A laundry investment is a 5-15 year decision.
The difference between a profitable operation and a money-losing one usually shows up before construction — in feasibility, sizing, and operating model. Most due diligence misses operational reality. I do that part.
Laundry CAPEX is hard to get right. A central laundry costs USD 5M to USD 50M to build depending on scale and equipment selection. The same building runs at very different cost-per-kg depending on layout, equipment, and operating model. Sensitivity to occupancy or utilization is brutal — a 20% drop from base case can take an IRR from 18% to negative.
I have been on both sides of laundry investments. I built the operational case behind investments at Lavndry (combined SAR 92M CAPEX), at Bubble Dream Abu Dhabi (full greenfield), at MCL Qatar (capacity expansion). I have also done operational due diligence on acquisitions where the financial model passed but the operational reality would have killed the IRR.
Most pre-investment work I see is done by financial advisors who model the spreadsheet correctly but get the operational assumptions wrong. Tunnel washer cost-per-kg, manning ratio, utilization curve, customer mix risk, equipment lifecycle. These are not spreadsheet questions. They need somebody who has signed off on the operational outcome of these decisions.
Sponsor or operator is pitching a laundry investment. Numbers look good. Market analysis looks credible. But you do not know if the operational assumptions are realistic and you do not have an operator to call.
Capacity calculations done by finance based on top-down market assumptions. Result is either over-sized (CAPEX wasted on idle capacity) or under-sized (capacity bottleneck two years in).
Target is profitable on the surface. Financial DD is clean. But there is deferred CAPEX, an aging core team, contracts with margin compression baked in, and equipment two years from end-of-life. You need somebody to walk the plant.
Should the investment own and operate, lease and operate, contract to a third-party operator, or build to lease? Different operating models have very different risk-return profiles. This is rarely modeled rigorously.
For new laundry CAPEX. Demand model, capacity sizing, operating model recommendation, financial model, sensitivity analysis, risk register. Comprehensive enough for board approval.
Specific to laundry economics. Throughput per kg, peak vs average load, manning curves, utility load, sensitivity to occupancy and customer mix.
Own-and-operate vs operating contract vs lease vs hybrid. Comparison across CAPEX, OPEX, risk, and IRR. The right model is rarely obvious.
Walk the plant, audit the equipment, interview the team, review the contracts. Tell you what the seller has not told you and what the financial DD missed.
Operating assumptions inside the financial model — manning ratio, cost-per-kg, utilization curve, growth assumptions. I tell you which are realistic and which are aspirational.
Operational architect of the SAR 30.75M productive-asset RCL Riyadh build, the SAR 11M DCL Dammam build, and the operational case underpinning the planned SAR 46.4M MCL Makkah investment.
Operational input into the JV laundry MOU with King Abdullah Economic City. SAR 53M projected mature revenue, IRR 18.9%. Mick built the operational platform that gave the partnership credibility.
Operational turnaround that took a loss-making business to bottom-line profit in 18 months while scaling capacity 4x for FIFA. The classic case of operational reality determining the investment outcome.
Tell me about the opportunity — investment thesis, stage (pre-feasibility / DD / build / acquisition), geography, and what you need an independent operational view on.
Tell me about the opportunity — investment thesis, stage (pre-feasibility / DD / build / acquisition), geography, and what you need an independent operational view on.