Dry cleaning franchise: Martinizing, Lapels and Tide Cleaners costs, plant vs drop store

What does a dry cleaning franchise actually sell you?

A dry cleaning franchise sells a brand, an operating system and, depending on the model, a store design, equipment package and a cleaning plant. There are three models, and the one you pick decides whether you are buying a factory, a retail counter or a delivery route.

• Plant with retail store. You own the cleaning machines, the pressing equipment and the counter. You clean your own garments and can take in work from satellite stores and routes. It is the most expensive model and the one with real manufacturing risk: equipment, solvents, environmental rules, skilled pressers.
• Satellite or drop store. A retail counter with no cleaning equipment. Garments go to a plant (yours, another franchisee’s or a wholesale cleaner) and come back finished. Lower cost, but your margin is what is left after the plant’s wholesale price.
• Pickup and delivery route, no store. Vans, a territory and an app. You collect from homes and offices and pay a plant to clean. Martinizing calls its version Martinizing Delivers; Lapels calls it Route Only.

That third model is the one most relevant to readers of this site, because it is the same shape as a laundry pickup business or a cleaning company that adds a laundry service. Our guide on starting a laundry business covers wash and fold, pickup and delivery and the add-on model in detail; this page covers what the franchisors charge for the same thing, and what you get for it.

How much does a dry cleaning franchise cost?

Posted totals run from $40,900 for a route with no store to $796,742 for a plant with a retail store. Martinizing and Lapels post identical ranges because they are sister brands (both sites carry the Clean Franchise Brands name). Tide Cleaners and Dryclean USA post no numbers. All figures were read on the franchisors’ own sites on October 27, 2026.

How to read it:

• The fee is the small number. A $60,000 plant fee sits inside a total that is mostly equipment, build-out and lease deposits. For the route model the fee is more than half the low-end total, because there is little else to buy beyond a van and a launch.
• Net worth requirements are the real gate. Martinizing wants $350,000 of net worth for a plant and $250,000 for a satellite. If you do not clear them, the route model or an independent start is where you begin.
• Revenue claims need their Item 19. Lapels’ site cites top annual sales of $1.78 million for a plant and satellite combination, and Tide’s site says top-performing franchisees generate revenues exceeding $2 million. Both are top-of-system figures, and Tide’s asterisk points to the FDD; the disclosure document tells you the median and the costs behind them.
• Royalties are not posted by any of these brands. They are in Item 6 of each FDD, and you should know them before you compare models.

Plant, drop store or route: which model should you buy?

Buy a plant only if you want to run a small factory. Buy a drop store if you have a retail location that already pulls foot traffic. Buy a route, or build one independently, if what you want is a service business with vans and recurring customers.

Plant with store

• You control quality and turnaround, and you can sell wholesale cleaning to drop stores and routes, including other franchisees’.
• You carry the equipment, solvent handling and environmental compliance, skilled labor and a long lease. Equipment is the reason the range tops $796,742.
• It makes sense in a market with enough volume to keep the machines busy five or six days a week.

Satellite or drop store

• Cheaper to open and simpler to staff, but your margin is the gap between retail price and the plant’s wholesale charge.
• Location is everything: a counter near commuters, offices or a grocery anchor.
• You depend on the plant’s turnaround and quality for your reviews.

Route only

• The lowest cost to open and the model closest to a home services business: territory, vans, app, reminders, card on file.
• You pay a plant per piece, so the business is logistics and customer retention, not cleaning.
• It is also the model that is easiest to run without a franchise, which is the trade-off the next sections put numbers on.

Martinizing’s conversion option is a fourth path: buy an existing independent cleaner and rebrand it. Its site estimates $30,000 to $250,000 of conversion work on top of a $62,500 fee and the purchase price. If you are weighing that, our guide to buying a cleaning business covers how to value an existing operation and what to verify.

What must the franchise disclosure document tell you before you pay?

