Boston Business Journal Executive Profile with Christa Hagearty

Boston Business Journal Executive Profile with Christa Hagearty

Christa Hagearty is no stranger to business crises. It’s how you respond to them that counts, according to the CEO of Quincy-based Dependable Cleaners.

After her uncle Fred Fawcett, the company’s co-owner, died in 1993, Hagearty met with her father and co-owner Donald Fawcett Jr. to discuss the next steps. “I thought we were going to prepare the business to sell, but we came up with a good strategic plan,” Hagearty said. “We had a lot of late-night talks about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to be.”

Hagearty, then a 26-year-old business student, charted a path for the company’s evolution and growth. Since Hagearty became CEO in 1994, Dependable Cleaners has expanded from 12 to 18 locations, added home pickup and delivery service in Boston and 29 suburbs, and branched out into specialty services designed to appeal to well-heeled and time-strapped customers. Over the last 19 years, the 210-employee company’s annual revenue has grown from $5 million to $14.5 million.

A Hingham native, Hagearty helped out in the family’s stores as a teen but sought outside career experience after college. She was working for an insurance company in Boston at the time of her uncle’s death.

“I came in (to the family business) and ended up falling in love with it and stayed,” Hagearty said. This year, Dependable Cleaners is making its way back from another unexpected blow.

On a Saturday afternoon last July, Hagearty received a call at her Cohasset home with the news that a massive fire had broken out at the company’s Quincy headquarters. By the time Hagearty arrived, firefighters had abandoned attempts to save the building, which also housed a laundromat and Dependable’s second-largest dry-cleaning facility.

In the aftermath, operations were transferred to Dependable’s other cleaning facility in Dorchester, and many employees worked double shifts to cope with the increased load. In the ensuing months new equipment was installed at stores in West Quincy and Braintree, but the company was unable to cope with the busier winter dry-cleaning volume and lost approximately $500,000 in sales as a result of the fire, Hagearty estimated. Still, the financial hit might have been greater if not for Dependable’s steady expansion of its products and services.

In 2005, it began offering home pickup and delivery service. In addition to traditional dry cleaning, Dependable has added restoration services for vintage garments and cleaning services of home furnishings.

Dependable offers hand cleaning of high-end clothing items at its two Newbury Street stores in Boston and its Coolidge Corner location in Brookline. At the same time, it’s raising its profile with its first-ever team sponsorship signed in May as the official dry cleaners of the Boston Breakers of the National Women’s Soccer League.

Another pet cause is Dependable’s “Read to Ride” program, now in its 15th year, which encourages children to read books by offering chances to win bikes and other prizes. A self-described bookworm, Hagearty recently finished “Lean In” by Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and has absorbed its guidance for female entrepreneurs.

“Women need to stand up for themselves and find out what’s the best overall fit. Sometimes women can focus on relationships more than the importance of the negotiation,” Hagearty said.

Phyllis Godwin, CEO and owner of Granite City Electric in Quincy, said Hagearty has a track record of even-tempered leadership in trying circumstances.

“She’s looking at (the fire) now as an opportunity to build a better building to her specifications,” Godwin said. “She’s just rolling with it without a hiccup.”