I am struggling with figuring out if this car wash is a good deal or over priced. It was sold from the original owner two years ago and upgraded with automatic machine vs hand wash. The Yelp reviews are bad under the new ownership vs the original owner. They have upgraded the car wash and modernized it but customers aren’t happy with cost of services and damage from the automatic machine wash. The property was appraised at 2.8 to 3.1 with renovations. They are asking for 4.2 million for it. I have attached profit and loss statement and just wanted to get some insight from anyone who owns a car wash. I am interested in buying a business and trying to find the best investment.
Buying a car wash
- Thread starter JulieM
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Earl Weiss
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First of all it' not an investment - it's a job. Numbers don't look right - starting with Payroll for a Lube and Wash? Open how many hours a week?
Greg Pack
Wash Weenie
Underperformer. Price is way too high. Express tunnels are selling for 8-10X EBITDA and are much less hassle that a full serve site with detailing& Lube.
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A facility with a C-store, car wash, detailing and lube grossing less than $1M per year? I don't see how there would be any profit left after expenses. With all those profit centers, it should be grossing 4x that amount.
If you can afford to pay for a $4M business, buy an express tunnel. Much less headache than dealing with all those employees/profit centers.
If you can afford to pay for a $4M business, buy an express tunnel. Much less headache than dealing with all those employees/profit centers.
Roz
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Or for the same investment you can buy one or two IBA/SS locations with better numbers and fewer employees.
Impossible to give a fair assessment with just the info posted as it may be a mismanaged diamond in the rough. to build a new place like above you probably my need to have at least $5M so equipment costs have risen significantly as have local permit and water/sewer hookup costs.
if seriously considering you might consider hiring a carwash consultant who currently operates or owns a carwash. But that is another potential pitfall too as many consultants do not know up from down.
if Sonny’s did the renovation they may be able to help you understand why the place is under performing. All business types seem to be underperforming which may be due to challenge hiring good people or just the nightmare of managing a lot of workers.
Impossible to give a fair assessment with just the info posted as it may be a mismanaged diamond in the rough. to build a new place like above you probably my need to have at least $5M so equipment costs have risen significantly as have local permit and water/sewer hookup costs.
if seriously considering you might consider hiring a carwash consultant who currently operates or owns a carwash. But that is another potential pitfall too as many consultants do not know up from down.
if Sonny’s did the renovation they may be able to help you understand why the place is under performing. All business types seem to be underperforming which may be due to challenge hiring good people or just the nightmare of managing a lot of workers.
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