shepherdsflock Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 After a search of the forum, I didn't find much about car washes. I really like the idea of coin operated self-serve car washes, and am thinking about trying to start planning to either start or purchase one in the future. I'd like to hear from anyone who has had experience either owning or operating one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decaturjack Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Interesting idea. I've considered opening a coin operated laundry mat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Interesting idea. I've considered opening a coin operated laundry mat. I used to manage a friend's laundromat several years ago. It's an okay business, just don't borrow too much like my buddy did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decaturjack Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 I used to manage a friend's laundromat several years ago. It's an okay business, just don't borrow too much like my buddy did. Yeah, it seems like it would take a lot of capital to get started in that business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newheart53 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 A friend of mine just opened one a year ago, he leased all the equipment bought the building and did everything from ground up. He said his biggest cost was the building and plumb. electric and gas. He s already looking for his next one. says he'll buy existing ops. from now on. If the equip. is bad pitch it and lease new. he said he didn t realize the profit was so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Interesting idea. I've considered opening a coin operated laundry mat. looked into it, margins are lower than i expected and competition is huge ,best deal is to find crappy old laundries and fix them up,problem is the best locations there usually a laundry across the street. one of my crane acts is 4200 sqft , he does a crazy business, no signifcant competition, tons of low income apts around there. his drink machine does about 300/wk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 I guess I should have named this thread "Laundromat?". Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the time I spent managing a laundromat, but I'm really not interested in owning one now. There aren't any good locations left in my city, the market is saturated with them. 20 or 30 years ago it would have been a pretty good gig, but today it would be very hard to make it around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronsidney Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 i have asked laundries in my area about biz as well as car washes and the laundries just don't seem to make money unless they are near a low income area..If the hispanics have moved in that area they do great it seems.. I have in the past looked an opening one in a mexican stores back room,,i was going to provide the washers and dryers just like any other vending machine and give them half the take.. there is big operator in Knoxville that has over 500 machines out and he does apartment complexes..he is sooo growing like crazy,,his office is a madhouse as he covers such a large area...He wanted to sell me machines so he was really open about finances etc. and his ROI was about 2 years on equipment.. but his averages are low as he is so big and spread out.. Dorm rooms etc are his golden nuggets. I don't want to own a laudromat as that is ball in chain biz really and I've heard the utilities really eat up the profit..im my area it doesn't work and they are scarce,,when i visit florida or up north they seem to still be thriving though.. i looked at car washes too a few years ago,,very very expensive to build as the real estate for good location is killer,,got to meet EPA guidelines as they treat them like a nuclear power plant or something.. about 40 hour a week job to keep them clean as far as emptying garbage, washing mud out of stalls, filling changers etc.. IF you find one out of biz then guess what ?? you don't want it as why is it out of biz?? if it had biz then it would still be open or they wouldn't want to sell.. I really think for that type of investment,probably a million or close to it..ill stick with vending..... i have already seen the nice green grass on this side of the fence and it tastes good, so I'm not gonna let "the man" fence me back in with a biz like that. ron www.blazingquarters.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 I really think the carwash market has room for growth in my area if somebody had the capital to invest. Ron is correct, from what I've been able to find (I actually got to speak with a carwash consultant for free) and it's about a million to get started. Why I think the industry is fading in my area is that almost all of the facilities are the old self serve type. We have a few of the express type tunnel carwashes and they seem to be doing very well; while the old self serve bay type facilities are rotting away and up for sale every couple of years. I think if a guy had the capital to buy one of the old self serve locations (at a VERY low price), tear down the facility and build a small tunnel facility (less than 50' long) that was totally automated (no frills, no human powered anything, no interior cleaning or anything, maybe just some self-serve vacuums) with credit card readers on a customer control panel kiosk you could breathe new life into these old locations and compete fairly well with the big 150' long full service tunnel locations. The key, I think, would be keeping the location small and running it as a discount type location. Where the big full service places are offering basic car washes for $5, you'd have to do it for $4 and run specials on off-days like Tuesdays. Keep a steady stream of cars coming outside of the busy days (usually the weekends). