Winning Team Cleans Up Competition

By Carol Cortright

“NO WAY were we going to give up and move back up north,” Susan McCarthy says, sitting in the comfortable office of Sun Country Cleaners’ operational plant.

Baseball fans since childhood, Susan and her sister Barbara found the strength time and again to knock it out of the park and bring their business back into the game. Today, Sun Country is the number one dry cleaning company in Pinellas County. As this industry takes a tumble nationwide, Sun Country’s growth has been climbing—seven new drop-off locations have opened and a roster of other goals are well on their way to implementation.

In the late 1970s, just out of high school with no clear plan for theirfuture, Susan and Barbara left the snowy winters of Southwick, Mass. Together, they set out to see what new adventures awaited in the land of palm trees and sandy beaches. The pair waitressed at Chief Charley’s, a popular western-themed steakhouse, until they were ready for something different. Then fate delivered them into the hands of local businessman Lou Keller.

“Lou owned a building in Belleair Bluffs,” Susan explains, “and he wondered what he could do with it. ‘Bakery? Mini golf?’ he asked. Then, ‘How about
dry cleaning?’” Back in St. Louis, he had worked with his parents in a dry cleaning business and that was what he knew. So dry cleaning it was. But what did Lou see in these two girls, barely out of high school, that convinced him to take them on as partners?

“Lou knew that we had drive and enthusiasm,” Barbara says. “And he knew we’d make it fun.” They weren’t afraid of hard work, either. “Our father was a jack-of-all-trades. He had great ambition and never feared trying something,” Susan says, crediting both parents for teaching them well.

Sun Country Cleaners opened on April 1, 1980. They chose the date on purpose. If the business failed, Lou would say it was all just a joke. The trio scurried around the county handing out coupons and opening stores. Lou delivered snacks to the employees at the drop-off locations and was equally willing to jump in and press shirts when needed.

Sun Country thrived, despite “learning everything the hard way—trial and error,” Barbara readily admits, but Lou was their rock. Susan and Barbara can’t credit their mentor enough for introducing them to the world of business and teaching them life lessons that continue to inspire them. “He was a joy, the most positive person I’ve ever known,” Susan says. “He motivates us to this day. He had such a love of life and a drive for the business.”

REALITY CHECK

In the fall of 1997, the company experienced a tragic blow. Lou suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and spent several months in the hospital. This would prove to be a difficult time for the McCarthy sisters. “(Sun Country) wasn’t in the best financial shape when it happened,” says Barbara. Susan adds, “We were growing so fast we didn’t have the foundation to support it.” Lou’s illness was a wake-up call: Do they stay in business or not?
 
Barbara says, “We’re not ones to give up. So we plotted out a long-term budget.”
They set specific goals to get out of debt and “zoned in on tasks to accomplish those goals,” says Susan.

For the next ten years, they remained dedicated to shoring up the business while caring for Lou. Wanting to keep life as “normal” as possible, a queen-sized bed was installed in his spacious office at the plant so Lou could “be at work” in between frequent bouts of rest. “We couldn’t stop working, we couldn’t walk away. So we kept Lou here with us,” says Barbara. “Our philosophy is that God never gives you more than you can handle,” says Susan.

“Truly blessed by the grace of God,” they credit their faith for giving them the courage and stamina to keep their priorities in order: “God first, family second and then business. Without God and family there is no reason to even worry about a business.”

When Lou passed away in 2007, some expected the sale of Sun Country to follow. The sisters questioned if they even wanted to stay in the business.  “When we walked back into the office, we knew our answer was yes.  We are here to stay.  Lou gave us the opportunity now it was up to us to seize the moment and make it our legacy.”

Another important mentor was the late Gene Rutherford. Well known in the dry cleaning industry, he was “full of real life experience that he gladly shared…and better yet, he was a friend,” say the sisters. Gene “stuck by us through all our growing pains, guiding us in the right direction…or, as he would proudly state, ‘getting us on the right program.’”

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?

In late 2007, the McCarthys realized they would have to address the economic issues that were spreading throughout the business sector. One thing they were adamant about: whatever happened, employees and customers would not be affected.
Susan says, “We will not use the recession as an excuse. If you keep a positive attitude, you’ll get positive results.”

They let everyone know that “we’ll all pull together and give outstanding service above and beyond the customer’s expectations. We’re going to continue to have fun and make Sun Country a place that people want to be.” There have been no pay decreases and no loss of hours. “Our customers love the routine of coming in and seeing the same faces,” says Susan. “Our employees develop relationships,” adds Barbara. “It’s not unusual to see a customer give an employee a hug.”

“We expect everyone to be responsible, make no excuses and make the best of every situation,” says Barbara. “We use a baseball team analogy: no matter what position you play, everyone’s equally important.” (How appropriate, then, that they handle the dry cleaning needs of the Tampa Bay Rays!)

