Dilek Colak with husband Huseyin Sener at As You Wish Dry Cleaners in Westbourne Road

A SMALL business is begging people to start dry cleaning their clothes again after lockdown kept its customers out of suits and has almost destroyed trade.

Dilek Colak has run As You Wish Dry Cleaners, in Highbury, for more than 10 years but said the family business is facing closure in a matter of weeks if customers do not start coming back into the Westbourne Road shop.

She said: “The problem is no one is going back into the office yet – or they’re going part-time – so still we don’t receive any suits or shirts as before. That’s why it’s really a problem for us.”

Ms Colak said the current trend to work from home has left dry cleaning businesses in tatters as they struggle to drum up business from customers who rarely get out of lounge pants and a jersey.

“I know from my friends, most of the places are closing down – we tried to be patient and have borrowed some money from friends and family, but we’re really on the line to close the business,” Ms Colak warned.

A former fashion student, she praised her “very nice” customers who came from as far afield as outside London for her tailoring, but said that without those also using her dry cleaning services she will go bust.

And in a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep things ticking over she has split the shop in two and now runs a small café from one part of it. But that hasn’t been enough to cover the bills and pay off the debts they have accrued.

“I just want people to see how much we’ve suffered – everybody knows how many businesses were affected – and how hard we are working,” she said.