About Us

Lapels Cleaners was founded in 2000 to become the 1st Environmentally Friendly Dry Cleaning franchise available. At the time being environmentally friendly was just gaining traction but Lapels saw the Future of Dry Cleaning early on and since has not only been the leader in this space as we continue to define The Future of this great industry.

Kevin DuBois, CEO

Kevin started his journey into entrepreneurship at the age of 18 with the opening of his first restaurant, growing that small business into 6 restaurants and banquet facilities in 3 years, all by the age of 21.

Kevin was first introduced to the dry cleaning industry after he purchased an established restaurant from the founder of a nationally recognized dry cleaner in 2001. Drawn to the low cost of industry goods and by the lack of perishable inventory, Kevin quickly became an active partner in this firm. After several years of learning the dry cleaning business, he bought out his partner, and then, as CEO, began growing the brand from 20 storefronts to over 100 storefronts today.

In 2021, Kevin acquired the Martinizing, 1-800-Dry-Cleaning, Pressed 4 Time, Dry Cleaning Station, and Bizziebox franchises and created a newly formed entity, Clean Franchise Brands. Clean Franchise Brands affordss unique value to its franchise partners around the globe by offering operations strategies and marketing systems that continue to propel these brands to further growth.

Michael Eisner

VP- Franchise Development and Real Estate, After a successful 15 year career in sales and management for one of the largest privately held technology companies in the world, Michael was looking for a change as he was constantly traveling around the country on business. In 2001, Michael became the first franchisee for Lapels Cleaners and has been instrumental in the development of the Award Winning Brand ever since. In 2005, Michael sold his franchise and joined the Lapels Corporate office full time. Today, Michael’s focus is on Franchise Development and growing the Lapels Brand as the Vice President of Franchise Development.

David Grippi, COO

David Grippi has over 30 years of dry cleaning expertise as a 3rd generation dry cleaner. As Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Clean Brands, Dave manages a team who oversees the daily operations across all franchise locations, ensuring consistency in service quality, operational efficiency, and brand standards. He partners with various vendors to manage supply chains, streamline processes, and implements best practices to maximize productivity and customer satisfaction. Dave is very involved with the franchise owners, providing support and training to help them succeed while driving the overall growth and profitability of the franchise network.

Shelby Hesters

Franchise Development Liaison: Shelby has over six years of experience in the legal field within the QSR franchising industry. In February 2025, she joined Clean Brands as part of the Franchise Development team. Shelby is the primary point of contact in coordinating territory checks, scheduling appointments, managing incoming leads, updating broker portals and assisting with interdepartmental initiatives and tasks.

Keith Kocher

Business Coach: As a Franchisee Business Coach with Clean Brands, Keith plays a pivotal role in supporting our franchisees by offering both on-site and phone support, along with training on best practices. His expertise covers everything from front-of-store operations, including customer service representative training and Spot POS system training, to back-of-store processes like cleaning challenging garments, preventative maintenance of equipment, and managing day-to-day operational questions.

Ted Sontag

Business Coach: Ted Sontag is a third generation dry cleaner. After selling the family business in 2011, Ted became a multi-unit general manager and franchise trainer with Tide Dry Cleaners in Cincinnati, OH. In 2017, Mr. Sontag joined Martinizing International LLC as Field Operations Training and Support Manager, the role he assumed with Clean Franchise Brands in April 2021. Ted works with franchisees across the states from Nebraska to Maine assisting with daily operations to help their business run smoothly.

Shannon Folk

Business Coach: Shannon has joined our team as a Business Coach and our new Onboarding and Training Specialist. With over 25 years of industry experience, including 9 years in franchising, Shannon brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our organization.
In her new role, Shannon will focus on onboarding new franchisees and providing comprehensive training and support for new store openings. Her extensive background in franchising makes her an invaluable asset as we continue to expand and enhance our franchise network.

Eileen Curto

Director of Marketing: Eileen was brought on board in 2020 to help our franchisees with all marketing initiatives stemming from onboarding to our national marketing campaigns to individual day-day store location marketing efforts. As a member of the Clean Franchise Brands Corporate Staff, she leads the marketing strategy for all brands and ensures brand standards are being met across the network. Eileen has over 30 years of marketing experience, which includes owning her own consulting business to help companies who need marketing assistance, but don’t have full-time staff on board.

Laurie Von Minden

Accounting Director: Working with the franchising world is not new to Laurie. Her first position in accounting was for Showbiz Pizza (Chuck E. Cheese) out of Dallas and she brings to Clean Franchise Brand this past knowledge. Laurie is responsible for executing all operational processes including general ledger, billing, collections, vendors, disbursements, revenue recognition and expense accruals and deferrals. Her duties expand across the accounting realm of preparing tax documents, financial statements and account reconciliations, cash forecasting, management of payroll and benefits and such. Laurie is instrumental in developing accounting procedures and recommending process improvements.

Molly Ferstel

Accounting/Human Resources Manager: Reporting to the Director of Finance, Molly joined the Clean Brands team to assist with the financial reporting, budgeting, and auditing of Clean Brands’ subsidiaries. In addition to her financial responsibilities, Molly also manages Human Resources including payroll, benefits and recruiting. Prior to joining Clean Brands full-time, Molly provided out-sourced accounting, human resources, and due diligence services to small businesses. Molly holds both a Certified Public Accountant and Real Estate Broker License in Illinois.

Jack Brand

Director of Legal Operations: Jack was brought on with Clean Brands as a corporate paralegal, where he will assist the legal team with document preparation and franchising compliance. Jack served as a litigation paralegal for two separate business law firms located in New York and Florida. He is a Northeastern University Graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Political Science and a focus in Business Law and Policy.

Mandy Lloyd

Legal Assistant: As Legal Assistant, Mandy supports the legal department with a range of administrative and operational tasks. Her responsibilities include preparing and reviewing legal documents for franchisees, maintaining the legal document library, managing internal legal trackers, and providing cross-departmental support as needed. Mandy brings over five years of experience in franchise development to her role at Clean Brands.

Hannah Long

IT Specialist: Hannah Long provides tech support for franchisees, helps manage Clean Brands’ websites, and helps with the development of IT solutions to improve the company’s efficiency.