the industry. They've gone public.
49. 1:54They're making all kinds of moves.
50. 1:56They're acquiring distributors, they're,
51. 1:59you know, streamlining their services.
52. 2:01They've got investors they're beholden
53. 2:03to now, so there's a lot kind of going
54. 2:04on with Alliance. And so, I want to keep
55. 2:06an eye on it. So, uh I wanted to dig in
56. 2:10um as Alliance receives its credit
57. 2:12ratings upgrade from Moody's to see what
58. 2:15are the implications here. What do we
59. 2:16need to be paying attention to? And this
60. 2:17is something that nobody I don't hear
61. 2:20anybody talking about this. And so, it
62. 2:23needs to be talked about. In fact, I
63. 2:24might do a full podcast episode on this
64. 2:27because there's a lot going on right
65. 2:29now. There's a lot of implications for
66. 2:30us. And
67. 2:33um we need to be paying attention to it.
68. 2:34So, keep an eye out for that podcast
69. 2:36episode. It might come out soon because
70. 2:38like I said, there's a lot going on and
71. 2:40we need to be aware of what's happening.
72. 2:42We need to be talking about what's
73. 2:43happening here. So, what is actually
74. 2:46happening right now? And you know,
75. 2:49what's happening is Alliance has been uh
76. 2:53cleaning up their debt. And their debt
77. 2:56fell from $2.1 billion to
78. 2:59$1.4 billion in 2025. And then in Q1 of
79. 3:032026, they paid off another $65 million
80. 3:06in debt. Um so, their
81. 3:09uh their net leverage is now 2.6 times
82. 3:12EBITDA.
83. 3:13Um so, and they're and they're shooting
84. 3:15for being around that 2x mark by the end
85. 3:17of the year. So,
86. 3:19um I know you may or may not know what
87. 3:22that even means or what any of those
88. 3:23things means, but here's kind of some of
89. 3:24the potential implications that we need
90. 3:26to be aware of. And again, I might just
91. 3:27do a more in-depth episode on this
92. 3:30um cuz this is important stuff here.
93. 3:33But, let me just tell you some of the
94. 3:35implications that are are potential
95. 3:36here. Um number one and probably uh
96. 3:40you know, hits closest to home is that
97. 3:42pricing pressure is not going away. We
98. 3:44saw
99. 3:45prices [snorts] jump up when we had the
100. 3:48supply chain difficulties a while back.
101. 3:51And while a lot of other things came
102. 3:53back down to earth a little bit
103. 3:54pricing-wise. We saw like lumber went
104. 3:56way up, pricing came back down. You
105. 3:58know, there's a whole bunch of stuff
106. 3:59like that. That did not happen in our
107. 4:01industry. Equipment costs have stayed
108. 4:02high and I don't think that's going away
109. 4:05anytime soon. And here's the thing is
110. 4:08it's not about paying off their debt cuz
111. 4:10they're strengthening their position
112. 4:12right now. Um and that you know, in
113. 4:15their in their books um and
114. 4:18uh it's the it's not that they're trying
115. 4:21to pay off debt more. There's going to
116. 4:23be more
117. 4:24um
118. 4:25pricing pressure here uh because the the
119. 4:29balance book actually, you know, getting
120. 4:31that in line actually gives them more
121. 4:33strength in order to price more
122. 4:35confidently and not negotiate as much uh
123. 4:39when it comes to pricing. Um so, you
124. 4:41know, it's worth paying attention to
125. 4:43again
126. 4:45um what's happening with these guys
127. 4:46because that that's that's our
128. 4:48pocketbooks right here. Um that that is
129. 4:51hitting, right? So, okay. So, that's one
130. 4:52thing that we need to pay attention to.
131. 4:53Again, I might get more into detail with
132. 4:55some of that stuff and dig into it a
133. 4:57little bit more. Trying to hit the
134. 4:58highlights here cuz there is a lot to
135. 4:59get through today. Um but there, you
136. 5:03know, we've been talking about how
137. 5:04they've been buying up distribution.
138. 5:06That vertical integration in the
139. 5:07distribution is actually probably even a
140. 5:09bigger story than the deal averaging.
141. 5:11Q1, we talked about they purchased
142. 5:13another big distributor in in New York,
143. 5:16which is huge
144. 5:18uh market over there and um
145. 5:22what they're what it seems to me like
146. 5:24they're doing is they're
147. 5:25professionalizing everything, right?
