There are several approaches to take to improving the profit picture of your car wash.  The 1st approach deals with reducing your cost of operation by maximizing the efficiency of your chemical application.  The 2nd approach deals with driving wash volume or changing the mix of your wash packages to increase revenue.  For purposes of this article I will focus primarily on the in bay automatic market although many of the ideas discussed apply equally as well to the tunnel and self-serve markets.

General Car Wash Opportunities
This article is primarily about the cost saving and revenue generating aspects of your carwash chemicals.  Before getting to chemicals specifically there are a couple of aspects of your wash not directly related to chemical application that need to be addressed. 

In order to either save money or to improve profits in your wash it has to be up and operating.  I strongly urge you to implement a preventive maintenance program for your wash.  If a customer drives up to a wash and finds it down he may be understanding and probably return at another time, but if it happens on multiple occasions that customer is going to look for another more dependable wash.  Spending a few dollars on preventive maintenance is definitely a worthwhile investment that will minimize downtime and retain customers.

I have seen various demographics of today’s carwash user.  The common element in most of the surveys is that over 60% of todays in bay automatic users are female.  Some common elements desired by this customer base is a clean, well lit and safe environment.  Take the time to clean your bays, perform pit maintenance and add lighting if needed.  Make your wash an environment that your customer feels comfortable using.  The customer is there to get a clean, dry, shiny vehicle and driving into a dirty, dingy, foul smelling bay is not very reassuring.

One area that I can’t over emphasis is the use of soft water.  For each grain of hardness in your water, chemical costs will increase 5% regardless of the brand of chemicals you are using.  The “hardness” elements in the water tie up the surfactants leaving less effective product to clean the vehicle. If you get beyond 3 grains of hardness effective cleaning in a touchfree environment becomes almost impossible.  Take the time to work through the math with your distributor.  A softener will more than pay for itself in a very short period of time.  If you already have a softener, monitor its output on a regular basis so that it is indeed providing the soft water and chemical savings you’ve paid for.

Chemical Cost Saving Opportunities

When looking at cost savings in a wash the chemicals normally are the first thing reviewed.  This is somewhat natural, as there is little that can be done about electricity, water, taxes or fixed overhead.  Chemicals traditionally make up about 11% of a wash expense.

The greatest cost savings potential in chemicals is normally found in the presoak applications of the wash.  Minimizing presoak chemical costs is not just about paying less for a drum of chemicals.  The concentration of the chemical as well as the effectiveness of the product must be evaluated on a cost per car basis to do get a true picture of your cost.   You have the opportunity to purchase a $300 drum of presoak or a $600 drum of presoak.  The assumption can’t automatically be made that the $300 drum is less expensive.   If you have to use 10 oz of product per car of the $300 drum and can get by with 5 oz. per car with the $600 drum your cost per car is identical and you save on the additional freight and handling associated with using more drums of product during the course of a year.  Do yourself a favor and either learn how to do a true cost per car analysis or ask you distributor to perform one for you on a regular basis.

Regardless of the presoak chemicals you are using there are savings opportunities available to you on a seasonal basis.  Again working with a reliable distributor that knows his market will allow you to reduce chemical usage during the easy cleaning periods of the year and turn up the usage during more difficult cleaning periods.  Within the limits of your equipment, there is also an opportunity to save some monies on presoak by increasing the speed of the wash or presoak pass, thereby reducing the chemical usage during the easy cleaning time periods. 

If you are using dual passes of alkaline presoak or a low pH, high pH combination there may be an opportunity to use a single pass of the alkaline presoak on the basic wash package.  This will save you on both chemical and water costs as well as speeding up the total wash time in the process.  Again the most important measurement is whether you are still providing a clean, dry, shiny car after making this adjustment. 

Some operators have shifted from using triple foaming polish to using foaming conditioners in stead.  You can put on a similar show with good color, scent and foam for less cost per application. This could however end up being a false saving.  Often the polish helps in the drying process and if you have to use additional drying agent to compensate for the elimination of the polish your savings may not be as dramatic. 

Purchasing chemicals in the largest practical container size can also save you some money. In most cases the cost per gallon decreases the larger the container size.  Work with your distributor to determine what is the best compromise between cost per gallon and turning your chemical inventory on a reasonable basis.  Most car wash cleaning and protection products today have very good shelf lives but once a container is opened it can become contaminated after a period of time so you want reasonable turnover of your chemical inventory.

Revenue Driving Options
Thus far we’ve looked at some of the potential savings to be found in your maximizing chemical efficiencies.  It is certainly worth looking at the cost side of the chemical equation on a regular basis.  The average in bay automatic uses approximately $10,000 in chemical products annually.  Even if you could save 20% of these costs that would equate to $2000.  Not an insignificant amount but if you can improve revenues the net effect to your bottom line would be much greater.

Again based on averages today’s in bay automatic washes 35,000 cars annually.
The average basic package is sold for $5.00 with the average best package sold at $8.00.  If you could drive just an additional 5% of the customers from that $5.00 basic wash to the $8.00 best wash you could increase your gross revenues $5250. (35,000 vehicles x 5% x $3.00 = $5250) 

Driving that shift is not complicated or expensive.  You have to educate the customer as to the additional value and benefit they will be receiving by purchasing the polish or sealant offerings.  At the pump that education requires attractive, informative and educational POP materials giving the customer a reason to spend the extra $2.00 or $3.00 and move up from the basic wash.  Most chemical manufactures will help you design these marketing materials and supply them at a minimal cost if you are using their chemicals.  If you have a
C-store in conjunction with the wash make sure your cashiers are familiar with the customer benefits of the added value products and that they ask every customer to purchase a deluxe wash.  Again, your solution rep would be more than happy to help with the training of the cashiers.

4th Wash Package
Lately several successful operators have improved profits by adding a 4th package to their wash offerings.  This forth package can take several different formats.  The first is a “dirt buster”, “bug buster”, “ultimate wash” package.  The name can be changed but the intent is the same.  This is the ultimate cleaning package when your customer has a particularly dirty vehicle.  It includes a 3rd presoak application and an extra high-pressure rinse.  With this $10.00 package you use an extra $0.30 - $0.35 in presoak and generate an extra $2.00 in revenue.

Another option for a 4th package is the addition of a “super sealant” package.  Our LustaShield™ provides such an option.  Marketing of this package promotes the return of that “showroom shine”, vehicle protection from the elements and beading the customer will see until the next wash.  We like many of the full service manufacturers offering such a product, will supply unique marketing materials to help you promote the benefit to the customer of purchasing this ultimate protection package for his vehicle.  With most in bay equipment this product and a 4th package can be added with little or no equipment changes.  In a tunnel an arch may have to be added to provide this additional service, but the return on that investment is fairly short.  With just a little promotion you could realize several thousands of dollars of additional monthly revenue with such an offering.
Summary

The bottom line is how do you improve the profits of your wash. As we’ve discussed there are opportunities to save some monies in chemicals applications and those should indeed be explored.  The greatest opportunity however exists on the revenue generating side of the equation. There is no one answer that works for everyone. Talk to your distributor partner and seek his help in evaluating what would work best in your location and with your wash.