AutoLaundry News Proforma - is it realistic

[BubblesIllinois]

Hey everyone. Thank you for letting me into this group. I'm humbled by the knowledge.

I'm looking at acquiring a well established wash - although tired and in need of some TLC and curb appeal. I've found 3 that look interesting.

I've been provided an article by Auto Laundry News which surveyed 2020 owners of IBAs and SS washes. It concludes that the national average cars per year for an IBA is just over 17,000 and revenue for a SS is approx $1785 a bay per month. Is anyone familiar with the survey and does it seem credible?

I've also been provided a pro forma worksheet from AutoLaundry that generates numbers that are even higher than the survey.

I intend to make this my full time gig, and know there is a big investment and a lot of work involved to go from "tired" to the national average.

The washes I'm looking at are not doing nearly what these two documents suggest they could. I'm trying to gauge what a realistic target might be. I see no reason why I can't attain "average", but want to model only attaining 60% of average.

So for those of you in suburban settings, do you have any faith in the 2020 survey?

 

[OurTown]

I have faith in it but there are a few things to consider. One is that it matters where your market is located and can very greatly in pricing and of course local competition. The second is that I speculate that the participants in the survey are some of the better operators and so the revenue numbers may be a little higher than the real national average.

 

[BubblesIllinois]

I have faith in it but there are a few things to consider. One is that it matters where your market is located and can very greatly in pricing and of course local competition. The second is that I speculate that the participants in the survey are some of the better operators and so the revenue numbers may be a little higher than the real national average.

That is a great point. I am sure the only respondents to the survey were people vested in their business and its success, and who subscribe to industry publications and such. I'm currently setting my 2 year target at 60% of the "national average", for the purposes of financial modeling.

 

[soonermajic]

I think those #'s are inflated by as much as 50%.
Id say IBA close to 12,000 & SS bays closer to $1,000.

 

[DavidM]

Not useful for what you are trying to do. First, that survey is not a representative sample.
Second, an individual location is impacted by a wide variety of factors. Location, competition, demographics, and maintenance all play a big role.

 

[jrauth]

My humble thoughts on this is you have to have an average location and the condition of the wash and the quality of the washes themselves have to be average in order for your gross and net income to be average. Meaning if you buy a subpar wash in bad condition and do not renovate it then the number will likely not improve.