The Laundry Lady has been making waves across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Now, the UK is next.
We are excited to share that our founder and CEO, Susan Toft, has been featured in International Business Times UK. And the story behind The Laundry Lady is one worth telling.
From a Spare Room to a £6.4 Million Business
Susan started The Laundry Lady in 2012. She was a working mum with a toddler, a corporate job, and a spare room buried under laundry. Rather than ignore the problem, she turned it into a business.
She began solo. Pickups in her car. Her toddler in the backseat. Thirteen years later, The Laundry Lady operates across three countries with roughly 500 independent contractors. Today, the business generates AU$12 million, around £6.4 million, in annual revenue. Revenue climbed from $2.7 million in 2023 to $8.6 million by early 2026, quadrupling the business in roughly three years.
What Is The Laundry Lady?
The Laundry Lady is a mobile laundry pickup and delivery service. We collect your washing, take care of it, and bring it back clean, folded, and ready to put away.
Customers book online. It is quick and straightforward. No phone calls, no back and forth. Just clean laundry, returned to your door. Our Laundry Partners work from home using their own equipment. They choose their own hours and decide how much work they take on.
As Heard on the Side Hustle Show
Susan was a guest on Episode 725 of the Side Hustle Show, one of the world’s most listened-to entrepreneurship podcasts, hosted by Nick Loper.
In the episode, Susan talks through how she turned a personal frustration into a service business, what the contractor model looks like day-to-day, how much Laundry Partners actually earn, and how appearing on Shark Tank Australia changed everything.
Her take on why the business keeps growing? The problem is never going away. Clothes keep getting dirty. Simple as that.
Not a Franchise. Something Better.
The Laundry Lady is not a franchise. That is a deliberate choice. Susan rejected franchising from the start. No exclusive territories, no six-figure buy-ins, no rigid structure that would shut out the very people she wanted to bring on board.
“We really wanted to be able to give this opportunity to lots of different people,” she said. “That might be mums who don’t have a lot of money and just want to start earning some money.”
What Does a Contractor Earn?
Weekly earnings range from a few hundred pounds to over £1,600, depending on how much work a Laundry Partner takes on. Those going full-time can reach the higher end of that range. As Susan put it, contractors can earn more than with some gig economy apps that are popular all over the world.
Who Uses the Service?
Our customers are busy households and small businesses, including beauty salons, medical clinics, and Airbnb hosts, in the low-to-mid volume range that larger commercial laundry operators tend to overlook.
Busy people who want clean laundry without spending their evenings doing it. We’re all about taking a load off people’s minds. Booking is online only. Customers pick a convenient collection time and we take care of the rest.
The Laundry Lady Is Coming to the UK Soon
The UK is next on The Laundry Lady’s expansion list, and we should have more updates soon. Whether you are looking for a reliable laundry collection and delivery service, or thinking about starting a flexible work-from-home business, keep an eye out. More details are coming.
Register your interest and be among the first to hear when we go live in the UK!
