The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

SUPERWASH president Dionisio D'Aguilar yesterday said his laundromat chain could lose $400,000-$500,000 in revenue due to a fire that destroyed the roof of one of his locations, telling Tribune Business: "It's definitely a curve ball in our operations."

Mr D'Aguilar revealed that business for his laundromat chain as a whole was up 3-4 per cent over last year, but said he was now mulling whether to repair the Gibbs Corner location or continue operating there for eight month with the goal of demolishing that building around this time next year.

Mr D'Aguilar said: "It's definitely a curve ball in our operations. We are just sort of coming out of this two-year roadwork and recession nightmare, and we get hit with this curve ball, which will definitely have a substantial affect on our revenue intake.

"It's going to depend on the period for which that location is out of business, but conservatively speaking we would be out of $400,000-$500,000 worth of sales. That number could go down if the time to get up and running is minimised, but would be more if we decided that it's not cost effective to repair and wait until the new one is built."

Mr D'Aguilar said damages to the Gibbs Corner location would certainly be in the 'six figures'. "A fire commenced at 2.45am Wednesday," he recalled. "A passer-by noticed that the roof was on fire. The building is by no means destroyed. The equipment, nor the contents, were in any way damaged.

"We had actually purchased the adjacent property some time ago with the intention of building a new laundromat. While we were constructing the new building we had planned to keep the existing building open, and once we completed the new building to demolish the existing one and turn that space into a parking lot.

"The fire has thrown a wrench into those plans. We need to assess what it would cost to replace the roof and keep going. We have done the plans for the new building, but realistically we are a year away from completion, so we have to decide whether we are going to band-aid what's there now and put a new roof on, with the knowledge that we will soon demolish that building."

Mr D'Aguilar said business at his nine-strong laundromat chain has picked up this year after being flat in 2011, and down substantially in 2010.

He said: "Last year was the first time in three years that our sales had not gone down. That, to me, was a good sign that at least we had reached the bottom and there wasn't any further decline to go. This year it picked back up a little bit. We are probably 3-4 per cent up over last year."

Mr D'Aguilar said that the Road Improvement Project had a significant impact on his business. "The road improvement project affected five of our locations, and couple that with the recession, some of our locations were hit terribly hard," he added.

"For example, our Prince Charles location was devastated. That location had a substantial decrease in sales, due to a combination of the roadworks, the recession and a competitor that opened up not too far way. It was just too difficult to get to that Fox Hill Road/Prince Charles intersection. The road works prevented us from competing."

"This fire is going to knock out sales from that location, and hopefully a substantial portion for that will flow to other locations. There were about 8-10 employees at that location that could be redeployed to other locations."