Overall Laundry Moving To Everett

DOWNTOWN

After 65 years in its downtown Seattle facilities, Overall Laundry Services Inc. is relocating to Everett.

The new $11 million plant on nine acres in South Everett is nearing completion, and the company has already begun moving, says Travis Keeler, Overall's president and son of the founder. The Everett plant, expected to be fully operational by the end of July, will employ 210 workers.

The 104,000-square-foot facility features washers and dryers that can accommodate 600 pounds of clothing; home washers wash about 30 pounds of laundry. The giant machines cost significantly more than the average home appliance, as well. Overall's commercial washers cost $90,000 each, and the dryers cost $58,000, Keeler says.

Although Overall Laundry does a lot of cleaning, the company is really in the rental business. About 99 percent of Overall's revenues are generated from uniforms and coveralls, linens, treated dust mops and other items the company rents, providing the cleaning and repairing as part of the rental contract. "It's a service business," Keeler says.

Although the Everett plant is about the same size as the downtown Seattle facility, the new plant is more economical and can do more business, because it is so efficiently built, Keeler says.

The downtown Seattle site, which was owned by Overall, was sold about three years ago to a Chicago-based real estate partnership, Keeler says. Since then, Overall has been leasing back the space.

Family-run Overall was founded by H.F. Keeler in 1920. In a 1985 leveraged buyout, Travis Keeler, 51, H.F.'s son, bought most of the stock held by other family members. Today the only other stockholder is Keeler's 88-year-old mother, he says. Keeler expects the company to remain private and in family hands.

Overall has clients from Eugene, Ore., to the Canadian border, Keeler says. Overall, with $25 million in sales, also operates plants in Tacoma and Corvalis, Ore., and employs a total of 380 workers. The company has 15,000 customers throughout the region.

Although Overall has a strong market share, Keeler is keeping an eye on competition.

The industrial laundry business is consolidating, he says. Recently Maryatt Industries, another longtime Seattle commercial laundry company, was purchased by a Cintas Corp., a giant public company based in Ohio.

Cintas, which has 91 plants in 31 states, posted sales of $322.5 million for fiscal 1991, ended May 31, and profits of $31.4 million, says Karen Carnahan, treasurer. Maryatt Industries has nine plants in four states, including Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona, she says.

It is too early to say what expansion moves Cintas may make with the acquisition of the Maryatt Industries properties. The sale, for an undisclosed price, will not be final for about 30 days, Carnahan says.

The economic climate lately has slowed industry growth. Because industrial laundry services' customers represent a broad sector of businesses, growth in the industry tends to mirror the overall economy, Keeler says. Since the beginning of last year, sales have been relatively flat, he says.

Another issue facing industrial laundries is the switch from a blue-collar, industrial-based society to a service economy, Keeler says. Industrial laundries have traditionally focused on providing overalls and other uniforms for environments where heavy soil was common.

Overall is moving into new niches, Keeler says.

For example, Overall provides uniforms for workers in high-technology clean rooms. These rooms are used in developing products that are highly susceptible to dust contamination, like semiconductors or drugs.