Start a Tide Cleaners Franchise in 2025

2025 Franchise 500 Rank: #337 Ranked #394 last year

Initial investment: $710K - $1.5M

Units as of 2024: 246 8.4% over 3 years

Tide Cleaners is an American dry cleaning and laundry service company. Founded in 2008, they specialize in reinventing cleaning through service, experience, and technology. After beginning to franchise in 2009, they have grown to over 170 locations across the U.S. They are one of the largest laundry services in the country.

As you run your franchise, you’ll work with a professional and well-trained crew to provide the best service to your community. The perfect candidate for a Tide Cleaners franchisee has a passion for business and making life easier for the community around them.

Why You May Want to Start a Tide Cleaners Franchise

Running a Tide Cleaners franchise means you will be providing several essential services to the community, including wash & fold laundry, weekend cleaning services, alterations, and dry cleaning. Your cleaning company franchise will be responsible for ensuring people have clean, fresh clothes. As a Tide Cleaners franchisee, you will be enabling people to live less stressful lives.

Part of Tide cleaning usually includes an area designated for drop-off and pick up, drive-thru, tailor services, and locker service. Your franchise may be responsible for keeping clothes wearable for much longer. Tide Cleaners strives to make customers’ clothes as bright and put-together as when they first bought them.

What Might Make a Tide Cleaners Franchise a Good Choice?

The laundry service market is expected to be worth more than $100 billion by 2025. Owning a Tide Cleaners franchise will give you a market share in this billion-dollar industry. You may enjoy year-round business since people always need their clothes cleaned.

With Tide Cleaners, you will be part of one of the largest dry cleaning companies in the country. Tide Cleaners is a company with proven success. They hire the best, offer excellent training, and always provide efficient and professional service. Customer loyalty and a good reputation, drawing in more clients, may be achieved with a Tide Cleaners franchise.

You’ll want to make sure you have enough capital available to cover an initial investment. This will include a franchise fee and other startup costs. You should also be prepared for ongoing fees. These will include royalty fees, advertising fees, and potential renewal fees. Franchisees will also be expected to meet the company's set net worth and liquid capital requirements.

How To Open a Tide Cleaners Franchise

To become a potential franchisee with Tide Cleaners, you’ll fill out an inquiry form. A franchise team member may reach out to you with an initial phone call if they want to learn more about you. After that, you may attend an informational webinar that contains in-depth information on the Tide Cleaners brand, vision, financial assistance offered, and the overall costs. A franchise team member may then send you their Franchise Disclosure Document to review.

At this point, you can submit a request for consideration together with your resume, financial statements, and any other required documentation. A franchise team member will help you conduct a market review and find available territories for your potential Tide Cleaners franchise. You may also have an opportunity to visit company headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. After this, you may receive operations approval. After that, you will finally get to sign the franchise agreement once the board approves.

Once you’ve signed on board, you will attend an in-depth training course to learn how to manage day-to-day operations. Before long, your Tide Cleaners franchise will be ready to take on everyone's dirty laundry.

Company Overview

About Tide Cleaners

Industry	Services (Other)
Related Categories	Dry Cleaning & Laundry Services
Founded	2008
Parent Company	Agile Pursuits Franchising Inc.
Leadership	Andy Gibson, President & CEO
Corporate Address	2 Procter & Gamble Plaza, #TE-16 Cincinnati, OH 45202
Social	Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube

Business Overview

Franchising Since	2009 (16 years)
# of employees at HQ	45
Where seeking	This company is offering new franchises in the following US states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming
# of Units	246 (as of 2024)

Information for Franchisees

Here's what you need to know if you're interested in opening a Tide Cleaners franchise.

Financial Requirements & Ongoing Fees

Here's what you can expect to spend to start the business and what ongoing fees the franchisor charges throughout the life of the business.

Initial Franchise Fee Definition: The initial fee paid to a franchisor to join their system What you need to know: Found in Item 5 of the FDD, this may be a flat fee, or may vary based on territory size, experience, or other factors.The franchise fee is an up-front (one-time) cost that a new franchisee pays to the franchisor. This fee is usually due at the signing of the franchise agreement and covers the right to use the franchisor's trademarks, name, and related business systems.	$50,000
Initial Investment Definition: The total amount necessary to begin operation of the franchise What you need to know: The initial investment includes the franchise fee, along with other startup expenses such as real estate, equipment, supplies, business licenses, and working capital. This is outlined in a chart in Item 7 of the FDD, showing a range of possible costs from low to high.	$709,700 - $1,505,800
Net Worth Requirement Definition: The minimum net worth you must have in order to qualify to become a franchisee of this company What you need to know: Net worth is the value of a person's assets minus liabilities. Assets include cash, stocks, retirement accounts, and real estate. Liabilities include items like mortgages, car payments, and credit card debt.	$2,000,000
Cash Requirement Definition: The minimum liquid capital you must have available in order to qualify to become a franchisee of this company.	$1,500,000
Royalty Fee Definition: A ongoing fee paid to the franchisor on a regular basis. What you need to know: Most franchisors require franchisees to pay an ongoing royalty fee, which is detailed in Item 6 of the FDD. This fee is typically a percentage of weekly or monthly gross sales, but may also be a flat weekly, monthly, or annual fee.	6.5%
Ad Royalty Fee Definition: An going fee paid to the franchisor on a regular basis to support advertising or marketing efforts. What you need to know: This may also be called advertising fee, marketing fee, brand fund fee, and more, but the basic purpose is the same-- to support promotion of the brand systemwide. As with the royalty fee, it is detailed in Item 6 of the FDD, and can be a percentage of weekly or monthly gross sales or a weekly, monthly, or annual fee.	4%
Term of Agreement Definition: The length of time your franchise agreement will last. What you need to know: Franchise terms are typically anywhere from 5 to 20 years in length, but are sometimes instead dependent on factors such as the term of your lease. Once your term is up, you may have the option to renew your agreement, typically for a smaller fee than the original franchise fee.	10 years
Is franchise term renewable?	Yes

Financing Options

Some franchisors offer in-house financing, while others have relationships with third-party financing sources to which they refer qualified franchisees.

Third Party Financing	Tide Cleaners has relationships with third-party sources which offer financing to cover the following: franchise fee, startup costs, equipment, inventory, accounts receivable, payroll

Training & Support Offered

Franchisors offer initial training programs and a variety of ongoing support options to help franchisees run their businesses.

On-The-Job Training	176 hours
Classroom Training	41 hours
Ongoing Support	Purchasing Co-ops Newsletter Meetings & Conventions Toll-Free Line Grand Opening Online Support Security & Safety Procedures Lease Negotiation Field Operations Site Selection Proprietary Software Franchisee Intranet Platform
Marketing Support	Co-op Advertising Ad Templates National Media Regional Advertising Social Media SEO Website Development Email Marketing Loyalty Program/App

Operations

Additional details about running this franchise.

Is absentee ownership allowed?	No
Can this franchise be run from home/mobile unit? Definition: The business can be run from your home and/or a vehicle, and it is not necessary to have a retail facility, office space, or warehouse.	No
Can this franchise be run part time? Definition: This business can be run by the owner on a part-time basis (less than 40 hours per week) and/or as a side business; it is not necessary for the business to be open/run full-time.	No
# of employees required to run	12-15
Are exclusive territories available? Definition: An exclusive territory is a fixed area in which you are given the right to operate and in which no other units of the same franchise may be opened. What you need to know: Territory size may be based on factors such as radius, population size, zip codes, and more. Details can be found in Item 12 of the FDD.	Yes