A model of success
Every uniform has a radio frequency identification chip sewn into the garment to track each piece of clothing through the plant at Model Cleaners in Charleroi.
Joe LaCarte demonstrates how the chamber can digitally count the number of pieces of clothing in five seconds at Model Cleaners in Charleroi.
The LaCarte family, owners of Model Cleaners in Charleroi. From left are Jack LaCarte and his sons, John, Mike, Dave, Joe and Dan LaCarte.
Mae Smith, a presser who has been with Model Cleaners in Charleroi for nine years, presses an outfit at the plant.
Observer-Reporter
Exterior of Model Cleaners in Charleroi
Christian Dayner, a wash operator who has been with Model Cleaners in Charleroi for 14 years, watches as one of the giant commercial washers tilts to unload uniforms.
A cattle farmer helped prod his company into a model of success.
In 1986, Jack LaCarte purchased Model Cleaners, a mom-and-pop dry cleaning operation on Lincoln Avenue in Charleroi, his hometown. Then he pressed on, revamping the firm over time by bringing in his eldest son, John; opening other shops; adding the other four sons; expanding services; buying two chains; and employing state-of-the art equipment and technology.
Three decades later, Model Cleaners is no longer a tiny shop with eight employees but a chain with 25 locations, a workforce of 300 and more ambitious plans. It’s still in Charleroi, at 100 Third St., a long pass from old Cougar Stadium. But it is light years from the shop that opened in 1930.
“We try to come up with creative ways to put a new spin on an old business,” said Dave LaCarte, another of Jack’s sons.
That creativity was necessary for a company that now handles an estimated 20,000 pieces of clothing a week. Model cleans all types of garments, including a heap of work clothes. Washers and dryers in the 65,000-square-foot Charleroi plant are heavy duty and huge.
Jack and Mary LaCarte’s boys essentially run things, but the father, 71, is still involved.
“He’s been the visionary of the business, and the boys work,” said John, 48, company president and head of Model’s real estate arm. “He comes in every day and is our biggest cheerleader.”
“He’s our odometer,” said Dan, 34, the youngest son and president of dry cleaning.
A family that dry cleans together stays together. John and Dan are complemented by the three middle brothers: Mike, 47, the chief financial officer; Dave 46, president of apparel; and Joe, 42, president of uniform rental.
In the 1980s and ’90s, all could be seen at a high school athletic venue near you. John played basketball and the others football for Charleroi Area. Dan later started on Pitt’s offensive line from 2001-03, entrusted with protecting quarterback Rod Rutherford. Dave was a defensive back and captain on Allegheny College’s Division III national-title team in 1990.
They oversee a company with 13 locations in Pennsylvania and 12 in northeastern Ohio. One launched a few weeks ago in Cranberry Township.
Not all of Model’s services are groundbreaking, but they are many. The company offers five categories of cleaning: leather/suede, executive shirt, wedding dress, drapery/comforter, down coat and jacket. It also has a Green Earth Cleaning option that, according to Dan, “is 100 percent environmentally friendly.”
Model also does alterations and repairs of garments and has an heirloom and preservation service. Customers also can register for a free pickup and delivery service.
Home delivery, John said, accounts for “about half our business.”
And speaking of new spins . . . Model Cleaners is keeping up with technology, using radio-frequency identification to track clothing. Workers place bar codes and chips inside garments to be cleaned.
“Every piece (of clothing) has a bar code, so we don’t lose pieces. And we know how many times we’ve cleaned this shirt,” Dan said, pointing to one hanging.
“We saw the recession as an opportunity to invest in technology.”
Although this is a Charleroi business steered by a Charleroi family, Model may move its headquarters elsewhere. It is temporarily at 501 McKean Ave., a short stroll from the main operation on Third Street. John said the family is looking for a permanent location, and that Alta Vista Business Park near Bentleyville is a possibility.
John also is on the board of the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association, and was involved with the construction of three facilities at Alta Vista.
Third Street has been Model Cleaners’ home since 1994, when the firm moved from its original Lincoln Avenue location to the former Fib-Chem Industries site. Jack’s father John, coincidentally, ran a paper box company there decades earlier.
It was during the early part of that decade that Model opened other locations, mainly in the South Hills of Allegheny County. All of its 13 Pennsylvania venues are in the southwestern corner, Cranberry and Seven Fields in Butler County being the farthest north.
There are two Washington County locations, the other on Route 19 in Peters Township.
Model Cleaners accelerated its expansion in 2008 when it purchased two companies: Fidel Cleaners and Fussy Cleaners. The latter, based in northeastern Ohio, had been owned by an uncle of the brothers, John Baroana, who died that year.
More growth is ahead. John said the firm is working on acquiring a uniform rental processing site in Twinsburg, Ohio, and hopes to add four processing facilities overall by early 2016.
“We’d like to expand in Pennsylvania, of course,” he said. “Morgantown is one place we’re thinking of expanding our footprint, and we have to consider Columbus.”
Model Cleaners is, indeed, much more than a mom-and-pop operation today – even though mom and pop are involved to some extent. Jack and Mary’s sons not only are maintaining a tradition, but building it up together. Joe said the bond he and his siblings share is integral to their success.
“The commitment we have is to each other,” he said. “We’re kind of a rock band.”
A band of brothers.