P & G Introduces Home Dry-Cleaning Product

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co. on Wednesday introduced a new home-use product designed to tap into the $8-billion dry-cleaning market. Dryel allows consumers to use clothes dryers to launder dry-clean-only clothes. The new product will retail at about $10 a box, which the company said translates to about $1 per garment cleaned. P&G; has also announced an ambitious plan to double its total annual sales to $70 billion by 2006. The strategy calls for the introduction of products outside of Procter & Gamble’s core businesses. Procter & Gamble stock rose $1.31 to close at $74.56 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.