While anyone can be trained to run the equipment, Barbara says they look for employees who will “smile and just be nice. Rule number one: No friction. Everyone here is working for a reason—there are bills to pay. So we’re at least going to have fun doing it.” They say it’s rewarding to be able to make positive differences in the lives of their employees. They’ve seen them through many stages of their lives, new houses, new generations—“It all becomes family.”

With 100 employees and nearly 30 drop-off locations, Barbara handles the retail side while Susan takes care of the plant. Barbara says, “What’s really cool is the way our employees take ownership: ‘Yes’ is the answer—then we’ll figure out how we’re going to do it. It’s empowering and the customers love it.”

The plant, a behemoth of a warehouse filled with rows of dry cleaning machines and shiny silver industrial washing machines, is eerily quiet after three p.m., when the last of the trucks heads out to make the final deliveries. Sun Country’s fifth-generation, closed-loop machines eliminate contact with the cleaning solvent, which is purified through a distillation process.  “We would never want to harm the environment or our employees,” says Susan. “If you use solvents with respect, you’re safe. Knowledge is a powerful tool.”

The sisters are proud that they’ve led the way in keeping their equipment state-of-the-art and environmentally sound —so much so that other companies come to their facility to see the machines in action. The future will bring more opportunity for them to serve as educational consultants and use their plant as an equipment demonstration point for a major distributor.

Rolling racks and canvas bins have stopped skating around for the day. Hangers dangle from overhead bars. Several wardrobes’ worth of apparel wait in suspended animation for the switches to be thrown at five the following morning so they can continue their laundering journey.  Special ironing presses look like giant panini grills. The big guns—the hothead presses—are used for military garments from MacDill AFB, the only Sun Country outpost in Hillsborough (though retail expansion is slated for 2010).

Then there’s the men’s style dress shirt press. The contraption looks like it would be more at home in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory than an apparel facility. Two barrel-chested torsos swing on what looks like an astronauts’ centrifuge training device. While one shirt is buttoned down around one torso and the armored plates close in to iron it smooth and crisp, the other torso waits at the loading dock, to be outfitted with the next oxford. On this machine, basic dress shirts require less handling—and since it’s a standard size, there’s no way ladies’ blouses, with their darts and flounces and variety of fabrics, would survive a ride on this thing, hence the slightly higher cost to clean them.

The McCarthys note that even through all kinds of automating, no one’s lost a job. Sun Country still relies on the human touch to make the difference. “No matter how big we grow, each garment is still handled one piece at a time,” says Barbara. Barcoded garments and automated sorting racks allow the employees to better perform the work at hand.

HITTING A HOME RUN FOR LOU

When Lou, Susan and Barbara were building the business, they discussed everything together, deciding what to do next. “We each had our own specialty; it was a beautiful combination,” Susan muses. Now, the sisters use a business coach to stay on track. “It’s great having someone from the outside that’s not caught up in the day-to-day.”

Barbara says, “It took us 29 years to learn this lesson. In fact, we thought we had our business fine tuned the best it could be.” Susan elaborates, “When we met up with John Lankford at ActionCOACH, we realized there were a lot more opportunities out there knocking, we just needed to open the doors. Now we are once again expanding…this time, the right way—with a strong foundation and smiles!”

“Learning to work ON the business instead of IN the business is harder than you think,” Barbara acknowledges. They both agree: “If we could start all over again, hiring a business coach is instrumental.”

One of most rewarding results of Sun Country’s success: Susan and Barbara are now better able to help those less fortunate. “People try to settle (the world’s problems) way out there,” Susan says, flinging her hands up, “when we know we’re only going to be as successful as our community.  Business owners can change the world just by uniting our communities.  It’s the foundation that this great country, the USA, was built on.”

Barbara mentions a cause close to their hearts, PARC, which helps the developmentally disabled: “They’ve been dealt a different deck of cards—but what people don’t realize is the unconditional love you get. A visit to PARC, seeing those children—they’ll be the joy of the day.”  In 2009, Sun Country Cleaners received PARC’s Visionary of the Year Award. One reason: the McCarthys contributed thousands of pieces of unclaimed dry cleaning to PARC for resale, with proceeds going directly toward PARC’s immediate expenses.

PACE Center for Girls, Inc., a community-based, gender-responsive prevention, diversion and early intervention program serving girls ages 12-17, is another community program that Susan and Barbara champion.  “If we can help give teenage girls who have gotten off track the opportunity to find their way back, we feel we are helping reduce the long term costs associated with teen pregnancy, substance abuse and unemployment and long term economic dependency.”  Susan continues, “It’s so rewarding to watch a young girl recreate herself and embrace her future with self confidence and self respect.”

On their accomplishments as a team: “I’m proud that we’ve taken something from zero and have grown it to this magnitude,” Susan says, reflecting on the hurdles and hard work that got them to this point. Barbara agrees with a smile: “It’s nice to be number one.”