148. 5:27They're standardizing everything. That
149. 5:29means there's going to be fewer
150. 5:31independent distributors, which we're
151. 5:32already seeing, and opportunity to
152. 5:35negotiate is going to dwindle. Things
153. 5:38are standardizing, pricing
154. 5:40standardizing, financing terms we're
155. 5:42going to talk about here in a second are
156. 5:44standardizing as they control that
157. 5:46wholesale channel. So, they're doing the
158. 5:48financing, the distribution, and
159. 5:49obviously the manufacturing. Um and you
160. 5:52know, on the positive side, there could
161. 5:54potentially be better service and parts
162. 5:56availability. So, we'll we'll see about
163. 5:58that one. Too soon to tell, but I know
164. 6:00that's been a big pain point in our
165. 6:02specifically the service in our
166. 6:03industry. Um and I've actually had a lot
167. 6:05of calls with quite a few of you guys
168. 6:07who are interested in tackling that
169. 6:08problem. Uh so, if you're interested in
170. 6:10talking more about that,
171. 6:11hit me up. I'd love to talk about that
172. 6:13cuz I think that's a problem that can be
173. 6:14and should be solved. Um but going back
174. 6:17to it, uh the third kind of highlight
175. 6:19thing that we need to be aware of and
176. 6:21we're already seeing this happening.
177. 6:23Some of you guys are already seeing this
178. 6:24is that financing terms are tightening
179. 6:28uh up.
180. 6:29And that was true. Uh that's been true
181. 6:32with um Eastern Funding, who is an
182. 6:35industry lender, but Alliance also has
183. 6:38been tightening and standardizing their
184. 6:40lending terms uh more and more. So,
185. 6:43again, something to be aware of cuz that
186. 6:45directly impacts our purchasing power as
187. 6:48we buy new equipment, retool our stores,
188. 6:51add larger machines, whatever we got
189. 6:52going on there.
190. 6:54Um
191. 6:56Uh something uh you know, this is kind
192. 6:58of along the same lines is that, you
193. 7:00know, and I've mentioned this before in
194. 7:01the news episodes is that, you know,
195. 7:04Alliance now is beholden to its
196. 7:05shareholders. It needs to drive
197. 7:08revenue and net income, and that needs
198. 7:11to continue to increase over time. They
199. 7:12need growth over time. And so, that
200. 7:15growth comes from us, right? And what
201. 7:19we're seeing is that
202. 7:21that pricing is not necessarily doesn't
203. 7:24seem like it's coming from more sales uh
204. 7:27from from where I'm standing. I I don't
205. 7:29see that necessarily happening. I see it
206. 7:31coming from increased prices. Um and so,
207. 7:34you know, again, directly affects us.
208. 7:36So, it's something we should be aware of
209. 7:38and talking about. And then finally, uh
210. 7:41you know, they're
211. 7:45like they're professionalizing stuff
212. 7:47here and so this is
213. 7:50looking more and more I don't want to
214. 7:53use this word lightly and you know,
215. 7:55don't don't take it too far, but it's
216. 7:56monopoly-ish over here as a supplier
217. 7:59because they are owning everything from
218. 8:02manufacturing through distribution,
219. 8:04lending, and part service, all of that.
220. 8:07And so um you know, again, that they're
221. 8:10just strengthening their position in our
222. 8:12industry. Good or bad, I don't know.
223. 8:15They've definitely had some questionable
224. 8:16practices
225. 8:18over the years that have negatively
226. 8:20impacted us as owners. So again, another
227. 8:22reason to pay attention to what's going
228. 8:23on.
229. 8:24But we need to be paying attention here
230. 8:28to what they're doing. We need to be
231. 8:30talking a lot more about it. Okay,
232. 8:32that's way longer than I normally spend
233. 8:34on any one news story, but and again, I
234. 8:36might do a full episode on this cuz I
235. 8:38think it's so important, but I just want
236. 8:40to make you aware of kind of what's
237. 8:42going on over there with Alliance from
238. 8:43my perspective. And
239. 8:45if you're from Alliance and would like
240. 8:46to talk more about this, I don't want to
241. 8:48paint a all negative picture here, but
242. 8:51these are the things I'm piecing
243. 8:52together. So if you want to you're out
244. 8:54there and you're with Alliance and you
245. 8:55want to you know, have a conversation
246. 8:57about that either you know, privately or
247. 8:59or on the podcast or something, I would
248. 9:00love to do that too. So reach out.
249. 9:01Jordan j o r d a n at
250. 9:03laundromatresource.com. Okay, awesome.
251. 9:05Let's keep it moving with another
252. 9:09big company that has moved into our
253. 9:11industry that we're keeping an eye on.
