NAICS 81233Industry · 5-digitlocal market

Linen and uniform supply

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in supplying and laundering towels, napkins, table cloths, sheets, gowns, aprons, diapers and other linen items, for household or commercial use, typically on a contract basis. Establishments engaged in supplying and laundering commercial and industrial uniforms, laboratory coats, safety gloves, and flame and heat resistant clothing are also included. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 188
Under 10 employeesA: 26%
Establishments · USA: 2,327
Employment · USA: 113,611
Payroll · USA: $5.1B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–43217%

5–9169%

10–19158%

20–493921%

50–995127%

100–1993116%

200–49932%

500+11%

Of 188 Canadian establishments with employees, 26% have fewer than ten — an industry where large establishments carry real weight.

Where they areA

Ontario8244%

Quebec3720%

Alberta2915%

British Columbia2212%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Other Services (except Public Administration), US · opened 2020

85.2%

1 year

71.8%

3 years

60%

5 years

42.1%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 812, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 812 Personal and laundry services

Salons, laundries, funeral homes and pet care: personal, local and repeat. Most are small by nature; funeral homes and dry cleaning are the capital-heavier exceptions, the first consolidating and the second shrinking.

Who sets the price: The operator, within a neighbourhood's going rate.
The software it runs on: Appointment booking, point of sale and payments — a crowded category sold on payment processing margin.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 8123 Dry cleaning and laundry services covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 812320

Dry Cleaning & Commercial LaundryExecution decides

binding constraint: growth quality

Retail dry cleaning is in structural decline — the garments that required it have been leaving offices for a decade and did not come back. The growing half is commercial route laundry for hotels, restaurants and health care, which is a logistics and plant business with capital intensity closer to manufacturing than to retail. Buying the declining half to fund entry into the growing half is a common plan and rarely a good one.

NAICS 8123204 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Appointment booking, point of sale and payments — a crowded category sold on payment processing margin.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Other services (except public administration), most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Hairstylists and estheticians One industry 88.3%

Support occupations in personal services Mostly one sector 64.5%

Automotive service technicians Mostly one sector 56.8%

Home care provider occupations One industry 23.3%

Social and community service professionals Mostly one sector 21.7%

Managers in social, community and correctional services Mostly one sector 18.4%

Machining, metal forming, shaping and erecting trades Mostly one sector 12.9%

Practitioners of natural healing One industry 11.1%

Specialized occupations in services Mostly one sector 8.8%

Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness Mostly one sector 6.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 27.9%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 7.8%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 6.6%

Other technical trades Across the economy 5.7%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 5.2%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 4.7%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 4.3%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 3.7%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 3.3%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 3.2%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 81233. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
812330	Linen and uniform supply	188	screened at 8123

Alongside it, under 8123 Dry cleaning and laundry services

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
81231	Coin-operated laundries and dry cleaners	374	screened at 8123
81232	Dry cleaning and laundry services (except coin-operated)	1,334	Dry Cleaning & Commercial Laundry