Al Phillips near Oahu dry-cleaning chain Al Phillips, owned by the Brewer family since 1968, is being sold to a partnership of second-generation dry-cleaners from Palm Springs, Calif.
deal for sale
The dry-cleaning chain will be
bought by a California partnershipBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comAfter 34 years with Al Phillips, and working through two suspicious fires, the family wants to focus on its mainland operations, while keeping its base in Hawaii. The Al Phillips name will be kept by the new owners.
The deal is in final negotiations and is scheduled to close Dec. 16, pending approval of the landlords of each store, said John V. Brewer, president of Al Phillips the Cleaner Inc. The sale includes all six Al Phillips outlets on Oahu, and does not cover the seven Al Phillips cleaners run by the Brewers on the West Coast.
Brewer declined to identify the buyers, or the purchase price. He said the new owners will be moving their headquarters to Hawaii from California.
The sale affects 50 Al Phillips employees, and the buyers plan to keep all of them, Brewer said. "This is a labor-intensive business and the key is to hang on to all of the people," he said.
The Brewers will continue to run their mainland dry-cleaning operations from a five-person administrative headquarters in Kailua. The family got into the dry-cleaning business on the mainland in 1963, then bought Al Phillips in Hawaii five years later from namesake Al Phillips, Brewer said.
The Brewer family's Southern California outlets, in Orange County and San Diego, have been booming in the recent years, and the family wants to focus on the growth, Brewer said. Family members also want to get more involved in Hawaii nonprofit services organizations.
Al Phillips' Hawaii revenues are projected to be $2.5 million this year, up slightly from $2.3 million last year, Brewer said. Mainland revenues are expected to grow to $6 million from $4.8 million last year.
The California buyers are known for higher-end dry-cleaning work in Palm Springs, and will likely offer new product lines here, such as "prestige" care, Brewer said. The new owners may seek to get Al Phillips back into businesses that were discontinued by the Brewers in recent years, such as work for the military, hotels and draperies, he said.
In 1998, Al Phillips sold seven Oahu laundry drop-off locations to Young Laundry & Dry Cleaning. Last year, Al Phillips also sold its uniform rental division to American Linen.
The Al Phillips building on Lagoon Drive, near the airport, was shut down for a year by a 1997 fire that caused an estimated $2 million in damage. Three years later, the building was hit by a second fire that caused $1 million in damage. Investigators at the time looked into similarities between the two blazes.
Brewer still owns the Lagoon building and the land, though it is empty now.