Martinizing Dry Cleaning

Martinizing Dry Cleaning is a dry cleaning franchise founded in 1949. Martin Franchises, Inc., the parent company, is the largest dry cleaning franchise in the United States, with over 450 franchised stores worldwide. The company is based in Berkley, Michigan.[1]

The concept of One Hour Martinizing was pioneered by a New York chemist named Henry Martin in 1949. At the time, dry cleaning was done with flammable solvents, so the plants were located remotely from the storefronts. A customer would drop off cleaning "in town", the garments would travel to the production facility to be cleaned and pressed, then they would return to the store several days later for pickup. By using a non-flammable solvent, the use of which was discovered by Martin, dry cleaning plants could now be located much more conveniently, and the process could be carried out in a much more timely manner. The use of this non-flammable solvent was adopted throughout the industry and revolutionized the business in that facilities could better serve their customers and provide much faster turn-around on the orders, if need be. Operationally this has been termed "on-site cleaning" (as opposed to the "remote" cleaning of the past).