The franchisor must give you its franchise disclosure document at least 14 calendar days before you sign a binding agreement or pay anything. That is the FTC Franchise Rule, 16 CFR Part 436 (eCFR, 16 CFR 436). It prescribes 23 items; for dry cleaning, focus on these:

• Item 6, other fees. The royalty, the marketing fund, technology fees and any minimum royalty. None of the brands above post these, so this is the first page to read.
• Item 7, estimated initial investment. The table behind the ranges. For a plant, check the equipment line and whether it assumes new or reconditioned machines. For a route, check the van assumption (purchase, lease or wrap only).
• Item 8, restrictions on suppliers. Equipment, solvents, hangers, poly and point-of-sale software are often specified. For a drop store or route, ask whether you must use an approved plant and at what wholesale price.
• Item 12, territory. Whether another franchisee’s route or store can serve your customers, and whether the brand can sell online pickup in your area.
• Item 19, financial performance representations. The only place revenue or profit figures may appear. The rule allows performance information outside Item 19 only with the actual records of an outlet you are buying or as a supplement to Item 19. Top-sales figures on a website need their Item 19 context.
• Item 20, outlets. Openings, closings and transfers over three years, with the contact list of current and former owners. Dry cleaning volumes have shifted since 2020 as office dress changed; ask former owners why they left.

Our guide to cleaning business franchises walks through every item and the questions to put to franchisees. The checklist is the same for a cleaner.

Route franchise vs independent route: a worked example

In our example, a route-only franchise billing $240,000 a year pays about $120,000 to the plant and about $14,400 in royalty, leaving $105,600 before vans, drivers and marketing. An independent route with the same billing and the same plant keeps the royalty and pays about $468 a year for software.

This is a hypothetical example with round numbers, not a forecast. No dry cleaning franchisor in this guide posts its royalty, so the 6% rate is an assumption for illustration; replace it with the figure in Item 6. We assume the plant charges 50% of retail for wholesale cleaning, which is also an assumption, and that both routes have the same revenue and the same plant.

• Route revenue: $240,000.
• Paid to the plant at 50%: $120,000.
• Royalty at an assumed 6%: $14,400, charged on revenue, not on what is left after the plant.
• Left for the franchise route before operating costs: $105,600.
• Independent route: $120,000 before operating costs, minus about $468 for software such as Broombook Pro at $39 a month, and whatever you spend on marketing.

The lesson is specific to the route model: because half of revenue goes to the plant, a royalty on gross revenue is really a much larger share of your own margin. A 6% royalty on $240,000 is 12% of what the route keeps. The brand has to earn that back with customers you could not find yourself, and with a wholesale price you could not negotiate alone.

How do independents run a dry cleaning route or store instead?

Most pickup-and-delivery dry cleaning businesses are independent: a van, an agreement with a local plant, a booking page and a schedule. What you build yourself is the name, the customer base and the routine.

An existing cleaning company can add dry cleaning pickup as a service line with the same vans and the same clients, which is how many independents start. The franchise question only becomes real when you want a store or a plant.

Dry cleaning franchise vs independent: who should choose which?

Buy a dry cleaning franchise if you are opening a plant or several stores and want a tested design, equipment package and supplier program. Go independent if you are starting a route or adding pickup to a service business you already run.

A franchise can make sense if you

• Plan to own a plant and feed it with satellites and routes, and you meet the net worth requirements.
• Want store design, equipment selection and solvent and compliance training done for you.
• Are a multi-unit investor who will hire managers rather than run a counter, which is the buyer Tide’s site describes.
• Are converting an existing cleaner and want a brand to relaunch under.

Independent makes more sense if you

• Want a pickup-and-delivery business with a van and a plant agreement, for a small fraction of the posted totals.
• Already run a cleaning or laundry service with clients who would hand you their dry cleaning.
• Would rather keep the royalty and negotiate your own wholesale price.
• Want to choose your own software, pricing and services, and sell or close without a franchisor’s consent.

Before you sign anything, call current and former owners from Item 20, ask what they pay in royalties and to the plant, and have a franchise lawyer read the agreement. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice, and franchise, environmental and licensing rules differ by state.