Opinions

[pgrzes]

Ok, So I know the opinions are worth what I am going to pay for them!
I have a 46 year old wash. 7 SS. bays, vacs, vend and a 44' EE about 15 yrs. old. Business is in the dumps since Oct. 2007. we all know economy, gas, terrible weather conditions for last 3 years. Oh yeah my road has been closed since Oct. 2010, soon to re-open(I hope!!). Anyway, there are 3 EE within 1.5 miles and a FS About 1/4 mile away, all have been around for 30+ Years. My equip. is getting old, so is now the time to make a change and go to touch free Automatic?? Be the first to be different? I know the bay is a little long for auto, but I could keep my dryer stand for added pkg, and maybe my cta's. I figure for $80k I can do a changeover or a conveyor redo for the same maybe a little less. I am thinking switching to auto I am offering something new and therefore should garner new interest. Would really love to sell location, but with the brokers I have spoken with they are not interested in trying to sell. So I figure try something different???
Well in advance thanks and I appreciate any + input.

 

[wood]

random thoughts:

if you put in a automatic would you be competing against a gas station site that you don't presently consider competition?

a 44' exterior is just about as small a conveyor package as one can go. are you able to lengthen the building? if so, add 30', maybe prep and/or towel dry to set you apart from the EE. does the full serve offer an exterior with towel dry? if so how much do they charge compared to you and EE?

the $80,000 for automatic retrofit seems quite low. equipment removal, concrete fill in for conveyor pit, increased hot water supply, increased spot free supply, electric, plumbing all need to be accounted for. in addition, the style of overhead doors might need to be changed out to handle the more frequent opening and closing vs a conveyor tunnel.

times are tough for real estate brokers too. why wouldn't someone want to list it?

good luck,
wood

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

ouch, sounds like a difficult situation. Tough to give opinions on a major investment without more info.

Any SS competition?
Any touch free competition?
any gas/cstore competition?
demographics?
condition of building, paving, bays, etc?
location specifics, eg traffic, destination, access...
how bad is the road closure, ie are you effectively re-opening?
condition of competition (all the same info)
why doesnt this broker want to take the listing?? That could be key info.
how are revenues currently, what has been the 5 year trend, what do you forecast for next year?
how do your revenues break down between SS & EE?

Yes I completely understand if you dont want to make all that info public

my initial reaction is that I'd be leery of a major investment, I'd probably focus on the SS and get revenues stable/growing, preferably with lower risk/$ investment activities. Thats partly based on my assumption of little or no SS competition though

 

[buda]

Stay with the conveyorized system.

A roll over, touchless or friction CANNOT compete with a conveyor wash.

You will always be able to wash more cars with a conveyor systems. A roll over will NEVER do more than 1500 to 2000 cars per month, a conveyor even a short one can do 4,000 to 7,000 cars per month.

If you give a good price, quality service, consistent service you can compete with the other washes. With a roll over you cannot. Sure a touchless roll over might get a few customers who are misinformed about automatic washes and believe it is safer for the car, but as we all know the touchless systems are worse on a car's finish. Acid and alkaline or strong alkaline chemicals are harmful to the car's finish, wheels, glass and other trim.

The manufacturer's would void the paint warranty if they knew a car was washed with acid.

We have two short tunnels in my city, one 45' that washes over 7,000 cars per month another 50' in a small suburban village (pop. 6000) that washes 4,000+

It has to do with equipment layout.

Just a few well intentioned thoughts

Regards
Bud Abraham

 

[briteauto]

I agree with Bud. You are really cutting down your chances of success if you take out a tunnel and replace it with a touchfree. I know firsthand of two washes in Syracuse, NY that were both cloth exterior washes. Delta Sonic came in and, naturally, ate into their business. They responded by ripping out 80 - 100 foot cloth conveyor washes and replacing with a Laser in one and a Vector in the other. Now they have something "different."

Their thought process was "we can now wash cars 24 hours a day, without an attendant and offer the much sought after "touchfree" wash. We'll increase our business and be able to compete with Delta.

The reality is: they now have locations that cannot compete at all with the quality of Delta Sonic because:

1) they are touchfree and are physically unable to clean as effectively as touch washes, yet they have to charge as much as a tunnel because of the chemical and utility costs.

2) they have no attendants and cannot prep, towel instruct, sell, guide, etc.

3) if any potential customers see even the slightest line, they know it will take 20 - 30 minutes for them to reach the wash. They will now most definitely go to Delta Sonic where they can be in and out in a matter of minutes even with 10 people in front of them.

The advantage to their switchover: they can now wash a car at 3:00AM

They basically did Delta a favor, and you will be doing the same for your competition.

Also - these operators have 100 foot long buildings (I know yours is shorter) that are being heated as if they were using the entire 100 feet. If you were going to buy an IBA and build the building , you'd probably do a 40 - 50 foot building - enough to house the IBA and perhaps a stand alone dryer. Why would you want to heat more space than you use?

Use what you've got and make it better.

Best of luck to you.

Mike

 

[pgrzes]

Ok, so best year in 46 years of operation was 2005 we did 24,500 cars. 2011 we will be lucky to see 10,000 location avg. has been about 14,000. I understand you CAN do more cars in a day with a conveyor. Fact of the matter is it has never done more then 400 cars in a given day. There is only 1 automatic within 5 miles. Only 1 other SS its about 1.5 miles. No gas/Conv. Store washes around. Oh yeah the other automatic is the busiest wash around. I know that the biggest factor right now is the road I am on has been closed for 13 months, and hopefully opening next month.
I cannot add to the building. I do not own property, it is a long term lease that has been in the same family forever, thats the main reason brokers dont want it, plus the fact that pretty much every wash around is for sale right now.

