The Hollywood, Florida-based OXXO Care Cleaners franchise chain takes and delivers laundry 24/7 and is eco-friendly. Founder and CEO Salomon Mishaan grew up in his father’s textile business in Colombia, later worked in plastics in Venezuela, and traveled to Europe before he established OXXO in Florida in 2002. His time in foreign countries gave him the advantage of perceiving the backwardness of the dry cleaning business in the U.S., giving him the opportunity to establish something better.
Salomon reflects on his 15 years with OXXO:
Worst mistake ever: “Listening to franchisees who wanted to quickly open a store, even if the location didn’t serve our demographic,” Mishaan said. Despite that, OXXO has a 95 percent franchisee success rate, with only three store closures, he said.
Best decision ever: “Going green, because when we started green it was not a big trend,” Mishaan said. “Now it has opened doors, because we are allowed in locations that other cleaners are not.”
Biggest challenge: Finding strip-mall locations that serve the company’s high-end, white collar demographic. — Julie Landry Laviolette, Miami Herald
Source: Buying a Franchise