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 i have asked laundries in my area about biz as well as car washes and the laundries just don't seem to make money unless they are near a low income area..If the hispanics have moved in that area they do great it seems.. I don't want to own a laudromat as that is ball in chain biz really and I've heard the utilities really eat up the profit..im my area it doesn't work and they are scarce,,when i visit florida or up north they seem to still be thriving though.. the key to laundromats is areas with tons of low income apartments. most of those areas are already taken up with enough laundries, usually too many laundries i did research for about a year on laundries in florida. the basic problem is in most areas when a laundry opens up and makes money some idiot will build out another one right across the street,then another idiot builds one on the next block, then they all cut their own throats to try to attract business and nobody makes money. best model is to buy a closed down mat or rundown mat ,owner retiring,etc.. in the right area and rehab it in florida almost all of these that are a success are done by statewide laundry equipment an equipment dealer they find for sale mats in the right locations and rebuild them on spec then sell them off to investors. these are almost always very succesful mats but ur paying a premium for them. you are exactly right for smaller mats the margins are lower than people expect because of the utilities. from my research i found a good return for an absentee owner is 15-30k a year assuming u do ur own repairs and such. an owner operator in a bigger mat, doing WDF and all that yourself 50k a year is a decent net. of course theres exceptions ive seen some places in miami and orlando that are running as a commerical laundry too, doing contracts with big hotels for pickup/drop off service, they are netting in the low 6 figures but u have to work hard to get those contracts its very competitive. in tampa i hear theres some families that own dozens of mats, one guy over 30 mats. at that point even if each mat is only netting 10-15k ur talking about walking away with around half a million a year before taxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronsidney Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 I really think the carwash market has room for growth in my area if somebody had the capital to invest. Ron is correct, from what I've been able to find (I actually got to speak with a carwash consultant for free) and it's about a million to get started. Why I think the industry is fading in my area is that almost all of the facilities are the old self serve type. We have a few of the express type tunnel carwashes and they seem to be doing very well; while the old self serve bay type facilities are rotting away and up for sale every couple of years. I think if a guy had the capital to buy one of the old self serve locations (at a VERY low price), tear down the facility and build a small tunnel facility (less than 50' long) that was totally automated (no frills, no human powered anything, no interior cleaning or anything, maybe just some self-serve vacuums) with credit card readers on a customer control panel kiosk you could breathe new life into these old locations and compete fairly well with the big 150' long full service tunnel locations. The key, I think, would be keeping the location small and running it as a discount type location. Where the big full service places are offering basic car washes for $5, you'd have to do it for $4 and run specials on off-days like Tuesdays. Keep a steady stream of cars coming outside of the busy days (usually the weekends). off topic kinda...there was one of the auto car washes near me that someone sabotaged ,,must have been peed off worker or something..they tied "nuts" (fastener like nuts and bolts) to the strings on the rotating string scrubbers things..and when a car would go through it spun and scratched and banged up the car... ruined his biz as everybody was afraid to use it after that.. ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greatdane Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Pet wash's seem to be the thing in my area. I took my four Great Dane's to one and it was really cool. No fuss and no mess. A lot easier than doing the tub wash. off topic kinda...there was one of the auto car washes near me that someone sabotaged ,,must have been peed off worker or something..they tied "nuts" (fastener like nuts and bolts) to the strings on the rotating string scrubbers things..and when a car would go through it spun and scratched and banged up the car... ruined his biz as everybody was afraid to use it after that.. ron That sounds like it would cause a person to go out of business repainting and clear coating. I would definitely go for the touch less wash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 I hate washing dogs. I couldn't do that for a living. I would think liability insurance would cover damage to anybody's car, but the impact to your business would be hard to fix in a situation like the one above. Maybe touchless really is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.