Darrell New, Founder 
1-800-DryClean^®

I believe that the biggest satisfaction in life comes from helping others achieve their dreams. As founder and now Vice President of 1-800-DryClean®, I’m heavily involved in continuous improvement of our system, training, and helping new business owners become profitable as quickly as possible. 

In 1988, while attending the University of Central Florida, I started delivering dry cleaning under the name Valet Express to busy professionals in downtown Orlando Florida. Even though my major was Finance, and I had planned to work in the financial services industry after graduation, delivering dry cleaning was fun, easy, and quite lucrative, so I kept at it. 

By 1993, we had three vans in operation. My wife, Shannon Toler (now the President of 1-800-DryClean®), and my brother, Nathan New (now Operations Manager), convinced me that we should franchise our concept, so we did. Six years later, we joined with 1-800-DryClean®, a Service Brands International company, converted our routes in Orlando into a 1-800-DryClean® franchise and sold it. Today, we provide training, growth coaching and support to more than 100 franchise owners as they pick up and deliver clothes to homes and offices across the country.

Over the past 21 years, I have had the privilege of experiencing the dry cleaning industry from a very unique vantage point. I have worked with hundreds of cleaners and spoken on behalf of thousands of our customers. I have attended and lectured at dry cleaning seminars and at national dry cleaning conventions, and have graduated from the Dry Cleaning & Laundry Institute’s advanced training courses on dry cleaning. I have been an employee, a manager, and a part owner of a dry cleaning plant. Plus, I’m very proud to be a home route customer of our local 1-800-DryClean® franchise!