Fresh Laundries: One Year, Zero Complaints

Success Story: by Cleo Quijano, Owner of Fresh laundries. “Twelve months serving Vallejo City Unified School District, zero complaints.” per Cleo.

Here’s how it started: Guerilla marketing, flyers and the unglamorous kind of hustle nobody posts about. Renee saw one and recommended them. That’s the entire origin story of their largest institutional relationship.

Small operators often think winning institutional work requires a sales team or an inside procurement contact. It doesn’t. It requires being visible, then being flawless. Visibility gets you the meeting, consistency gets you the renewal.

The flyers were cheap. The year of clean service was not. Cleo is Grateful to Renee, and to his team that shows up. Less Laundry, more Living.

About Cleo Quijano

Cleo Quijano came to the United States in 2011 with nothing but spare change in my pocket and a belief that hard work could build something real. That belief came from his parents. His dad and mom never finished high school, but they built businesses, raised a family, and sent their kids to private school through sheer grit and determination. Growing up in Cebu, Philippines, he watched them and learned the most important lesson of his life — your circumstances don’t determine your ceiling.

Cleo spent years in corporate America, most recently as a Project Manager at Corteva Agriscience where he managed capital and CAPEX projects worth over $20 million. Good work, good money. But when the company made the decision to leave California at the end of 2024, he didn’t see a layoff. He saw a door opening.

In 2022, his wife and he acquired a rundown laundromat that had been serving the Fairfield community for over 30 years. The equipment was old, the business was worn, and the previous owner was ready to walk away. They saw an opportunity where others saw a risk. They rebranded it Fresh Laundries — and then almost immediately faced their first major test when a fire broke out from the inherited old dryers. They didn’t walk away. They rebuilt, remodeled, and came back stronger.

What followed humbled them deeply, the City of Fairfield named us Business of the Year, they received the Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce Buzz Award for MCE Sustainable Business, the Spirit of Solano Award, and most recently BusinessRate 2026 ranked Fresh Laundries #1 Laundry Service in California out of 495 businesses statewide. These awards belong to every customer who trusted them with their laundry and every partner who believed in their vision. Cleo also serves as a Board Member at the North Texas Street Business Association, working alongside fellow entrepreneurs to strengthen the businesses and families on their street.

Currently Cleo is building Laundropinoy — a brand rooted in the belief that clean laundry is about more than clean clothes. It’s about dignity. Cleo’s long-term vision is a non-profit mobile laundry serving underserved communities across Asia, starting with the Philippines. It starts here, in Fairfield, with every load we wash and every customer we serve.

If you’re a fellow entrepreneur, a community builder, or someone who believes business can be a force for good — Cleo wants to connect.

For more information visit https://www.freshlaundries.com/, or email cleo@freshlaundries.com.