254. 9:12That's Tide Laundromats. They're
255. 9:15hitting Chicago hard over there and
256. 9:19we got to be keeping an eye on what Tide
257. 9:20Laundry is doing. Again, right now
258. 9:22they're still a very small player, but
259. 9:24they're buying chunks of of laundromats,
260. 9:27they're building chunks of laundromats
261. 9:29all at a time and it's one of the
262. 9:33few potential viable ways for private
263. 9:37money to be getting in our industry cuz
264. 9:38one big hurdle for private money getting
265. 9:41into our industry is buying enough
266. 9:43volume quickly enough to deploy that
267. 9:45capital and tied is giving them a way to
268. 9:49do that. So, we need again, we need to
269. 9:51pay attention to what's happening with
270. 9:53Tide over there and they're moving into
271. 9:54Chicago. So, keep an eye on that. Um and
272. 9:57let me just take a second to remind you
273. 9:58that you can get
274. 10:00uh links to all of these stories as long
275. 10:02as you subscribe over there at
276. 10:02laundromatresource.com uh to our
277. 10:04newsletter. The links go out and uh and
278. 10:07we'll summarize all this here.
279. 10:10Um here. Uh okay, let's get a little
280. 10:12smaller, a little more local into the LA
281. 10:14market where Wisp Wisp laundry service
282. 10:17is rolling out mobile pick up and
283. 10:18delivery options. Uh again, we've been
284. 10:21talking about how this part of the
285. 10:22industry is been growing. It's starting
286. 10:25to boom even more. It's growing even
287. 10:27faster just anecdotally from my
288. 10:29observation, talking to a lot of you
289. 10:31guys, seeing what's happening around the
290. 10:32country, and uh and you know, just
291. 10:35seeing more about it in the news. So, um
292. 10:39paying attention there. And speaking of
293. 10:41growth, uh
294. 10:43laundromat payment system market is
295. 10:45growing rapidly, not just in the US, but
296. 10:48worldwide overall. And there's a you
297. 10:51know, brief kind of PR article that you
298. 10:53can check out. Um again,
299. 10:56kind of naming, you know, the the big
300. 10:58players in the industry, CCI, Laundry
301. 11:00Works, KioSoft, ESD, Spider Wash, Dexter
302. 11:03Pay, Nayax Pay Range. Uh yeah, Card
303. 11:06Concepts Inc., CCI. So, um
304. 11:09you know, these are growing more and
305. 11:11more in popularity. I've made my opinion
306. 11:14on this pretty well known that this is
307. 11:16where the industry's going, guys. Uh if
308. 11:18you're still using quarters, listen,
309. 11:20nothing wrong with that. I can tell you
310. 11:21how to run your business. Run your
311. 11:22business how you want to. Um but the
312. 11:25benefits
313. 11:27in my view far outweigh uh negatives of
314. 11:31having this car card
315. 11:33payment system or um
316. 11:36uh you know
317. 11:38digital payment systems um card app
318. 11:41those kinds of things. So, I think that
319. 11:43they are not only growing in popularity,
320. 11:46I think they're becoming a necessity.
321. 11:47So, you know, don't get left behind.
322. 11:50Uh
323. 11:51maybe time to start looking into it. Um
324. 11:53but, you know, I'm not going to tell you
325. 11:54to run your business, but pay attention
326. 11:55to what's happening. Um and then let's
327. 11:57head overseas to China who this is not
328. 12:01specifically laundromat related, but
329. 12:03China has developed and there's some
330. 12:04other people coming out with these too,
331. 12:06but China's developed humanoid robots
332. 12:08who have who are learning household
333. 12:10chores um and and doing it in massive AI
334. 12:14data centers and one of those household
335. 12:16chores is folding laundry uh which is
336. 12:19the most time-consuming
337. 12:21and you know, least fun in my opinion
338. 12:25uh chores of laundry and chores just in
339. 12:27general. And we've talked about
340. 12:29different robotic
341. 12:31uh or robots, you know, that are are
342. 12:33trying to tackle this laundry folding
343. 12:35which is an easier said than done
344. 12:37problem to to solve, but people are
345. 12:38working on it. So, keep an eye on that
346. 12:41as well. Um all right, that was our
347. 12:45segment on spotlight on the industry.
348. 12:47So, let's
349. 12:48you know, let's move on to something a
350. 12:49little lighter with laundromats and pop
351. 12:52culture. We got a story for you here um
352. 12:54where Brooklyn laundromats more and more
353. 12:59are paving the way towards being hangout
354. 13:02spots um while you're doing your least
355. 13:06favorite chore. And uh we've seen that
356. 13:08over and over again.
357. 13:10Um Laundry and Latte JR who's been
358. 13:13featured, he's been on the podcast, he
359. 13:14was a client of mine, and he
360. 13:16uh I've talked about him in the news uh
361. 13:18multiple times.
