Company: DoveCorp Enterprises Inc.

Company Division/Group: Ciris Group of Companies

Company Description: DoveCorp Canada's largest dry cleaning company. Founded by Sam Mizrahi in 1992, it has premium, mass-market and commercial divisions, and the only ISO 9001 dry cleaning registration in the world. Acquisitions and organic growth have increased retail locations to 98 in the greater Toronto area, with plans to expand nationwide. DoveCorp is known for quality and environmental commitment.

Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories

Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company

Nomination Title: DoveCorp Enterprises

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Modernization and Consolidation: DoveCorp’s All-In-One Approach.

Dove Cleaners first opened in Los Angeles in 1992.  The company moved to Canada in 1994, and Dove Cleaners soon established itself as a trusted premium brand in Toronto.  The company’s dedication to quality gained it recognition as “Best Drycleaner” from Flare, Toronto Life, Fabricare, and Spruce magazines, among others, and a “Favourite Drycleaner” nod from 680 News.

Management's strategy was to build out the premium brand into mass-market and commercial divisions, and to that end it has made five acquisitions -- most recently Cadet Cleaners, another award-winning facility in the Greater Toronto Area.  With the dry cleaning and laundry industry ripe for consolidation, DoveCorp has now integrated its initial acquisitions and intends to broaden its base across Ontario and Canada by acquisition and organic growth.

The dry-cleaning and laundry business has traditionally consisted of retail mass-market dry-cleaners, high-volume commercial laundries, and linen rental companies.  The first to combine these services, DoveCorp’s commercial division is a full-service solution for commercial clients; supplying and cleaning uniforms, linens and mats; and offering high-volume laundry and valet dry-cleaning.  At the same time, DoveCorp’s award-winning retail brands excel in the premium and mass-markets.

DoveCorp’s innovative centralized processing system makes this possible.  In 2005, DoveCorp built a state-of-the-art, 42,000-square-foot facility to handle all processing.  DoveCorp's facility was designed to be both environmentally sensitive and efficient.  DoveCorp’s “closed-loop” processing ensures that both garments and the environment are protected from potentially harmful solvents and related gases.  DoveCorp was the first dry cleaning company to consistently exceed legislated environmental standards, implementing the closed-loop system long before it was an industry requirement.  DoveCorp's wet cleaning services entail the use of intricate, chemical-free water processes, and its packaging is 100% recyclable.  A bar-coded tracking system tracks garments;  another system tracks trucks.  DoveCorp's system now forms the basis of new dry-cleaning standards implemented by the International Standards Organization, and it has received the world's only ISO 9001 dry-cleaning registration.

In the past year, DoveCorp’s approach has attracted such clients as Moore’s Clothing for Men, Park Hyatt, Air Canada Centre, Toronto Fire Department and the CN Tower.  The company plans to expand into fire and flood restoration as well.

From a single store in 1997, acquisitions and organic growth have brought DoveCorp’s retail locations to 98.  Their recent partnership with newsstand

chain International News will expand DoveCorp’s brand recognition nationwide.

DoveCorp has been able to expand so rapidly partly because of the industry conditions, and partly because, following a Capital Pool Company transaction completed in June of 2005, it now has access to the capital markets as a public company -- Canada's only publicly traded dry cleaner.  DoveCorp will continue to seek accretive acquisitions, and will also continue to create alliances with large chains such as Longo’s Supermarkets and Walmart to increase brand penetration. 

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, http://www.youraddress.com:

August 11 2005, DoveCorp Acquires Cadet Cleaners

http://www.dovecorp.com/media_releases/08.11.05%20DoveCorp%20Acquires%20Cadet%20Cleaners.pdf

August 29 2005, DoveCorp Wins Park Hyatt Contract

http://www.dovecorp.com/media_releases/08.29.05%20DoveCorp%20Wins%20Park%20Hyatt%20Contract.pdf

October 31 2005, DoveCorp Announces Partnership with Moore’s Clothing for Men

http://www.dovecorp.com/media_releases/10.31.05%20-%20Moores%20Partnership.pdf

February 13 2006, DoveCorp Announces New Equipment Installation

http://www.dovecorp.com/media_releases/060213EQPT.pdf

March 10 2006, DoveCorp Partners with International News in National Co-Branding Agreement

http://www.dovecorp.com/media_releases/060310News.pdf

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Sam Mizrahi is a serial entrepreneur who founded his first company in 1988 at the age of seventeen, and his second a year later, selling blank audio and

video tapes that he imported from Asia.  By late 1991, Sam's companies were pulling in revenues of $18 million per year.  At the age of 20, he sold his

first business and began looking around for his next challenge.

He saw opportunity in the fragmented dry cleaning industry in 1992 and set out to consolidate and modernize it, founding DoveCorp in Los Angeles then moving it to Toronto in 1997.