Have you ever known a person who let a blow out on a freeway determine where he would settle with his wife and children?
Meet Kevin Henrie, owner of Wash Worx Commercial Laundry Repair Service.
He and his wife, Kim, who had lived in Phoenix for a while, were looking for places they might like to live and decided to head north.
“The car blew a tire right on the 17 just before Lake Mary Road. While we were sitting by the side of the road, we could see the San Francisco Peaks and my wife said, ‘This is it.’ She is usually right.”
That was 10 years ago.
Now, Henrie is the owner of the commercial laundry repair service and travels all over Northern Arizona, from Prescott to Page and Window Rock to Kingman and probably knows the region better than most residents.
“I probably know more about Northern Arizona than most people who were born here because of what I do and the places I go,” he said. “This state is so beautiful. I am proud to be a tax paying resident of Arizona.”
Henrie is a native of upstate New York.
“I was in the car wash business. I had four locations and a repair shop with two trucks and a flatbed.”
He met his wife through the business when she bought a new car and used a promotion coupon for a free car wash provided by Henrie.
“She came in. I asked her out and we’ve been together ever since,” he said.
They will celebrate 20 years of marriage this October.
“She is my best friend,” he said. “My wife is an extraordinary woman. She helps me with the business with taxes and paperwork.”
She also works at Northern Arizona University in the human resources department.
The couple has four children.
Up until they decided to move to Arizona, he was working two jobs to make ends meet.
They lived in Phoenix for a while and then started looking around. Because of the blow out, they decided on Flagstaff.
He went to work for the Days Inn on Route 66.
“That is how I met the gentleman who got me started in this business,” Henrie said. “He was getting ready to retire and looking for someone to take over.”
That was about 10 years ago.
Henrie said the thought of working on washers did not phase him one bit.
“Washers are machines. All they do is wash clothes,” he said.
He repairs, services and installs all types of commercial laundry equipment, from 20 pounds all the way up to the huge 190 pound commercial machines that launder sheets and towels from hotels.
“My mainstay is on-premise laundries at hotels, long-term care facilities, hospitals, coin operated establishments and at NAU.”
If he receives an out-of-town call that is a distance to drive, he does not charge them the service call. He just charges for the labor.
In the future, Henrie says he is hoping to open up a shop where he can start selling new and used equipment and bring on another full-time tech.
Fully licensed and insured, he says he loves being an independent businessman.
“When you do what you love, it comes so easily and it is not really a job. The benefit of what I do is that it is always different. I don’t always know where I’m going, who I’m going to meet, and I have the privilege of driving all over Northern Arizona and I get paid to do it,” he said. QCBN
For more information about Wash Worx Commercial Laundry Repair Service, call
928-600-9446.
Photo caption:
Kevin Henrie travels all over Central and Northern Arizona keeping washing machines working in hospitals, hotels, laundromats and homes.
Photo by Veronica Tierney, Fresh Focuses Photography
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