1985. In January, Carl Arnold, Carl’s son John Arnold, and Jeff Stroman open their first store as Professional Cleaners in northeast Indianapolis. In May, another of Carl’s sons, Steve Arnold, joins the team as a fourth partner to operate the second Professional Cleaners location.

Growing rapidly, the company takes on a new name — Classic Cleaners — and a new corporate structure. Steve becomes General Manager and assumes responsibility for operations while Carl focuses on marketing and growth. As president, John negotiates leases and handles finances.

1990. Classic Cleaners opens more stores and gains additional capital when Leon Neal buys into the company as a fifth partner. Leon brings additional dry cleaning technical expertise to the company and is now in charge of quality control and wedding gown cleaning and preservation.

1993. Classic Cleaners starts its first route, delivering to the north side of Indianapolis. Carl Arnold now oversees routes, growing them through superior service. Tim Day joins the company as its sixth partner. Today, Tim serves as Operations Manager and is responsible for site planning and store construction and mechanical operations.

2001. Starting in 2001, Classic Cleaners began opening more locations, growing to include five Carmel locations and one Westfield location. Currently, Classic Cleaners has a total of 17 locations, as well as six routes serving a large area in Marion, Hendricks, Boone, Hamilton and Hancock counties.

2004. Classic Cleaners becomes the first dry cleaner in the Indianapolis area to introduce 24-hour drop-off and pick-up locker service, adding this feature to its new store at the 131st and Hazel Dell location in Carmel. Since then, Classic Cleaners has continued to make this service available at most of its new stores.

2006. Classic Cleaners remodels its main cleaning facility, expanding its size to accommodate growth.

2008. Classic Cleaners installs a state-of-the-art assembly and bagging system in the laundry department. This investment increases productivity, reduces the amount of necessary garment handling and virtually eliminates misplaced garments.

2009. Classic Cleaners installs the same state-of-the-art assembly and bagging system in the dry cleaning department.

Today. Classic Cleaners is one of the most technologically advanced dry cleaning and laundry companies in the Midwest. Even more important, however, is the company’s commitment to VIP-level customer service. Constantly excelling in both technology and service, Classic Cleaners will offer the Indianapolis area’s best dry cleaning and laundry options for many decades to come.