The full salon laundry ROI: in-house vs outsourced over 12 months

The number that decides

Most salon owners I talk to have a rough sense of what their laundry costs. Very few have actually run the full P&L. Here it is.

This walks through a typical Brisbane salon — 4 chairs, busy diary, running roughly 20 loads of towels per week — and shows the 12-month cost of doing the laundry in-house versus outsourcing. The numbers are conservative; if anything they understate the in-house cost.

The in-house P&L (12 months)

### Equipment depreciation

You need a washing machine and dryer that can take 20 loads a week without dying. A pair of mid-range commercial-grade domestic machines costs $1,500-$2,500. Realistic working life under salon-volume load: 24-36 months.

12-month depreciation: $700-$1,000

### Operating costs

Water. A domestic load uses 60-90 litres. At Queensland Urban Utilities commercial rates (~$3.50/kL with sewerage), 20 loads/week comes out to around $125/year.

Power. A hot-water wash plus tumble dryer cycle consumes around 4-5 kWh. At commercial electricity rates (~$0.32/kWh), that's $1.30-$1.60 per load × 20 × 52 = $1,350-$1,700/year.

Detergent + bleach + softener. Quality commercial detergent runs around $0.40-$0.60 per load. 20 × 52 × $0.50 = $520/year.

Maintenance and repairs. Realistic average across the 2-3 year life. $400-$600/year.

Operating subtotal: ~$2,400-$2,950/year

### Towel replacement

In-house washing on a domestic machine kills towels faster than commercial cycles. Typical lifespan: 12-18 months before towels look unprofessional. A 4-chair salon needs maybe 40-50 towels in rotation. At $8-$12 per quality salon towel:

40 × $10 × 1.2 replacement frequency per year = $480/year

### Staff time

This is the hidden cost most salons don't fully count. A junior or front-of-house team member running 20 loads/week:

• Loading + switching + folding: 30-40 minutes per load
• 20 loads × 35 min average = 700 min/week = 11.7 hours/week
• Loaded staff cost at junior rates (2026): $35-$40/hour
• 11.7 × $37 × 52 = $22,500/year

That's the biggest number on the page. And it's almost always real — you're either paying a junior wage to run laundry, or paying a more senior team member at higher rates to backfill the front-of-house tasks the junior isn't doing.

### Front-of-house revenue impact

This one's harder to quantify but it's real. Every laundry hour is an hour not spent on:

• Phone bookings (a phone-handled booking converts higher than a missed call)
• Walk-in conversions
• Retail upsell at the till
• Rebooking the current client before they leave

Conservative assumption: 11.7 hours/week × $15 of attributable revenue per hour (very conservative for a 4-chair salon) = $175/week = $9,100/year.

### Total in-house annual cost

| Line item | Cost | |---|---| | Equipment depreciation | $850 | | Operating costs | $2,700 | | Towel replacement | $480 | | Staff time | $22,500 | | Lost front-of-house revenue | $9,100 | | Total annual | $35,630 |

That's the real cost of running 20 loads a week of salon laundry in-house. Not the $50/week of operating costs the salon owner usually quotes.

The outsourced P&L (12 months)

20 loads per week at our pricing.

If you pick up 5 days a week at 4 loads per pickup:

• $60 + 2 × $25 = $110 ex-GST per pickup
• 5% volume discount (over $100 ex-GST)
• $110 × 0.95 = $104.50 ex-GST = $114.95 inc per pickup
• 5 pickups/week × 52 weeks = 260 × $114.95 = $29,887/year

Or 4 days a week at 5 loads per pickup:

• $60 + 3 × $25 = $135 ex-GST per pickup
• 5% discount → $128.25 ex = $141.08 inc per pickup
• 4 × 52 = 208 × $141.08 = $29,344/year

Pick the schedule that fits your operations. Annual cost lands around $29,000-$30,000.

The break-even — and the headline

Total in-house: $35,630 Total outsourced: ~$29,500

Outsourced saves ~$6,100/year.

But that's not the whole story. The bigger payoff isn't the cost difference — it's the recovered staff time. 11.7 hours/week × 52 weeks = 608 hours per year going back into the front of house.

If even a third of that staff time converts to additional revenue at, say, $50/hour average (treatments, retail, rebooking), that's $10,000+ of additional revenue on top of the direct cost saving.

The honest qualifications

Three scenarios where the maths flips:

1. Your staff member would be idle anyway. If you're a sole operator or your junior genuinely has nothing to do during laundry windows, the staff time line item collapses. In-house becomes cheaper. Honestly: this is rare in any salon busier than the quietest. Even slow hours need someone at reception.

2. You already own the commercial machines outright. If the capital cost is sunk and the machines have 5 more years of life, you knock $1,000/year off the in-house side. Doesn't change the headline meaningfully but tightens the gap.

3. Your loaded staff cost is materially lower than the assumption. If you're paying genuine apprentice rates ($25/hour loaded), the staff line drops from $22,500 to ~$16,000. Outsourcing still wins on staff time recovery but the cost-only comparison gets tighter.

What changes the answer

For most Brisbane salons running 15-25 loads a week, the answer is the same regardless of the variables. Outsourcing wins on three fronts simultaneously:

1. Direct cost — usually $3,000-$8,000/year cheaper 2. Staff time recovery — 500-800 hours/year going back to the front of house 3. Towel longevity — properly commercial-washed towels last 2× as long

The case for in-house mostly comes down to "I prefer to control it" — which is fine, but it's a preference, not a financial argument.

What we actually offer

Honest pitch. Free pickup and delivery across Brisbane. $60 + GST flat for the first 2 loads, $25 + GST per additional. Automatic 5% discount on pickups over $100 (ex-GST), 10% over $200. One load is up to 5kg. No contract.

Book a pickup or text 0468 097 087 to set up a regular weekly or twice-weekly schedule. First-pickup discount of $20 off applies for new customers.