Halifax basketball player Jayrell Diggs has won the Retail Prophet Innovation Award for his work at SudDrop, a venture which collects and delivers laundry.

The new award comes with a $2,500 prize and joins earlier awards Diggs has earned, including a big one from Futurpreneur, which netted him $10,000 for his business.

In an earlier interview with Entrevestor, Diggs said he will expand his laundry subscription service to Ontario this summer, with the hope of later growing across Canada.  

It was the experience of trying to fit laundry into his hectic schedule that inspired Diggs, now a fourth-year commerce student at Saint Mary's University, to launch the business at the beginning of 2023.

“As a student athlete, managing school, training, and daily responsibilities left little time for laundry. I realized if I had this problem, others probably did too," Diggs, a six-foot guard from East Preston, N.S., told Entrevestor.

To date, his HRM-based service has been divided about 50/50 between residential and commercial customers. The margins are lower with residential clients but the approach has helped his young company grow.

"One commercial client is equal to about ten residential clients, so commercial clients are a lot more profitable, but residential clients allow us to grow through word of mouth and brand recognition," he said.

Soon, he will launch in Ottawa with commercial clients. A bar and grill eatery is already on board and then he plans to expand to apartment complexes. Once the company app is up and running, he will extend the service to residential clients.

Ontario-based Retail Prophet said its clients include Fortune 500 brands, national retail chains, manufacturers, leading global marketing agencies, trade associations and government. Retail Prophet Founder Doug Stephens is the author of several books and is a columnist for CBC Radio.