The dry cleaning market - Italy

1.1 Definition and presentation

Dry cleaning, or more commonly called laundry, is a store where you can take your garments to have them washed, dried, and ironed. Most people bring difficult-to-wash garments and items to the laundry such as coats, bed quilts, or fine sweaters made of wool or delicate materials, but it is also possible to wash more common garments such as T-shirts or pants. This study analyzes the two main categories of laundries viz water laundries, which involve the use of water in the washing process, and dry laundries in which industrial organic solvents are used that are used without water.

Regarding the global market, The value of the laundry and dry cleaning market is estimated to grow from $104.23 billion in 2021 to $141.50 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 6.0%.this growth is due to the increasingly competitive prices of this service and because more and more people have less time to spend at home to take care of household chores.

According to Istat data, the number of laundries in Italy in 2020, meaning the traditional ones used by most of the population, was 8069 with a higher concentration in the northern part of the country. As for industrial laundries, used by hotels, hospitals and other businesses, there were 7708 of them throughout the country located mainly in Lombardy and Lazio.

The main trend in this market is digitalization and automation. More and more laundries, in fact, are experimenting with methodologies that can provide the customer with digital service from start to finish by increasingly limiting contact with laundry staff. In addition, many laundries are giving their customers the option of tracking the status of their order through an app and also being able to choose whether to have their garments delivered or picked up at home.