Uber for Laundry

We talked to Nadeem Abbas about how Love2Laundry makes doing your laundry simple, which he had to say.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Love2Laundry?

Nadeem Abbas: My love affair with laundry started back in 2014. I got the idea when I worked up to 14 hours a day in the corporate sector and did not want to spend precious spare time washing clothes. I wanted to challenge the laundry market with a new on-demand service. Love2Laundry was born, and we have processed 75k orders so far.

How does Love2Laundry innovate? 

Nadeem Abbas: We consider ourselves a disruptive technology; we are changing how the laundry or dry cleaning is traditionally done. We have developed an easy to use app, offering the ability to place orders, including specific wash preferences/settings, track order status in real-time, and make amendments as required. We offer flexible collection and return times and locations, both inside or outside of office hours, meaning customers are in complete control.No more having to lug laundry to the local launderette/dry cleaner who are more often than not located in an inconvenient location and only open from 9 to 5.Since 2014, we have expanded our coverage across London, the UK and into other major world cities. Many consider time as our most valuable asset in today’s go-go-go society, especially those leading demanding lifestyles. Yet, we struggle to find ways to free up more of it.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Nadeem Abbas: It affects our business massively as the hospitality sector, which generates our revenue of around 35%, has been hit badly. Due to lockdowns and working from home, the demand for dry cleaning is at an all-time low. However, on the other side, the awareness of keeping yourself clean means we have seen a surge in the wash, dry & fold sector. We had cut down on marketing for new customers and tried to focus on existing databases to provide the services at better rates with excellent service.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Nadeem Abbas: We had made difficult choices by cutting our marketing budget by 50%, which would have put a slight dent in our growth. However, we had used this time to re-brand the business, work on the weakness we have, restructure the business model, so we are ready to scale back when things get normal. We haven’t laid off any of our employees and try to utilize technology to enhance their work.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety? How do you project yourself and Love2Laundry in the future?

Nadeem Abbas: Keeping myself focused on the goal helps me deal with stress and anxiety. We have an open culture where we discuss the team’s issues and take every suggestion on board. This includes the outsource suppliers who work with us as well. We see a positive future as we had restructured to launch into different cities, i.e., Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Australia, and Ireland.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Nadeem Abbas: The dry cleaning industry reached its peak in the 1980s, but it hasn’t changed significantly in the decades since. So now we see our only competition as – the washing machine. We are trying to re-educate people to this new, convenient, and cost-effective way of managing their dry cleaning and laundry.

Your final thoughts?

Nadeem Abbas: We have engaged in several conversations with larger London offices and residential developments intending to collect and return directly to customers’ homes or places of work in secure, easily accessible, and conveniently placed lockers. 

We are continuously expanding our pre-qualified ‘partners’ so that our customers have the comfort of knowing they are dealing with a diligently vetted laundry and dry-cleaning company (our partners) selected to serve their postcode because of exceptional service at a competitive price. We are constantly reviewing the service provided by every partner so to ensure our high standards.

We ensure pricing is made simple and transparent, which can be confusing, especially with prices varying significantly from one company to the next. Our pricing is public, so customers know what they are paying. Add to this the loyalty program, recommend a friend, bundle packages, and other promotions we run.

We believe our business model is extremely scalable. As Love2Laundry continues to grow, our depth of knowledge and technological advancements allow us to apply what we have learned so far to strategically targeted cities worldwide, thus increasing our market penetration and market share.

Your website?

https://www.love2laundry.com/