Blimey, there must be good money in car washing!

[drainbrain]

drainbrain said:

I own one of these. THIS one, to be exact.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/722+Maryhill+R...

Absolute prime site busy 24/7/365 major inner city artery. Offered £50kpa by Starbucks for it some years ago. Told them no. Rented to an Albanian guy who has many many car washes. Nice guys. Never had a bad wash in it. Does tyres as well and valeting in the other shed.

Love it, and probably just about to sell it. (will know this week). Yours for £250k. (solicitors details on request).

[Prohibiting]

PAULJ5555 said:

CaptainSlow said:

dartissimus said:

Is it washing cars or washing money ??

Washing money I think. I once saw a documentary about a couple that bought a car wash to launder the money they made by manufacturing crystal meth.

How did it end?

I don't think he's clocked on

[markcoznottz]

Frimley111R said:

I think that the money laundering / immigrants on cash in hand is probably a bit outdated now. The one I saw was run by a fairly large organisation and, iirc, on another thread on here someone said that hand car washes are often 'belt and braces' financially because of their previous reputation.

Direct valeting/ autoclenz usually bid for these, they tend to be 'better' run than the garage forecourt ones, but similar business model. Disguised employment but that's been done to death recently.

[C Lee Farquar]

drainbrain said:

drainbrain said:

I own one of these. THIS one, to be exact.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/722+Maryhill+R...

Absolute prime site busy 24/7/365 major inner city artery. Offered £50kpa by Starbucks for it some years ago. Told them no. Rented to an Albanian guy who has many many car washes. Nice guys. Never had a bad wash in it. Does tyres as well and valeting in the other shed.

Love it, and probably just about to sell it. (will know this week). Yours for £250k. (solicitors details on request).

That would seem a very good investment if a 20% p.a. return could be achieved from a tenant like Starbucks?

[paul789]

Lava Jato as they say in Brazil.

[mike74]

Dodgy business, definitely more than just cars being ''washed clean''... here's what happened to my local Tesco car park car wash owner....

http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/01/murder-probe-after-3...

[anonymous-user]

And my local car wash - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/car-washer-st...

[drainbrain]

C Lee Farquar said:

drainbrain said:

drainbrain said:

I own one of these. THIS one, to be exact.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/722+Maryhill+R...

Absolute prime site busy 24/7/365 major inner city artery. Offered £50kpa by Starbucks for it some years ago. Told them no. Rented to an Albanian guy who has many many car washes. Nice guys. Never had a bad wash in it. Does tyres as well and valeting in the other shed.

Love it, and probably just about to sell it. (will know this week). Yours for £250k. (solicitors details on request).

That would seem a very good investment if a 20% p.a. return could be achieved from a tenant like Starbucks?

Well I'm a lot happier with less than half that from my Albanian. Much much much much less hassle.

Still a good investment, tho. And there was no way it was going to be turned into a drive-thru coffee shop. Cars'll still be getting washed there long after Starbucks is but a dim and distant memory.

[HayesDC2]

£8 for the outside near me, must be about 20 people working there production line style.

Don't think I've ever been there for more than 5 minutes and the queue is always backing on to the road!

[johnwilliams77]

drainbrain said:

Well I'm a lot happier with less than half that from my Albanian. Much much much much less hassle.

Still a good investment, tho. And there was no way it was going to be turned into a drive-thru coffee shop. Cars'll still be getting washed there long after Starbucks is but a dim and distant memory.

Is it a good business for laundering money?

[sidekickdmr]

Slightly different as its mobile, rather than being in Tesco/old petrol station, but I used to run my own car valeting company and it was very successful.

My USP was "Corporate car valeting" and that’s what my van and website said, and all I did, if someone called asking for their car to be cleaned at home I would say no, no point have a specialism if you don’t stick to it.

I paid a graphic designer to come up with a logo and website, I had uniforms made, good quality price lists and business cards made and van fully sign written.

I then hit the streets looking for clients, I used to work my way around business parks and head offices, charming reception following up enquiries when I said I would, even offering to do the decision makers car for free as a "trial", that never failed.

I used to visit each site one day a month, so I must have had about 20-25 big clients in total, I would turn up at 9am, set up my branded marquee in the corner of the car park, and reception would already have a pile of keys and the cash, in envelopes (branded, supplied by me), with the type of wash and customers name on the front.