 

[MEP001]

Ok, So I know the opinions are worth what I am going to pay for them!

Is a distributor pressuring you to remove the tunnel equipment and put in a touch-free auto? Because the opinions here should be worth a lot more to you than those of someone who stands to profit from theirs.

 

[Waxman]

I see going from a tunnel wash to an IBA as going backwards and that is something I never want to do in business.

It seems to make more sense to make improvements to what you have.

I have a touchfree IBA. It's okay, but I could make alot more $$ if I were better-able to satisfy peak carwash demand when it arises.

There are many directions you could go with marketing your wash once the road re-opens; hold a grand re-opening celebration, give away some washes, go after fleet accounts, etc.

Do not take the backwards step of converting a conveyorized wash to an IBA. It will be the last mistake you make in the carwash business.

But hey, I'm the new guy here; what do I know???

 

[briteauto]

Ok, so best year in 46 years of operation was 2005 we did 24,500 cars. 2011 we will be lucky to see 10,000 location avg. has been about 14,000. I understand you CAN do more cars in a day with a conveyor. Fact of the matter is it has never done more then 400 cars in a given day. There is only 1 automatic within 5 miles. Only 1 other SS its about 1.5 miles. No gas/Conv. Store washes around. Oh yeah the other automatic is the busiest wash around. I know that the biggest factor right now is the road I am on has been closed for 13 months, and hopefully opening next month.
I cannot add to the building. I do not own property, it is a long term lease that has been in the same family forever, thats the main reason brokers dont want it, plus the fact that pretty much every wash around is for sale right now.

You state that there is only one automatic within 5 miles and that wash is the busiest wash around. Aside from their road not being closed, what do they offer that you don't? Why are they getting more customers than you do? What do they do better than you do? Is their product better - their attendants friendlier - their soap thicker and their wax better smelling - their tunnel brighter? We could go on forever.

Sometimes it is tough when we are in the trenches day to day at your own operation, but any business person, car washer or not, has to consistently assess what they are doing good or bad in a very objective way. There is a reason (probably several) they are washing more than you, and if you know why, you can do something about it.

You also said that pretty much every other wash is for sale right now - whatever washes these are can't be setting the world on fire if they are for sale. Concentrate on the one that is taking the biggest piece of the pie and put yourself in a position to compete with them. I'm assuming that one is not for sale if they are doing the most volume.

Like Waxman said, be fresh and revitalized when that road re-opens. That is most certainly a bad piece of luck - being on a closed road - something you could not control, but once it opens, you should use it as an opportunity for people to "rediscover" you by offering the best wash in town.

Best of luck.

 

[pgrzes]

Just a follow up.
On December 7th 2012 I began a tear out of my Tunnel. On Jan16th we started running test washes, For the month of Feb. we ran normal hours of operation attended to get people acclamated to the Washworld High Velocity we installed. Month of Feb we were down just under 100 cars from previous year, March opened 24 hours mostly unattended car count up just under 300 cars, April up almost 600 cars, May and June both about 300 cars up. So far its been the best move, but its only a short timeline so far.
I put in a nice used Washworld HV, with a Hamilton Gold Line. We put an A roof over the tunnel section of the building and dressed up the fascia's. Added new Airlift Extreme XRS Doors, New lighting in bay. I did the complete remodel for around $120k, Included with that was 9 Coleman combo vacs and a 7 bay Coleman super saver pump stand that I went down and pulled from a closed wash in Ga. The self serve will be next for the facelift. I had to put a few thousand into the vacs for missing parts, but so far I have finished 6 of them and replaced my old Monorails. So with all of our bays and vacuums now having electronic coin acceptance our overall customer experience is overwhelmingly good. Overall business is up around 35%. No more worries whether or not help will show up, and the marginal days are of no concern. I have not had a 0 car day since March. Business between 6-10 pm is really unbelievable. I understand on those "BUSY DAYS" I wont do as many cars BUT I will most definitely wash more cars over a years time then what we were washing. The 1 downfall has been recieving a phone call from the machine for a trouble code ALWAYS happens at the most inopportune times!!!
if you would like to look at the changes here is the link to my facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Magic-Touch-Car-Wash/183159422860?ref=hl

 

[Ric]

Nice job! You will be happy with the High Velocity and the support from Wash World.

 

[smokun]

A sensible option to consider is a flex-serve retrofit designed/tailored to your marketplace demand and site configuration. If your location is favorable, with easy accessibility and exposure, you will quickly become a destination location due to the many consumer choices offered at a one-stop site.

You will be able to compete head-on with all your competition... with a significant competitive edge of offering "everything" at a single location. Regardless of whether you decide to stay and continue as an operator or develop an exit strategy flip, the competitive edge is sustainable.

But, given the amount of confusing opinions and "expert" recommendations, be sure to get help in developing the upgrade properly. While many suppliers may simply try to plug their system into your site, the marketing and operational plan must embrace the most effective strategy. You will offer no hassle express-exterior benefits as well as filling the occasional need for hands-on extras that are found in the full-service competition, only quicker and at a better value. As well, you can offer a full range of detailing services, from express to everything else. Plus, you can easily augment additional profit centers that the marketplace requires because consumers can decide their purchases on-site that address their particular need "at that moment". Flex-Serve has been compared to the wide choice of options of a big-box store... with the value-added logic and flexibility of numerous specialty stores.

Bottom-Line: The awesome marketing power of choice for consumers with varying needs... combined with the efficacy of deploying cross-trained labor working in a scalable labor platform... while remaining reactive and current to changing weather impacts... and enjoying a robust return-on-investment with enhanced net profitability. It all comes down to not only "what" you do... but also "how" you do it!