P&G says the three stores, two established stores in the city’s Overland Park area and a purpose-built flagship store at Leawood, opened for business on September 4 and will have a grand opening on September 13.
The Cincinnati-based company chose to open the business in the Kansas City area as GreenEarthCleaning, one of its partners in the venture, is also based in Kansas City and the location provides good demographics for a test market.
“Cleaning with GreenEarth solvent is environmentally safer than with the traditional method”, says Kash Shaikh, the Tide brand’s external relations leader for fabric care in North America.
Shaikh wouldn’t reveal how much P&G is spending on the Kansas City venture, but said the company with 60 years’ experience of laundry and fabric care with the Tide brand is well placed to take advantage of opportunities in the USA’s drycleaning market, which is estimated to be worth $9billion a year. P&G has also researched consumers’ feelings about drycleaning.
