JPB Capital Partners announced a strategic investment in Value Drycleaners of America, LLC, the parent company of ZIPS Franchising, LLC, (“ZIPS”), one of the largest franchisors of retail dry cleaners in the Mid-Atlantic region. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
ZIPS began in 1996 with a group of eight dry cleaners in the Baltimore-Washington region and has grown to 36 franchise operations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. ZIPS offers dry cleaning and laundry services to customers according to a differentiated system including on-premise cleaning, competitive flat-rate pricing, same-day services, and, a highly efficient, integrated production process.
“We believe that ZIPS has created great brand awareness and a unique model within the dry cleaning industry,” stated Jim Bolduc, Senior Managing Director of JPB Capital Partners. “With this foundation in place, and the combination of our capital and our team’s knowledge and experience in both retail and franchise operations, we believe that we can move the concept through its next phase of growth including improved execution of the existing system and further geographic expansion of the concept.”
“The investment from JPB Capital Partners will enable us to achieve our long-term vision for the brand and the concept,” said Brett Vago, one of the original ZIPS members and a director of ZIPS. “We are very excited about joining forces with the JPB team to leverage their track record and experience in growing both retail and franchised businesses with our knowledge of the dry cleaning industry.”
The investment was funded with equity from JPB Capital Partners III, L.P. the firm’s third and most recent private equity fund. Three members of the JPB team—Jim Bolduc, Greg Carey and Mark Rohde—will join Brett Vago, Dennis McMahon and Theresa Casiello on the ZIPS board of directors, as will Robert Barry, the current CEO of The Greene Turtle Franchising Corporation (a portfolio company of JPB Capital Partners II, L.P.).
April 8, 2013