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A Newry Dry Cleaners is to close after 40 years in business. County Cleaners was opened in Monaghan Street in the city by John Mackin, the father in law of present owner, Mark Wright. Wright has worked there for 15 years and took over the running of the business from Mackin just before COVID struck. During the pandemic the shop remained open but customers were few. Even though all the restrictions have since been lifted trade just hasn't returned to pre-covid levels, while costs have continued to soar.
The shutters will come down 31 January at the Monaghan Street premises. It's a far cry from when the shop was kept busy with people leaving in their 'good outfits', as well as business suits, dresses, school uniforms, towels for hairdressers and beauty salons and football team kits amongst many other items. When County Cleaners started, Christmas Eve would have been the busiest day of the year, with people calling in to collect their clothes to ensure they looked their very best over the festive season.
Wright explains "Christmas time we used to get a lot of people coming in with their good outfits. People don't really have their good outfits any more, it's a lot of cheap stuff. Young ones especially are buying cheaper clothes whereas the older generation still have their good coats and good suit. The young ones don't really have that so they're not coming into dry cleaners."
Many different initiatives and campaigns were tried at County Cleaners to boost trade unfortunately without success. He believes to survive, a business like his would need to be doing four or five things at the same time, things like dry cleaning, key cutting, shoe mending etc.
County Cleaners was part of West End Stores at the end of Monaghan Street and so much has completely changed there over the years. Gone are all the family businesses, the butchers, the blind shop, the clothes shop, the shoemakers.
There were many factors considered when the decision to close County Cleaners was taken. Electric bills have more than doubled in price, cost of supplies have increased a lot and while rates relief helped during the pandemic, that assistance has now ended. A trend towards more casual wear is obviously another contributary factor.
"It's been hard to get the business back up to the levels it was before COVID. I think there's a lot of people still working from home, business and office people who still working remotely from home. Wearing a suit to work has died down, people are dressed more casually to go to work." Wright explains.
In the current climate people are also more thrifty with their money and dry cleaning is perhaps seen as a luxury.
Doing the annual end of year accounts in December past confirmed to him, if he needed any confirmation, that spending 60 hours a week working for a low wage with family committments just isn't feasible. Even with the minimum wage he'd be better off working for someone else.
"We were doing the books just before Christmas for the accountant. It's not losing money, it's not making money, but I can't get any money out of it so there's no way for me to pay the mortgage etc. If I was working minimum wage, I'd be better off, for the hours I'm doing." he said.
County Cleaners would like to convey appreciation and thanks to all their customers for their support and friendship over their 40 years. Wright also expressed thanks to John Mackin, his father in law and the Mackin family for all their support and help over the years.
Many local family run businesses are struggling in the current climate. Please try and support them as much as you can.
