Laundry Limited: Providing Quality Mobile Laundry Services Essay.

Laundry Limited Mobile Laundry Services

Laundry Limited will be a mobile laundry business, which will commence its operations in the year 2018 in Adelaide, Australia simply as laundry service provider.It aims to become a leading global laundry service providerby increasing the number of outlets and expanding the business operations in other global nations. The business offers a wide range of laundry services, which include Laundromat, staffed laundries, fluff and fold services and dry cleaning. These provide additional alternatives to the local peopleand the tourists who are in Sandy Point for eco-tourism.

We propose to open a Laundry Limitedfranchise outlet at the commercial centre in Sandy Point, Victoria, Australia. However, the services would be provided only through mobile application to the customers.The nearest laundry outlet closest to the area is 78.5 km away at Traralgon.  Located about 200 Km south-east of Melbourne(Visit Prom Country, 2017), Sandy Point is a small coastal neighbourhood (Travel Victoria, 2017) and it is a popular tourist spot.The commercial centre at Sandy Pointhas a cafe, a generaldepartment store, miniature golf facility and real estate office on Beach Parade (Travel Victoria, 2017).There are no laundry service providers in the vicinity giving us an advantage.

Laundromat, staffed laundries, fluff and fold services and dry cleaning are the four innovative services proposed to be marketed through Laundry Limited along with four most popular services under the brand name.The ingredients are easily available, inexpensive and ideal, pocket friendly, and the customers could place orders at any point of time at any place.

Advanced laundry services, which are affordable and they are made from quality detergents and washing powders. This is effective as the customers could avail the services at any location at ny point of time.Customer Loyalty Programs, price discounts, low average wait time, pocket friendliness are all part of the USP.

Hierarchy

Centre Manager: The Centre Manager will be in charge of overall functioning of the organisation and will have the Production Team Head, The Service Team Head and the Financial Accounting Head reporting to him. He will oversee the centre operation and will be in charge of financial reporting and performance reporting to the management and ensure that the outlet provides the highest level of customer satisfaction. He will also be in charge of recruitment and training of the staff.

Production Team Head: He will be overseeing the production process. Under him will be the producing staff who will be involved in juicing of fruits and vegetables and blending of the same in various prescribed proportions to produce the productsto be served to the customers. He will also be in charge of the cleaning staff and ensure healthy and hygienic operations in line with the national food safety guidelines. The supplies and inventory management staff also report to both Production Team Head and the Financial Accounting Head.

Proposed Services by Laundry Limited

Financial Accounting Head: He will be responsible for submitting month-end financial report to the management. He will be supervising the day-to-day accounting of every transaction by the billing counter executive, the supplies and inventory management staff, bank reconciliation, reconciliation of all accounts and sending an error free final report to the management. He will also be in charge of employee payroll.

Service Team Head: Hewill be in charge of overall customer service and satisfaction. The waiting executives and customer care executive report to him. While the waiting executives serve the customers, the customer care executive takes care of any issue that may arise from any disgruntled or dissatisfied customer and should he fail to address customer grievance the Service Team Head will intervene to sort out the issue as fast as possible upholding company’s goal of providing excellent customer satisfaction.

Laundry Limited will be set up at the commercial centre and it would have the ability The customers will be served by 2 waiting executives who will take orders and pass it on to the production executives for preparation and presentation of the product

The number of services has been kept short and simple including 4 new products (mentioned in the proposed products segment). This will ensure an average wait time of 6-7 minutes for each customer.

The organisation could seek quality detergents and washing powders from the popular retail stores, which are only15 minutes’ drive away(Sandy Point Beach Escape). The ingredients are all simple and easily available to ensure the production never suffers due to shortage of any ingredient and the cost price remains low. Most ingredients are not easily perishable, which would help the organisation in maximising the quality of services to be provided to the customers. In addition, these being readily available do not need to be and should not be stored for long; thus, reducing the cost of maintaining and management of inventory.

What is more essential here is coordinating with the suppliers in such a manner that the supplies arrive on time to meet the requirements. Suppliers have been identified and negotiations completed to enter contracts on favourable terms that include speedy deliver of raw material, price discounts and short notice for delivery.

The production equipment are washing machines, detergents and other powders. These simple machineries are readily available in the market and can be easily operated by anyone without needing any significant training.

Once an order is placed with the waiting executive by the customer, it will be passed to the production team. The raw material will then be taken out of freezer and taken to the production area where juicing and blending activities will take place. The finished product will then be served glasses to the customers by the waiting staff. When the customer is finished, the cleaning staff will clear the tables and take the used apparatus to the cleaning area where all used glasses will be washed thoroughly and dried to get them ready for next use. There will also be take away counter from where customers can carry their ordered juice in disposable glasses for slightly higher charges. Please refer to Appendix 2 for the lay out and the process diagram.

Organizational Hierarchy of Laundry Limited

The investment that will be required to open a Landry Limited franchisee ranges from $240,000-$300,000 which includes an initial franchise fee of $41,000 that will grant us the license for running a business under the Mobile Laundry name (The Franchise Mall, 2017).

The other fees that are includedin the initial investment are training fees, fitout costs, equipment costs and an allowance for working capital. An initial application deposit of $2200 will have to be made which is fully refundable

The total investment requirement is $302,200 of which there will be a requirement of $132,200 as venture capital (Appendix 1).

Once operations start, there will be standing expenses of an on-going royalty amounting to 8 per cent of gross monthly revenue andan added 3 per cent of the gross monthly sales as contribution towards the Marketing Fund

The business will be profitable from the first month of its operations leveraging on the stong brand image of mobile laundry business and will generate a bottomline margin of 26 per centin the first year of its operations. Over a 3 year period margins are expected to improve from 26 per cent to 28 per cent with a topline CAGR of 10 per cent and bottom line CAGR of robust 14 per cent.

The topline is expected to increase from $78,333.75 in the first year of operation to $ 103,596.33 in the third year.The financial projections (Appendix 1) have been made on conservative basis factoring in both peak season and lean season.

The proposed store is expected to be operational within a maximum span of 2 months of acquiring the targeted plot at the commercial centre of Sandy Point. Negotiations are complete and the acquisition will conclude within a week.

The plot acquired has a one-story construction that is suitable for opening the store. The interiors will be modified according to Mobile Laundry requirements and standards.

The volume of sales is heavily dependent on tourist flow. The area is sparsely populated but there is no dearth of tourists. There are, however, peak seasons and lean seasons. The lean seasons will see significant drop in sales which will adversely impact revenues.

The organisation will offer special off-season discounts, offers and happy hours to boost sales during the lean period to ensure that the impact on topline are not significant.

Adequate safety measures such as fire safety, food safety, safe working environment etc.  will be adopted to ensure a safe environment for both consumers and employees. All necessary insurance covers will be in place to take care of employee risk and customer risk should any unforeseen event occur.

Sandy Point Beach Escape. (n.d.). Activities : Sandy Point Beach Escape. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from https://sandypointbeachescape.com.au/activities

Travel Victoria. (2017). Sandy Point: General Information. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from https://www.travelvictoria.com.au/sandypoint/

Visit Prom Country. (2017). Sandy Point : Visit Prom Country. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from https://www.visitpromcountry.com.au/towns/sandy-point