Recent Articles in P C & D #2

[Uncle Sam]

The June, 2014 issue of the Professional Carwashing and Detailing magazine had an article about “Additional Profit Centers” at a car wash that I think is worth commenting upon. The Profit Centers were evaluated on initial cost, ROI, maintenance requirements, and success. The four centers were a Vending Machine, Pet Washes, Ice and Water vending machines, and Mat Cleaners. The numbers used in evaluating each of them were from industry people or consultants who were cited in the article. To read the article click on the link below:

http://www.carwash.com/articles/8941...enter-analysis

NEW HIGH TECH, HIGH SECURITY VENDING MACHINES---This profit center is most common and the only one I have real numbers that I can use to validate an investment. The article states that the initial investment is $1000-$5000 for a vending machine. A more accurate investment number for the car wash environment would be $4000-$7000 for a HIGH SECURITY vendor ready to plug in and make sales; the refurbished machines would be at the low end and the new VendPro-iG4 and large free standing machines at the high end. A wireless Credit Card system with a steel cover can be installed on any ShurVend machine for an additional $450. In the ShurVend machine this price would give the buyer a Mars bill validator, Mars changer, and the new LED lighting system which is much better than using fluoresents. We would recommend you stay away from chips, candy, and cold drinks because of the product dating issue and the cost of power for a refrigerated vendor. If the vendor has high visibility in the vacuum area of the wash, the sales numbers should be very good; 2-4 times what most drop shelf-vendors sales are. We have customers that average $8000 (or more) per year in vending sales of which $4000 is profit. That will give you an ROI of 50% or better rather than the 10% that the article states.

PET WASH

The initial cost is $14000 to $37500 which I will accept with the average pet wash owner spending $10-11 on each wash. If this is true, then people spend more money washing their pet than they usually do on their car!!! There are also vending products just for pets that can be another revenue source. The only negatives I have heard is the constant cleaning of the wash and keeping the “doggie odor” in check.

Cont'd

 

[Uncle Sam]

ICE AND WATER VENDING

The initial investment of $25000 - $120000 is considerable and would seem to me to be seasonal in nature. Unless you live in the southern half of the U.S. where it is hot much of the year, you would have a rather short season. Even though the cost to make ice is reasonable when compared to the selling price of ice, it could take a long time to pay off the investment.


MAT CLEANERS

The initial investment is $5900-$8200 which I will accept with all the other criteria in the article. The full serve washes use mat cleaning as part of their car wash package, so they can achieve a decent ROI for the service. Self-serve mat cleaning at an Express Exterior or Self-Serve wash would be a much more iffy service to get a decent ROI. The price for the service seems a little high at $5-$8 for a set of four mats.

After looking at all these investment opportunities considering the initial investment and the ROI, the biggest bang for the buck from best to least is the high tech vending machine, the mat cleaner, the Pet Wash, and finally the Ice and Water vending. The one thing in common on all these “additional profits centers” is question of security; any of them are vulnerable to vandalism of some sort. Vendor security has always been a deterrent for the purchase of a vendor by many operators, but now we think the security problems have been 99.5% solved, this profit center is still most the most profitable for the operator and enhances customer service.

Uncle Sam