One of Signal Mountain's oldest businesses at the top of the summit is gone with the winds of the new year and has merged with a competitor at the foot of the mountain.
Signal Mountain Cleaners, which started in 1957 at its Mississippi Avenue site, closed Thursday and has joined with Carriage Cleaners on Signal Mountain Road.
"My equipment was old. I was old," quipped longtime Signal Mountain Cleaners owner Nanci Kelly, 75. "The time had just come."
Robert Whitmire, who owns Carriage Cleaners, said all the orders of the top-of-the-mountain business will be transferred down to Carriage.
"We'll take New Year's Day to get situated," he said. "Saturday morning we'll be right back in business."
Whitmire and Kelly said she has agreed to work at Carriage on a part-time basis.
Kelly said she doesn't own the 821 Mississippi Ave. building, though it was constructed to hold the cleaners.
She said her first husband started the business and she has been running it since the mid-1970s. Her second husband later worked at the business, as well as her son-in-law.
Kelly said she "absolutely has mixed feelings" about the merger, noting some people don't like to leave the mountain. But, the dry cleaning business has changed, Kelly said.
"People wear more casual stuff," she said.
IBISWorld, an industry research group, said the dry cleaning business nationally has retreated over the past five years, with annual growth falling 0.3 percent from 2010 to 2015. It cites falling demand, shifts in consumer preferences and increasing competition from coin-operated laundromats.
Whitmire said the dry cleaning business is tougher, citing higher costs.
"The overhead to operate a small facility is getting people," he said, adding that several Chattanooga area dry cleaners have closed or consolidated in 2015. "The volume has to be there to support the overhead."
Whitmire said his goal is to hike revenues by about 60 percent at the Carriage Cleaners store with the addition of Signal Mountain Cleaners business.
In addition to Kelly's presence, Whitmire said the 715 Signal Mountain Road store has added new personnel and received about $50,000 in upgrades. He said it makes sense to focus on the Signal Mountain Road facility as most people come off the mountain and it also catches other surrounding business.
Whitmire also owns a Carriage Cleaners on Dayton Boulevard, which is the original store started in 1960, as well as Mountain City Cleaners on Broad Street and Big Ridge Cleaners in Hixson. The sites employ about 40 people, he said.
Whitmire's father, Ralph, who originally started the business as White Star Cleaners, also is at the Signal Mountain Road store, the owner said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.