My business partner and I are exploring building a new wash in our small town, and I would appreciate any and all opinions on what we should go with and what we have so far. Town population is roughly 3,000, county population probably in the neighborhood of 30,000. There is one other wash in town with 2 IBA and 2 self serve bays. This location has extremely antiquated POS technology, and4-5 year old WashWorld equipment in bay. It does a relatively poor job of washing in my opinion, possibly due to lack of updating support equipment, chemical choice, poor upkeep, etc. Also this location does not let you throw away trash, and has old vacuums. All this to say, I don't think it would be a problem to take their business if we built a nice and well maintained wash, with modern technology. We would be building on the main highway into and out of town, that averages about 6000 cars per day. We also have a large tourist volume with a large local lake and many campgrounds and attractions etc. We are considering doing 2 IBA and 2 self serve bays, with a potential taller self serve on the outside for boat and RV traffic. We have talked with Wash World, Sonny's, and Blast Off so far. Any input on these companies, or others we should look at would be appreciated. Does this seem like a profitable scenario for us? We have ran some numbers, but educated input from people in the industry would be very helpful. Any tips or things to look out for? Thanks for your time and input!!!
Car Wash Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Opinions on a new build, Please.
- Thread starter JJB
- Start date
That is not enough population or traffic to support a new build especially if you have to split the business with another wash, just my 2 cents. Much better off trying to buy the other wash and upgrading. Most people underestimate the cost of building a new wash and how much profit it takes to turn a decent ROI
That very well could be the case, and we may approach him about buying at some point, but I highly doubt he would. I appreciate the reply.
eckert16
Active member
If you don't ask the other owner...then the answer about the other owner selling or not is automatically going to be 'No, I won't sell my wash'. nice thing about buying someone else's wash....is the legal 'grandfather clause' which allows it to continue to function in most places.
Very True, while I can't imagine him selling, he might be willing to. That would present it's own unique set of challenges though, being that his house is directly behind the wash. We would either have to purchase the house as well, which we could never sell in it's location. Or, if we were able to only buy the carwash, we would have to give him some sort of permanent easement through the lot which could present problems down the road if we ever decided to change layouts or anything. Buying a current wash and upgrading would definitely be a great situation for us, I just don't think it's in the cards for us. But, as you said, if we don't ask, the answer is definitely no. Thanks!
