Dan Miller is starting to clean up in a slow-growth industry. Miller, 32, a former management consultant, expects to more than double sales this year at Mulberrys Garment Care, the toxin-free dry cleaning business he launched in 2009.
Dan Miller is starting to clean up in a slow-growth industry. Miller, 32, a former management consultant, expects to more than double sales this year at Mulberrys Garment Care, the toxin-free dry cleaning business he launched in 2009.
“Our revenue ‘run rate’ will be at $2.5 million to $3 million by the end of the year,” Miller said. “Our main goal is to become a leader in the dry-cleaning industry.”
He added that the company plans to expand to the Chicago area next year “to make sure this not a Minnesota-only phenomenon.”
Miller, who has nearly doubled employment over the last year to 50 people at five Twin Cities stores and an automated plant in Roseville, uses a next-generation “green cleaning” approach of pressurized carbon dioxide, a recycled industrial byproduct that is converted to a liquid solvent, instead of the standard industry chemicals.
“It’s great to be environmentally friendly, and people like that,” Miller said. “But they also want value. We’re in line with brand-name cleaners, but not bargain-basement.”
Miller, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant, said he will need outside equity investors to finance growth in 2012. Miller and his father, Bill, a semiretired technology company executive, capitalized Mulberrys in 2009 and launched with the help of a bank loan.
Mulberrys’ business model is heavy on ancillary services such as wooden hangers, recyclable opaque plastic bag, in-store Starbucks coffee and several new wrinkles designed to increase efficiency and lower cost from dropoff through the cleaning process.
“The workload is higher than being a consultant,” Miller said. “When you’re a consultant, it’s kind of like poker with matchsticks. You’re advising somebody else who is taking the risk. When it’s your business, your financial well-being is on the line.”