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Turnkey Wash Benefits New Operator
By Jim and Elaine Norland
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| Self-serve bays are to the left, in-bay automatics to the right, and change/vending facilities in the center. |
Using the experience and know-how of industry veterans makes sense in launching any business, especially for an investor with other business ventures to manage. Jeff Cawley, co-owner with partner Craig Brogden, understood that when he started up Creedmoor Commons Car Wash in Creedmoor, NC.
The wash opened in late January and has quickly become a favorite among Creedmoor area residents. Many of them choose the highest-quality wash offered, and the percentage of drivers choosing the top wash is steadily increasing.
To fit the budgets of every vehicle owner, Creedmoor Commons Car Wash offers four self-service wand bays as well as two Futura Automatic bays. The setup provides minimal waiting time for those who choose the automatics, and flexibility for self-serve customers who may also bring in boats, trailers, and/or other rolling stock in addition to their car or truck.
A single vending machine at the wash offers fragrance trees, cleaning cloths, and Armor All supplies. While there’s no soft-drink vending on site now, it may be added later on.
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| Auto cashiers with menus and instructions. |
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| Menu detail. |
Two automatics “might seem to be slight overkill in this market,” explains Jimmy Sisk, vice president of Car Wash Concepts, the distributor firm that handled many of the details for Creedmoor Commons Car Wash. However, customer convenience is a big concern, and business may be lost if cars are stacked up at a single automatic. “You can’t quantify the number of customers who drive away because they didn’t want to wait in line,” he says.
Car Wash Concepts, based in Thomasville, NC, specializes in turnkey car wash development. They clear the hurdles of site evaluation, permitting, contracting, and equipping new car washes for investors who may have limited knowledge of the industry, or lack the time to spend on the details of car wash startup. “We’re not the average run-of-the-mill distributor. We provide a service to our customers unlike what others do,” Sisk says.
Cawley seems to fit the category of customer that Car Wash Concepts often serves. He has other investments and business concerns (including several warehouses). He had some exposure to the car wash industry in his high school and college days, working summers and weekends at a full-service car wash in South Florida.
“I was friends with the manager, who explained a lot of things to me,” Cawley recalls.
“The owner was very meticulous. He talked to us about how he wanted things done. He was good at explaining why you should keep things so clean, and it made a lot of sense.”
Cawley learned that to keep customers, they have to be happy with the appearance of the wash and the quality of the cleaning.
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| In the wash bay — instructions and extra-service promotions. |
Creedmoor Commons was an ideal location for Cawley’s car wash. A resident of Raleigh, he already had ties to Creedmoor with his 100,000-square-foot commercial warehouse there. In addition, his partner, Brogden (who is also warehouse operations manager), resides in Creedmoor.
Creedmoor is about 20 miles from Raleigh, and is a growing affordable bedroom community for workers in Raleigh, Durham, and the Research Triangle area. It is also a logical residential choice for the growing manufacturing activity in Granville County. Creedmoor’s population has grown more than 50 percent since 2000.
Creedmoor Commons Shopping Center is located on State Highway 56. Its tenants include a Food Lion supermarket, a Family Dollar store, a Subway restaurant, a Chinese food restaurant, and a fitness center. The shopping center has been open about a year and a half, and residential growth in the area is continuing.
The car wash, which opened in late January, occupies a 1.5-acre outparcel entered either directly from Highway 56 or from the shopping center. Cawley wanted a good-looking, solidly built wash that would exemplify his commitment to quality.
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| Credit card acceptance in the bay. |
“We wanted to build a facility that would look nice, and stay nice and clean over the long run,” Cawley says. “This is my first foray [into car washing], but I’m in it for the long term.” He opened another wash, identical in appearance and equipment, in March. That is located in Henderson, northeast of Creedmoor.
Cawley had watched the growth in quality and convenience of self-service car washing over the years, and was impressed with the changes he saw. He wanted to avoid a labor-intensive enterprise; he felt he had enough people to manage in his warehouse operations, but he needed a partner with sound mechanical ability.