I would generally do 8-20 cars a day, normally on my own but if I had a really big day I used to call in a extra pair of hands.

I offered 3 main levels of wash:

Bronze, outside wash, dry, windows, and tyre shine £15

Silver, same but with inside Hoover and windows £20

Gold, same but with a seat shampoo, plastic clean and wax on exterior. £40

80% of them were silvers, so between £160 and £400 a day if just me working, I think my biggest day was 36 cars, £720 quid with 2 mates at £50 cash for the help.

No weekends, start at 9, finish at 5, it was good fun, the only reason i stopped is when I tried to expand, I took on some staff and tried to let them take over a 2nd van to expand, and despite trying about 3-4 different people, they all just didn’t have the drive, people skills or commitment to perfection that I had, so it wasn’t scalable, so I sold the business on.

[PAULJ5555]

Prohibiting said:

PAULJ5555 said:

CaptainSlow said:

dartissimus said:

Is it washing cars or washing money ??

Washing money I think. I once saw a documentary about a couple that bought a car wash to launder the money they made by manufacturing crystal meth.

How did it end?

I don't think he's clocked on

I know what happened to Jessie and Walt.

[Nick928]

I assume if it's in a supermarket car park then the they will also want a percentage?

[Catatafish]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You've discovered a new metric for status/class/poshness where you are.

[Dogwatch]

Local Tesco Extra used to have trolley blokes but they migrated to Sainsbury's (where they still do a good job) and Tesco put in their own branded site in the car park with portakabin, awning, etc.etc.

[Snapper7]

Frimley111R said:

I get all sorts of notifications related to business but one just popped up and my eyes nearly popped out. It was a franchise to wash cars at Tesco, the fee? £50k! Wow.

That said, using my fag packet number crunching skills: if there are 5 staff who do 10 cars a day on average at £7 then that's £350 a day, so £2450 a week and £127,400 p.a. Obviously no costs involved and I could work out more if I CBA.

We looked into this seriously a few years ago but managing a business working 7 days a week with a high turnover of foreign staff put us off. That said, as I type this I can't remember the last time I saw the owner of our local one!

What is they say? Where there's muck there's brass!

If you are serious why pay someone £50k for a franchise? Why not set up your own car wash and cut a deal of your own with a garage or someone with a plot of land?

You are then £50k up on the deal before you even start...

[aspirated]

It's mostly dealers etc who are very territorial, especially around the north west

Place I know has 6 staff paid 25-35 cash in hand per day, and revenue on a good summers day would be around 550-600, dropping to around 400 through winter. Costs per day no more than 250, including cash wages, materials, rent, water and electricity.

[drainbrain]

aspirated said:

It's mostly dealers etc who are very territorial, especially around the north west

...revenue on a good summers day would be around 550-600, dropping to around 400 through winter….

Actually car washes are busier in winter (unless it's snowing)

[R8Steve]

drainbrain said:

drainbrain said:

I own one of these. THIS one, to be exact.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/722+Maryhill+R...

Absolute prime site busy 24/7/365 major inner city artery. Offered £50kpa by Starbucks for it some years ago. Told them no. Rented to an Albanian guy who has many many car washes. Nice guys. Never had a bad wash in it. Does tyres as well and valeting in the other shed.

Love it, and probably just about to sell it. (will know this week). Yours for £250k. (solicitors details on request).

Small world! I use that once a week and have just been there half an hour ago.

[drainbrain]

R8Steve said:

drainbrain said:

drainbrain said:

I own one of these. THIS one, to be exact.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/722+Maryhill+R...

Absolute prime site busy 24/7/365 major inner city artery. Offered £50kpa by Starbucks for it some years ago. Told them no. Rented to an Albanian guy who has many many car washes. Nice guys. Never had a bad wash in it. Does tyres as well and valeting in the other shed.

Love it, and probably just about to sell it. (will know this week). Yours for £250k. (solicitors details on request).

Small world! I use that once a week and have just been there half an hour ago.

Well update is it's now agreed sold! But sold to the guy who currently leases it, so nothing'll change. Use it myself too. (£4 wash. Give them a glove).