Local businessman joins P

Local businessman joins P THE GAZETTE The founders of Panda Express, whose more than 1,400 restaurants nationwide have annual sales exceeding $1. One Summit service not yet provided by Tide: a free, twice-weekly home and business pick-up and delivery system. That service will be monitored by Pprogram using bar codes to label and track clothing, which allows a conveyor system to assemble and deliver orders to clients; kiosks that allow customers with debit or credit cards on file to pick up their clothing at any time of the day; a drive-through concierge service; and same day customer pick-up for orders dropped off by 9 a. That deal is close to being finalized. When the deal is finished, the Summit store on Centennial will be converted to the area's first Tide Dry Cleaners, probably sometime this spring. Essentially, only the name will change, LaVelle said. Customer service and the green cleaning system will remain the same, employees will stay, LaVelle will retain an ownership interest and he'll continue to live in the area. Even as he keeps his hand in his Springs store, LaVelle's role with Panda Dry Cleaners will be that of a major player as the venture moves forward. "He's a superstar," Mark Tarzian, Panda Dry Cleaners' chief operating officer, said of LaVelle. "And this is an industry that doesn't have a good deal of superstars. As director of operations, Tarzian said, LaVelle will work with Panda's real estate team to identify store sites and can help analyze locations to determine their viability, competition and the potential market share that a Tide Dry Cleaners could realize. Once a site is selected, LaVelle will be liable for the design of the building, its equipment and installation, staffing and start-up, Tarzian said. LaVelle also will oversee each store's management. Tide stores operated by Panda Dry Cleaners will employ some of the same services. "He's the most critical piece of the puzzle," Tarzian said of LaVelle's role. For all the responsibility LaVelle will assume, both he and Tarzian agree that the Tide name on the buildings will be instrumental in the success of the enterprise because it will get people in the door. "Tide represents probably the most significant brand that has affiliation with fabric care," Tarzian said. The first Tide Dry Cleaners opened in 2008 as part of a test run before a national expansion was launched two years later, said Ross Holthouse a spokesman for Pironmentally friendly GreenEarth Cleaning technology employed by Pf LaVelle, owner of the Summit Cleaners on Centennial Boulevard in Colorado Springs. Of all the dry cleaning professionals available, how did Panda Dry Cleaners happen to tap LaVelle? The answer starts with Procter Local businessman joins P Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 05/03/2012