May 17 2008
SMF Energy Corporation, a leading provider of specialized transportation and distribution services for petroleum products and chemicals, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Enviro Tech International, Inc., the manufacturer of DrySolv(TM), to be the exclusive distributor and sales agent of its patented environmentally friendly "Green" dry cleaning solvent, soap, and spotting chemicals in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
DrySolv™ is a non-hazardous, non-chlorinated, non-flammable and environmentally friendly direct alternative cleaner to Perchloroethylene (PERC) and other hazardous or flammable solvents predominately used in the dry cleaning business today. The use of DrySolv™ enhances employee safety, produces non-hazardous waste, reduces operating costs, and delivers exceptional cleaning performance when compared to the traditional use of PERC and related cleaning processes. SMF has acted as a non-exclusive distributor of DrySolv™ and related products in the states of Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina since October 2007.
Richard E. Gathright, President and CEO, stated,“We are truly excited about becoming the exclusive distributor of this unique and proprietary product in a total of nine states, particularly California, which is a leader in environmental legislation and consumes an estimated 40% of all dry cleaning solvents in the United States. We are confident that the dry cleaning industry is ready for an alternative to the hazardous chemicals commonly used today, especially in light of the increasing environmental and regulatory requirements that could lead to a drastic reduction, or even the elimination, of these hazardous products over the next few years.”
Gathright continued, “The dry cleaning establishment count in the US is estimated at approximately 33,000 locations. Based on studies conducted over the last ten years by multiple federal and state agencies, including the Census Bureau, EPA and CARB, of this number, roughly 82%, or 27,000 locations, use PERC, widely acknowledged to be a hazardous substance, in one or more machines on a daily basis. It is estimated that each of these establishments purchases between 5 and 55 gallons per month of cleaning solvent(s) and related products, depending on machine size, age, volume (thru put) and location. The territory covered by our expanded and exclusive agreement with Enviro Tech includes more than 10,000 of these establishments nationwide, or roughly 37% of the machines convertible from PERC to the DrySolv™ solvent, soap and spotting chemicals. This translates to a market potential of approximately 2,500,000 gallons on an annualized basis.”
Gathright concluded,“We believe in the bright future for this product and the contribution it can make to our revenues and profits. Our implementations in Texas and Florida, to date, have generated great enthusiasm with facility owners/operators about these products and their potential to reduce overall operating costs, improve the workplace and benefit the environment. With this new agreement, we are dramatically accelerating our marketing efforts to take advantage of this significant opportunity.”