Maytag - Commercial Laundry Business Opportunity

Maytag® Commercial Laundry

Laundry Owner Opens Unique Card-Operated Store

Maytag equipment provides energy and water usage efficiency.

April 16, 2008

Transplanted New Orleanian Doctor and laundry owner finds new success in Gulf-Coast Mississippi with upscale, new laundry facility.

In late 1998, Dr. Eric Lucas, an emergency medicine specialist, pulled up his Crescent City roots and moved to Pascagoula, Miss., where he was already working for Singing River Hospital. This move from New Orleans included the sale of his Bullard Avenue Maytag Laundry, which he had opened as a side business in 1993. Selling this particular coin-op laundry certainly didn’t erase his interest in the commercial laundry business, though.

Seven years after Lucas and his family got settled in Pascagoula, Hurricane Katrina hit the region, flooding the dental practice of Lucas’ wife, Dr. Verna Whitfield-Lucas. The Lucases decided to build a new dental office on higher ground to lessen the potential of future flooding. They bought a piece of land across from the Singing River Hospital and built a commercial building, with 2,000 square feet for the dental practice, 3,000 square feet for retail rentals and 2,500 square feet for their new Laundromat — The Sudz Zone.

“My wife and I had observed a need for a more upscale laundry in the Pascagoula community, a clean facility with up-to-date, efficient equipment,” Lucas said. “Since I had previous experience with running a coin laundry, we decided to open the Sudz Zone in the same building, next to my wife’s dental practice.”

After overcoming 23 months of various obstacles, such as obtaining the high-priced hurricane insurance and meeting new hurricane region building codes mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), The Sudz Zone opened in August 2007.

With The Sudz Zone, Lucas has focused on providing his customers with a clean, efficient and up-to-date commercial laundry facility. All washers and dryers are card- operated, instead of coin-operated. With the card operation, customers are able to add cash value to a laundry card, through a cash transfer machine, and the card is used to pay for laundry loads. Now, customers are not forced to walk in with a bag of quarters or use a change machine to do their laundry. The Sudz Zone is the second card-operated laundry to open on the Gulf Coast. Though this is something new for most laundry customers, Lucas says that business has steadily increased since The Sudz Zone opened.

“Over the past few months, we’ve had a steady flow of customers,” Lucas said. “I was surprised at first because people are often resistant to change, but they are catching on to the whole card store concept.”

Lucas has always been a fan of Maytag Commercial Laundry equipment. The Sudz Zone features 30 energy- and water-efficient Maytag brand washers and 27 energy-efficient Maytag brand dryers, which he bought from Pierce Commercial Laundry, LLC, in Mandeville, La. Energy and water efficiency in product selection was an important issue, as it cuts operation costs and is good for the environment.

“I did my homework and looked at all the laundry equipment manufacturers, in regards to their products’ energy and water usage and decided to stick with Maytag equipment,” Lucas said. “I guess you could say I’m a green-thinking person.”

Interestingly enough, The Sudz Zone has provided a great way for Lucas to wind down from his high-stress night shifts at the hospital, especially with the laundry being so close by. He looks forward to his business growing, so he can eventually retire from the medical field and open more Sudz Zone locations.

“It’s not just an investment,” Lucas said. “I get a real joy out of spending time at The Sudz Zone working with my attendants and talking to customers. It’s been very therapeutic for me.”