Brogden fit those needs and Cawley discussed the car wash idea with him. Brogden has a solid mechanical knowledge honed during his years as a National Guardsman in both active and reserve duty maintaining Apache helicopters.
“I knew I didn’t have enough time to open and run these car washes myself while managing my other businesses. We worked it out where Craig would help me run them,” Cawley says. “If he can keep Apaches in the air, I figure he can keep a car wash going.”
Cawley also wanted in-depth knowledge of car washing. Sisk and his partner, Lee West, president of Car Wash Concepts, were very helpful in determining the feasibility of the new enterprise. “We had talked to a couple of different equipment vendors about our interest in the business,” Cawley said. “A lot of companies would sell the equipment and then I would have to contract the building and other matters separately.
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| The vacuum islands |
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| Neatly arranged receipt-printing, change-making, and vending services. |
“As an investor and not an expert in the car wash business, we were looking for someone who could hold our hand through the process, work with us and teach us the business, and give us a turnkey setup. I didn’t want to get into problems between contractors and equipment makers blaming each other. I wanted someone to handle the whole deal. Jimmy and Lee did an excellent job for us. I’m very pleased,” Cawley says.
In choosing the concept for the new car washes, Cawley found that equipment has constantly improved in touchless automatics. “They clean much better than they did 10 years ago,” he shares. The idea of a wash that could deliver quality and run somewhat unattended appealed to him.
However, Brogden spends quite a bit of time at the Creedmoor Commons wash, and a retiree also helps keep the wash clean and picked up. Customers who have any problem with equipment can phone either Cawley’s office or Car Wash Concepts at numbers posted in the wash and quickly resolve the difficulty.
Constructed of brick over solid concrete, the wash was “built to last,” Cawley says. A monument-type sign on Highway 56 beckons drivers. The wash is well lit at all times and monitored with TV equipment, and activity can be checked by Cawley or the Car Wash Concepts team from any computer connection. A camera in the equipment room helps detect any malfunctions.
The Catec water reclaim system at the wash wasn’t required by local codes, but Cawley remembered a past water crisis and wanted to make sure that should that happen again, his wash wouldn’t be shut down. Local officials welcomed that feature of the wash, Cawley reports.
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| Credit card acceptance at the vacuums. |
From the outset, community officials warmly welcomed plans for Creedmoor Commons Car Wash. Progress on construction was regularly reported in the local newspaper, building up community interest. Creedmoor had little else in car washing options. An older wash attached to a convenience store has four or five self-serve bays but no automatics.
“We did run an ad in the paper announcing we were open, but we did not do any mailers. We felt we didn’t need to at that point. The opening was highly anticipated in the area, and we got busy very quickly,” Cawley says. “The first weekend we did some free car washes to make sure everything was working well, and we did a buy-one, get-one-free promotion on the automatics.”
Current payment trends are evident in the Creedmoor Commons wash setup. Portal TI from Unitec is mounted in each of the self-service bays and fronts each in-bay automatic, while a WashPay credit card acceptor is at the two vacuum islands.
Drivers in their teens and 20s, and “even people in their 40s and 50s” are now using check or debit cards, Cawley learned as his wash was under construction. “No one has cash anymore, and there’s no point in building a wash without this kind of system,” Cawley maintains.
“Students will use a check card to pay for even a candy bar and soda. The percentage of people using cards is increasing all the time.” Cawley doesn’t want anyone passing up his car wash because they aren’t carrying cash. Using this sort of payment system also lessens concerns about running out of time in the self-service bays, he noted.
Creedmoor Commons Car Wash is already offering prepaid discount cards, helping cultivate the growth of repeat customers. Cawley and Brogden are also planning on cultivating commercial business.
The wash’s emphasis on quality is reflected in driver buying patterns. The best wash, “The Works,” costs $9, and is a growing preference. The next highest quality wash, the “Deluxe” at $7, is also popular. About two out of every three customers in the automatic bays choose either of the top two washes.
A prime location, an emphasis on quality in both the facility and its washes, and ample customer conveniences are all factors in a strong startup for Creedmoor Commons Car Wash.
Jim and Elaine Norland are regular contributors to Auto Laundry News.
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