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U.S. Dry Cleaning (UDRY: Summary, Messages, Articles) operates 60 dry cleaning stores throughout its home state of California, Hawaii and Virginia. The company also provides commercial dry cleaning services to hotels across the U.S. In order to bolster market share, U.S. Dry Cleaning is highly acquisitive, averaging a couple of acquisitions per quarter thus far in 2008. The company generally looks for stores or chains of dry cleaning shops that have about $5 million in annual revenue. U.S. Dry Cleaning had nearly $13 million in sales for 2007.

The company is also seeking to enter new markets across the U.S. via acquisitions. U.S. Dry Cleaning recently announced that it made purchases to enter new markets in Indiana and Tennessee. The company said earlier this month that paid almost $800,000 to gain nearly $8 million in sales by buying 25 cleaning centers in the Indianapolis area. It was the company’s fourth acquisition in 2008. In August, U.S. Dry Cleaning said in a letter to shareholders that is in discussions with dry cleaning franchises throughout the U.S. that could almost generate $100 million in revenues in the coming years.

For the quarter ended June 30, U.S. Dry Cleaning’s sales more than doubled to $5.13 million from $2.42 million in the year earlier period. Total assets also more than doubled to $22.9 million from $10.6 million. The company said acquisitions help boost its cash flow and reduce debt and that both figures improve with every acquisition of a rival. Shares of U.S. Dry Cleaning are 10 percent-owned by insiders, including more than 900,000 shares held by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Robert Lee. No Wall Street analysts track the company as of yet.

Shares of U.S. Dry Cleaning closed at 26 cents on Monday and have traded between 16 cents and $1.74 over the past 52 weeks. The company has a market capitalization of $7.74 million. At the end of the second quarter, the company said it had $4 million in cash on hand, compared with $500,000 a year earlier.

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