Laundry: Pricing Per Kilo Without Losing It on the Water Bill

Per-kilo pricing is popular because customers understand it instantly. It is also the easiest way to sell work at a loss, because the cost of a load has very little to do with its weight.

A machine cycle costs the same whether it is full or not

Water, power, detergent and the labour to load, unload, dry and fold are all driven by the cycle, not the kilo. A half-full machine costs almost what a full one costs and earns half as much.

So the first number to establish is not cost per kilo but cost per cycle. Take a month of utility bills, detergent purchases and wages, divide by the number of cycles run, and you have it.

Then convert honestly

Work out the average weight you actually put through a cycle — not the machine's rated capacity, which almost nobody reaches. Cost per cycle divided by that realistic average gives you a cost per kilo you can price against.

Not all kilos behave the same

Heavy items soak up water and take far longer to dry. Duvets, curtains and blankets occupy a machine that could have processed three ordinary loads. If they are priced at the same per-kilo rate as shirts, they are subsidised by everything else.

Many laundries solve this with a separate item price for bulky goods rather than trying to make one rate cover everything.

Watch the three quiet costs

Rewashes, when something comes back. Drying time in wet weather, when the same load takes twice the power. And items lost or damaged, which is a real cost even when no customer complains.

What to record

Cycles run, weight in, and the utility bill. Those three, tracked over a month, tell you whether your rate covers the work. Without them, a per-kilo price is a hopeful guess that the water bill quietly disproves.