26 Years in Business
Excel Dry Cleaners Dame Lane Dublin 2, was founded in 1994. The business is 100% Irish owned and continues to be family. We are also, one of the best eco friendly dry cleaners in Ireland
The day Geraldine Mooney became a business owner she walked over six kilometres from Dublin city-centre to her home in Finglas with somebody else’s vacuum cleaner on her back.
She was broke and in need of a new hoover. But that arduous trek home were just the first difficult steps in a journey that has seen Geraldine and her family build up one of the city’s best known and most successful Dry Cleaning Businesses In Ireland.
Back in October 1995, the then 30-year-old young mother of four children (who were aged between four and 13 years old) just wanted a part-time job so she could help pay the bills.
Then fate intervened. Geraldine had only been working at Excel Dry Cleaners on Dame Lane in the city-centre for a few months when her then employers told her they were quitting the business. They asked Geraldine if she wanted to take it over, but she had zero resources: she didn’t even have the bus fare home at the time, or a hoover that worked!
“It was a bolt out of the blue to be honest,” Geraldine says of the offer. “I never dreamed I’d be running my own business but after it sunk in I decided to just go for it.”
After overcoming some initial hurdles, Geraldine steadily grew the business and established an extremely loyal customer base in the highly competitive market of Local Dry Cleaners In Ireland. Aside from the hard work and long hours, Geraldine’s ability, as she describes it, to “build relationships over the counter” brought in new clients of all sizes, including some of the country’s best known brands such as Brown Thomas and Louis Copeland.
Geraldine is passionate about the dry-cleaning business and Excel has kept its strong family focus. Her husband Joe works full time with her and their children – Lisa (36), Joseph (34), Rachel (31), Gary (28) and Ali (18), and even some of their spouses and partners – have all worked in the business at various stages.
Excel Dry Cleaners has weathered a few storms over the past quarter of a decade, but Geraldine and her family have always managed to tough it out. Excel survived the Celtic Tiger crash and thrived in the aftermath, firmly establishing itself as one of Dublin’s leading dry-cleaning businesses and one of just two dedicated wedding dress cleaning specialists in the county. That’s how we became one of the Best Wedding Dress Dry Cleaners In Ireland.
Last year Excel opened up two new shops, in Celbridge and Maynooth.
Then Covid-19 hit. This, particularly for a business that relies almost entirely on the hospitality and retail sectors, was a recession like no other.
Geraldine refused to shut up shop, but she understood the business had to adapt to survive. With normal footfall evaporating, Excel has ventured “outside the counter” to develop an innovative collection and delivery service.
Geraldine and her family have diversified the business to provide cleaning services for companies moving or switching office. They have expanded their dedicated corporate service and are providing delivery services for employees working remotely. They deep clean curtains and upholstery at nursing homes. As Geraldine puts it: “Everything has changed and we have to adapt: the customers are not coming through the doors anymore so we have to go to them.”
In spite of their own difficulties, when the pandemic hit Geraldine and her family immediately leapt to the aid of the frontline workers, providing free laundry and dry cleaning services for nurses, guards and other employees at the coalface of the war against the virus.
“It was the least we could do and we had the time to be able to do it for them,” says Geraldine. “They [frontline workers] are the real heroes of these strange times and it was also very good for our own morale to be able to do something positive for the community when there can be so much negativity around.”
As a Professional Dry Cleaners In Ireland, we are providing a free service for people who have found themselves out of work as a result of the pandemic. If anyone is unemployed and needs a suit or outfit cleaned for a job interview, Excel will do it for them free of charge.
As Geraldine puts it. “What goes around comes around. We need to help each other at times like these and hopefully they’ll remember us later if their interview is successful.”
