Restoration Cleanerswas founded in Houston in 2002, and we have weathered fires, floods, and hurricanes right by your side. Our story illustrates our core value of people first. It’s what gives us the ability to fulfill our purpose of delivering an amazing experience to our customers.
Our Story
Bright Beginnings
Entrepreneur Brian Adams began Restoration Cleaners with a focus on valet dry cleaning business for hotels. It was an immediate standout in the industry, bringing new technologiessuch as ozone machines and customized software, and new standards of customer service.
Soon thereafter Adams and his partners realized that their large-capacity machines could be put to use doing fire and flood restoration for the people and businesses of Houston. With around 50 fires breaking out every day in the city, people’s belongings were constantly being damaged by fire and smoke—or the water to put out the fire. Adams knew that, together with insurance companies, Restoration Cleaners could restore owners’ soft goods back to their original state for less than the cost of replacing those items.
It wasn’t long before Restoration Cleaners was able to extend our services to machinery, computers, and equipment—not only in households, but in all sorts of businesses, large and small.
The business was a runaway success, growing at about 100% a year, and Restoration Cleaners was recognized as one of America’s fastest growing companies in INC Magazine’s “Inc. 5000”—eight years in a row. Adams was proud of the efforts he and his employees had made, building a business from zero to millions of dollars in revenue—and creating a significant number of jobs in the process.
The Sale
Restoration Cleaners’ wild success brought the attention of a private equity group, Castleray Investments LLC. Although Adams cared for the business he had built over nine years—and above all its people—selling the business seemed like the practical next step.
Castelray offered to buy Restoration Cleaners for almost 10 million dollars—an amount much higher than Adams’ valuation of it. Castelray was convinced they could grow the business by duplicating its model in other cities, and manage it all remotely.After weighing his options, Adams handed over the business to Castleray, but remained a minority shareholder.
Shortly after the acquisition, the private equity group realized what Adams knew all along—the selling price of the business had been set too high, and the cash flow was not sufficient to support the operations, creating an over-leveraged business. Their first remedy was to buy out a competitor in order to direct more business towards the company. Warning of disaster, Adams was kept out of the details, and Restoration Cleaners wound up with nothing but additional debt.
Culture Shock
Restoration Cleaners quicklybegan trending downhill. While having no opposition to most of Castelray’s ideas, Adams was dismayed to note that they were not nurturing the culture he had created. Instead of prioritizing customers and employees, debt service and bankersbecame their priority—creating a shift in the culture.
In order to increase their ability to service debt, Castleray asked Adams to fire some of his original employees. Adamsinstead offered to put more of his own money into the business, but the group declined. They felt stringent cutbacks were more practical in the long term than maintaining the culture and values as envisioned by Adams.
The owners continued trying to manage the businessand its mounting problems from a remote office.
After almost a year of partial ownership and conflict, Adams was extremely unhappy with the way the company was being managed and decided to cut all ties with Restoration Cleaners.
Meanwhile, Restoration Cleaners’ problems had grown so much that the owners could no longermanage it. In November 2012,the private equity group gave up control of the business to the bank that had originally lent money to the partnership.
Transfer of ownership did not address core issues or solve larger concerns like mismanagement, unclear vision, and cash flow issues. Still managed remotely, ground realities were easily lost. With money being the singular aim of the business, details like customer satisfaction, employee motivation, incentives, and basic cohesion of management and staff were missing. There were problems with the Department of Labor as well as the IRS.
The Repurchase
Aware of the problems they had inherited, the bank tried to sell the company back to Adams multiple times. None of their offers was appealing. Indeed, given the plethora of rules the company was breaking, out of concern for the safety of his former employees, Adams hired an attorney in an attempt to shut the company down.
The attorney succeeded, andAdams was given the power to appoint a receiver to take over the business. But the day before the receiver was to begin, Adams and one of his original partners made an offer of purchase—and it was accepted.Their price was less than .01% of the close to ten million Restoration Cleaners had originally sold for.
Our Employees
When Adams and his partner took control of Restoration Cleaners, it had deteriorated to 10% of the size it had been when he had sold it to Castleray. In the six weeks leading up to the repurchase, there was no way for the company to deposit money, pay employees, or pay electric bills. Yet the employees—most of them earning low hourly wages—had continued to work without pay. Some of these loyal employees even paid the company’s electricity bill to keep the doors open. Having the potential return of Adams to the helm was worth the risk.
Upon repurchase, Adams’ mission was to reestablish Restoration Cleaners’ former success and good name—starting with his staff. All of the employees quickly received the past wages they were owed. Adamsknew that a large part of his company’s continued success would be the loyalty and dedication of his workers, who had taken on the burden of keeping the company afloat.
Our Shared Values
Back under effective leadership, Restoration Cleaners quickly returned to its peak and continues to grow. We know that key to growth is a healthy company culture that cares for its employees and values its customers. After all, it’s our workers who provide the top-notch service that our customers so appreciate and will tell their friends and colleagues about.
All of us at Restoration Cleanersfeel good about running a business that helps those who have suffered loss. We take pride in performing our jobs with care and attention to detail, and we are passionate about what we do every day for our company, our customers, and our community.
