GreenEarth Cleaning

3/30/2009

NextCleaners dry cleaning eco-friendly style - THE STUTE
Brent Caruso

With the economy as shaky as it is, it is hard for people to believe that new companies can start, let alone thrive. However, three Stevens students are not letting this get in the way of their dreams. Perry Saifi, Chris DeFreitas and Carlos Roman have started an eco-friendly dry cleaning company, known as NextCleaners. The company opened its doors in January. While their main base of operations is in Fairfield, New Jersey, they do offer their services to patrons in various areas of New Jersey and New York, including Jersey City, Hoboken and even Manhattan. NextCleaners is able to service these areas because it offers a free pickup and delivery service. This free delivery service is complemented by having consumers' clothes returned, dry cleaned and all, next day, so long as an order meets NextCleaners' pick up schedule. But, NextCleaners doesn't do just dry cleaning, it also offers regular laundering as well.

Perry Saifi is an Engineering Management major planning on graduating in 2010. He is a member of SHPE and ASEM, and played Stevens basketball team for his first two years at Stevens. Saifi took some time off from school as he worked with Lehman Brothers for about a year and a half during 2006. While working for Lehman Brothers, Saifi said Kevin Au, his supervisor, was his biggest influence for starting NextCleaners.

Chris DeFreitas is also part of Engineering Management and is en route to graduate in December 2009. As with Saifi, DeFreitas is part of SHPE and ASEM as well as being treasurer for LAA. He plays intramural softball and flag football here at Stevens as well. DeFreitas had the opportunity to intern with New Jersey Transit doing work in data analysis and marketing. His experiences there gave him the experience he needed to market NextCleaners with Saifi and Roman.

Carlos Roman is a Business and Technology major graduating with the class of 2011. He joined the Stevens community as part of the STEP program in 2004, but he was a computer engineering major at that point. After one year of studies, Roman took two years off, while he worked as an import office clerk for an import and export company in Linden, New Jersey. After those two years, Roman resumed his studies at Stevens, but as a business and technology major. "I am really trying to focus on my studies and the expansion of our business" Roman said as he explained in an e-mail that he wasn't involved in any extracurricular activities at Stevens. He saw NextCleaners as a golden opportunity and hopped on board with DeFreitas and Saifi.

Saifi, DeFreitas and Roman have taken numerous steps to make NextCleaners more environmentally friendly, not only to be a part of the global "green" campaign but to also separate themselves from competitors. By setting up a website, www.NextCleaners.com, the company offers consumers flexibility to submit their own dry cleaning pick up times. In fact, the whole process of dealing with NextCleaners is paperless, with confirmation e-mails sent to customers when NextCleaners receives and delivers their dry cleaning. Consumers are able to schedule pickups online using their e-commerce solution and have the option of itemizing their dry cleaning or having NextCleaners itemize it for them. Customers are also given the option of pointing out spots on specific pieces of clothing that need to be spot cleaned, all electronically.

To further reduce their environmental impacts, NextCleaners utilizes GreenEarth™ cleaning technology. The current products used are all petrol-based, such as Perchloroethylene (Perc) and hydrocarbon solvents which can be very harsh on clothing, the environment and if used improperly, the people handling it. GreenEarth™ cleaning is silicone based; when released into the environment, it harmlessly breaks down into sand, carbon dioxide and water. It is also safe for the people handling it, since silicone has been used as the base ingredient for many shampoos and conditioners. It even eliminates that "dry cleaning" smell on garments and leaves clothing feeling soft, with no shrinkage and very little wrinkling. NextCleaners has been using this process since they opened their doors, and Saifi, DeFreitas and Roman would like to keep it that way. One of their plans for the future is to install solar panels on all their plants and to use pedi-cabs to transport their pick-up and delivery services in high density areas such as Hoboken and Jersey City.

Currently, Saifi, DeFreitas and Roman have been personally making pickups and deliveries to their customers, but they have been looking for a way to branch out their services. The three have also been handing out thousands of flyers to spread the word about their company, as well as word of mouth. To increase their route capacities, they are offering anyone willing to set up a delivery route a piece of the profit. Their future goals consist of spreading their services further into New York as well as New Jersey. They have also been talking with many hotels and apartment buildings in the area, including the recently completed W Hotel, as well as the property management company Toll Brothers.

So how did this all get started? Saifi's father, fairly new to the business, owns two laundromats in uptown Manhattan. His father's friends had an idea about a dry cleaner offering free pickup and delivery. Saifi took the idea and went with it, "I saw it as a great opportunity," he said as he recalled the company's conception. Saifi could not undertake the company on his own and that is where Defreitas and Roman came into the picture. While Saifi handled the business end, Defreitas and Roman were busy behind the scenes with advertising ideas among other things. The trio's biggest problem came when they could not find a place using the GreenEarth™ cleaning machines to provide the service they wanted. That is how they ended up in Fairfield, New Jersey. Because the machines are expensive and didn't meet their budget, they were looking to find someone who owned them already and come to an agreement. Another major issue encountered with the start up of the company is their website maintenance; all systems need to be properly maintained, and if they are not working properly then their company can come to a standstill.

So why would people switch from the usual local "mom and pop" shops? Saifi noted that, while consumers may feel a level of comfort with their curent provider, Saifi, DeFreitas and Roman know that NextCleaners can offer a higher level of quality and satisfaction. They also agree that "those who become customers though their website and use the GreenEarth™ cleaning solutions will be assured a better dry cleaned item, and the most positive and convenient dry cleaning experience that will benefit themselves along with the environment."

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