When Grenada businessman Donnie Sultan had the opportunity to own Greenwood’s established Delta Steam Laundry, he didn’t think twice about it.
Sultan, the owner of R&S Cleaners of Grenada, said adding Delta Steam, which has been around since 1904, to the family business portfolio was just a natural extension.
“We took over Nov. 1. We think our turnaround — our service — is what we do for a living.” said Sultan, 46, who owns the laundry, which legally is known as Delta Steam Dry Cleaning & Laundry.
Business “has exceeded our expectations,” he said.
Sultan has been in the dry cleaning business for more than a quarter of a century. Helping him as overall plant manager is his son, Jonathan, 28, who graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2005 with a business degree.
Jonathan has held his position in the company since 2007.
Sultan is a second-generation dry cleaner.
“My mother, Sherry Sultan, and her partner, Brenda Ryals, opened Ryals-Sultan Cleaners in 1979,” he said.
Partnering with Mickey Renfro, Sultan bought the women out in 1984.
“Then we bought Bailey Brothers Laundry and Dry Cleaners in 1989. Bailey was a big industrial cleaner — uniforms, linen, dust mops,” Sultan said.
The two companies, R&S Cleaners and R&S Industrial Rental, were big players in the Grenada area, offering both downtown and outlying locations.
In 1991, Sultan and Renfro split the companies up, and Sultan retained R&S Cleaners. R&S Industrial Rental was later sold and its assets moved to Memphis.
Sultan and his son were looking to expand and generate more income and were looking northward.
“We had a route; we went to Water Valley, Charleston, these small locations,” he said.
Then Sultan said he heard that the Barnes family, which had owned Delta Steam for more than 25 years, was interested in selling.
“This cleaner has been here a long time; it’s got good volume. It matched our business model,” Sultan said. “It fit exactly with what we were trying to do except it’s in a different part of the state. We changed directions.”
Sultan is proud to say the transition hasn’t resulted in a single job lost.
Delta Steam, located at 309 W. Church St., has two full-time customer care representatives, Reola Gillion and Lillian Simon, with a combined 61 years in the dry cleaning business.
A part-time employee, Aalyah Jones, also is on hand to assist customers.
Sultan said two things set dry cleaners apart from one another: service and quality.
“When somebody brings their clothes in, they want them done right, and they want them to be ready when you told them they’d be ready,” he said.
The company’s philosophy is contained in its motto: “It’s ready, it’s right and it’s on time every time.”
Whether it is dry cleaning, tailoring, wedding gown cleaning and preservation, curtain cleaning, Delta Steam can handle it.
Sultan said his operation in Grenada includes 18 employees, including three full-time seamstresses. The entire operation is driven by loyalty, he said.
“We consider ourselves more of a family than a company,” he said.
