By CHARLES KUMOLU
Eniibukun Adebayo is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Clean Ace Drycleaners and Launderers. A leading laundry and drycleaning outfit in the country. In this encounter, he disclosed that the company recently established a School of Dry Cleaning at its Maryland, Ikeja, office, with the hope of equipping Nigeria’s unemployed youths with dry cleaning and entrepreneurial skills. Adebayo, who is a graduate of Economics, also spoke on his journey into the world of dry cleaning.  Excerpts:

FOR someone who was privileged to have a university education, many would be surprised that Adebayo found himself washing people’s clothes after his university education.

But that was a personal decision, which he does not regret ever taking.

*Adebayo...My grandfather was a washerman for the whites who did the railways from Lagos to Oshogbo.

In fact, Adebayo, whose outfit is a multi-million naira firm, is always proud to tell anyone that he would still run same kind of business if he had the chance of making a career choice again.

According to the University of Lagos trained economist, ‘’I made that choice because it has become a legacy in our family. My grandfather was a washerman for the whites who did the railways from Lagos through Oshogbo. They employed him and trained him on how to wash their khaki uniforms, starch them well and iron them.

My father grew up to know that trade. Even though he was a chartered accountant, by the time he was retiring, he thought of the business he could do and chose to take his father’s business to another level. So, he settled for laundry and dry cleaning.’’

Elaborating further, Adebayo said: ‘’My father founded Fabricare in 1991, which was the first automated laundromat in Nigeria. The community did not welcome the business so he had to redesign it from just a laundry to a dry cleaning outfit as well.

That was how the business evolved. And because I had not gained admission then, I witnessed the whole process of the evolution of the business. That offered me the opportunity to understudy that business and know it as I do today.

‘’So, after my service year, my father asked me what I wanted to do and I told him that I wanted to do laundry and dry cleaning. He asked how I wanted to proceed and I told him we should start with what we have. I tried to re-organise the business but the polygamous background (he had seven children from five wives) did not give my father the strength of mind to release the management of the business entirely to me. Eventually, I checked out of his business and joined my first cousin in Garment Care.’’

But the hunger for success made him to quit Garment Care and subsequently founded CleanAce.

‘’I was in Garment Care for four years between 2001 and 2004 as Head, Administration and Operations. I actually resigned on December 21, 2004 to pursue my dream. I still tried to improve my father’s business but there were too many opposition. So, finally in September 2005, I started Clean Ace,’’ he stated.

Continuing, he noted that ‘’in starting Clean Ace, I was very concerned about two things –to liberate people from the ignorance of not knowing what the industry really is and that is why we are establishing a school of dry cleaning and spearheading the formation of the Nigerian Institute of Dry Cleaning. I believe that our coming together as an institute will create a better platform where experiences could be shared.

‘’Although I have held these dreams for years, I had to start and face my business and let people know that I understand the onions of the business 100 per cent. We really want to be a one-stop dry cleaning outfit. Right now, when you come to us, you can do your laundry and dry cleaning; we have tailors that can do alterations and repairs on your clothes; we have another department that does carpets and upholstery cleaning in homes; we also have a cobbling department where you can take care of your shoes and even belts. I think we have just been able to set our path right. We will be seven years in September this year and are very stable,’’ he stated.

In addition, Adebayo said: ‘’We are very proud members of various local and international organisations, which include Guild of Cleaners and Launderers, United Kingdom; International Fabricare Institute, United States of America; and a very active member of the Enterprise Development Centre of the Lagos Business School and its alumni association. Clean Ace has consistently been partaking in major exhibitions where we have displayed our innovative and qualitative clothes care services.’’

Asked how he got the funding to start the multi-million naira business, he said: ‘’Funding was a major challenge but I thank God for those who believed in the dream and the passion that I had. My starting off capital was just about two to three million naira.

I started in my house, washing the clothes with hand,’’ adding that, ‘’the start-up capital was actually raised from myself and my family and friends. The latter includes my mother in-law. Also, I had an Igbo friend who was also very instrumental to my take off.

An Igbo man that was my neighbour gave me the biggest part of my start-off capital. He saw the dream, the passion and the energy that I was vibrating and gave me money and told me to return it when I finished using it. I found out later that he sold part of his shares to be able to raise that money. Meanwhile, we went begging the banks for capital then but nothing came from them. But about a year and a half after we started, they came chasing us to open accounts with them.’’

Also speaking on why his firm recently established a dry cleaning school, Adebayo observed that the need to make the industry professionalised, in order to create jobs for the teeming unemployed population, informed the reason for the school.

‘’We have courses for people that want to work in dry- cleaning organisations and we have courses for the owners. Now, somebody that wants to own a dry cleaning outfit must have an entrepreneurship drive and must be full of passion.

Whether the person is a primary or secondary school leaver or a university graduate does not matter. But we teach the standard operating procedures to manage the business. Our grandfathers didn’t go to the university but they were industrious,’’ he noted.

Explaining further, Adebayo said, ‘’Dry cleaning is a skilled job and a lot of the skills are thought. Others are gained through observation and practice. My life tells a lot of story about the qualification. I got engrafted into it even before I went to the university. By observation, reading and asking questions, I was able to master a lot of things. So, there is no rocket science about it.

‘’We start by giving a foundation of what the industry is about in a classroom after which we go practical. A lot of our training is by video so that they can see the standard right from where it came from. The person must, however, have the right attitude; be willing to learn and be obedient. Obedience is important so that if you correct somebody over a mistake, he/she should not go that wrong way again.’’