362. 13:20Uh you know, there's Laundry and Latte
363. 13:21going on over there. There's other
364. 13:23cafes, bars, pizza restaurants uh coffee
365. 13:27shops all that kind of stuff happening
366. 13:28with laundry and um really, you know,
367. 13:32pushing the bounds of what a laundromat
368. 13:33can look like and trying to bring the
369. 13:37community back to laundromats, which I
370. 13:39think is interesting. So, keeping an eye
371. 13:41on that. Um all right, another segment
372. 13:44we have here is lessons from
373. 13:46laundromats. Let's see what we can
374. 13:48learn. Uh first thing we can learn here
375. 13:51is uh how to put out a fire. A woman in
376. 13:56Australia accidentally set fire to her
377. 14:00clothes in a laundromat. She was trying
378. 14:02to burn the tag off of her clothes,
379. 14:05apparently, and it was late at night and
380. 14:08somehow she set her clothes on fire and
381. 14:11locked herself out, and so she drove her
382. 14:14car through the business's front doors
383. 14:16in order to be able to put out that
384. 14:17fire. So, a bizarre situation, but
385. 14:20listen,
386. 14:21just know, have it in your back pocket,
387. 14:23something catches on fire, you can
388. 14:24always drive your car right through the
389. 14:25front doors there. So, you know, there
390. 14:27you go. Don't say you didn't learn
391. 14:29anything this episode.
392. 14:31Um also in pop culture, uh some royal
393. 14:34love was blossoming in a laundromat
394. 14:37where a European princess actually ran
395. 14:41into a prince from another country, and
396. 14:45they hit it off, started falling in
397. 14:47love, and when she was asked about it,
398. 14:50uh the princess said, "Listen, it looks
399. 14:52like I've finally found my wrench
400. 14:54charming."
401. 14:56Uh
402. 14:58Uh uh
403. 14:59All right, that was a joke, didn't
404. 15:00happen. Uh what kind of prince and
405. 15:02princess are in a laundromat? The best
406. 15:04kind, that's the answer. Um okay, I want
407. 15:06to go over to Jamie Sewell, who's also
408. 15:09been a podcast uh guest here and is
409. 15:11awesome in the industry,
410. 15:13uh doing a lot of good. She acquired
411. 15:15Laundry University over there and
412. 15:17looking to make some improvements. So,
413. 15:18congrats to her. Um I only recently
414. 15:21found this out. So, Jamie, shame on you
415. 15:22for not even telling me. Uh, I'd be
416. 15:24super psyched to hear about that, but
417. 15:26um, exciting stuff happened over at
418. 15:28Laundry University with Jamie. And
419. 15:30finally, out of the RV park
420. 15:36industry, I don't know. Uh, new business
421. 15:40model being pioneered over there where
422. 15:42you can rent a private laundry rooms
423. 15:45instead of
424. 15:46sharing a laundry room at these RV
425. 15:48parks, you can actually rent the room
426. 15:50for an hour, 2 hours. Uh,
427. 15:52interesting different business model
428. 15:54over there. So, I don't know, it's just
429. 15:55something to kind of kick around.
430. 15:57Learning from other people doing this
431. 15:59business in unique ways. One of the
432. 16:01things that intrigues me most about this
433. 16:02industry, it's such a simple business
434. 16:06and there's so many different ways that
435. 16:07you can run it. And this is just another
436. 16:10example of a creative way to run this
437. 16:12silly little business that we have of
438. 16:13laundry and laundromats. So, they're
439. 16:16renting laundry rooms, private laundry
440. 16:19rooms by the hour or 2 hours or however
441. 16:21long. Um, and that way you can do your
442. 16:24laundry in peace and not have to fight
443. 16:26over those washers, pulling people's
444. 16:29clothes they left in there out, and
445. 16:31fighting about it later, or waiting for
446. 16:33somebody to come get their clothes out
447. 16:34of the dryer. You can actually rent it
448. 16:36out, finish your laundry in peace.
449. 16:38And uh, instead of, you know, paying for
450. 16:42the wash and dry, you're paying for the
451. 16:43space. Interesting model. So, just in
452. 16:46case that uh, you know, got some juices
453. 16:48flowing over there, creative juices,
454. 16:50want to throw that out there and shout
455. 16:51out to those guys who are trying
456. 16:52something new. Seems like it's working
457. 16:54for them. Uh, all right, that was a lot,
458. 16:56but that's what we got this week for
459. 16:58Laundromat News Today. Again, stay tuned
460. 17:01uh, for more info on Alliance uh,
461. 17:05laundry cuz I'm going to do probably
462. 17:07another episode uh, or a podcast episode
463. 17:09on what's happening with those guys and
464. 17:11what we need to be aware of. Just to
465. 17:13kind of spark some conversation. So, if
466. 17:14you have anything, any insight, or
467. 17:16anything you want to add, shoot me an
468. 17:17email [email protected].
469. 17:20And again, if you're from Alliance and
470. 17:22would love to chime in,
471. 17:23[email protected]
472. 17:25or [email protected].
473. 17:27All right, we'll see you in the next
474. 17:29one.