Soap as a percentage of revenue

[trentu]

How much do you guys spend on soap/chemical as a percentage of gross revenue? I used 10% in my business calculations and that is about what I have done the last 3 years, but it is slowing sliding up from 9.6% towards about 10.2%. My soap supplier says that is still really good as he tells his customers they should expect 12-15% (of course I expect him to say that he is a soap supplier!!). What is the average out there? Thanks

Russ

 

[rph9168]

Seems like a pretty high percentage. Depending on what type of wash you have your percentage traditionally should be somewhere between 4 to 8% of the gross. Costs of almost all product lines (like many other things) have gone up quite a bit the last two years. If you have not increased your pricing it is possible that you could exceed the 8% figure but 10% still seems a bit steep.

 

[Jim L.]

2.5 to 5% depending on how much I have in inventory at the end of the year.

 

[cantbreak80]

All chemicals (HP soap, Pre-soak, FB soap, Tire Cleaner, and Wax)
2.6% of total gross revenue
3.5% of the bay revenue

 

[Red Baron]

Are we talking all bays? My auto is about 10% for soap alone. SS numbers bring that down some, but I don't know how you get the IBA cost down to 3.5%.

 

[ted mcmeekin]

We have 4/2 , purchase all soap from KR and never pay shipping. For 08 our soap/wax was 4.6% of gross. Autos produce 65% of revenue. Our biggest expense is water and sewer at 13 %.

Ted

 

[dclark3344]

I think you would have to figure in how much time you are giving per quarter. The guys giving 60 sec per quarter vs the ones giving 30 seconds per quarter are paying twice as much for chemical for the same amount of revenue. Like wise the friction automatic washes will pay a lot less for the chemical than the touch free automatics and there you have to consider price structure as well.

David in Oklahoma

 

[Mel(NC)]

I was at 7% for my SS using a local distributor. I just changed to KR and I think it will cut my bill by about 30%.