Why the car wash is finally having its moment

As fuel volumes fall, the humble car wash is emerging as one of the most profitable and strategically important categories on the forecourt. Lars Hecht, the “Car Wash Doctor,” explains why the industry’s best-kept secret is finally coming into the light.

For more than a century, the forecourt has run on a single, simple truth: people have a close relationship with their cars, and the fuel station has always been part of it. As Lars Hecht puts it, the industry has thrived “because humans have a very close relationship with cars, and we are part of that relationship because of the fuel connection.” But fuel volumes are now falling, fastest of all in Europe, and operators everywhere are asking the same question: which categories will carry that relationship into the next hundred years?

One answer has been hiding in plain sight, often quite literally around the back of the site, quietly generating some of the strongest margins in all convenience retail. It is the car wash. Long dismissed as an afterthought; the category is being reappraised by the industry’s most progressive operators as a genuine destination. Few people understand that shift better than Hecht, the consultant known across the sector as the “Car Wash Doctor,” whose firm Car Wash Consulting has spent years turning under-performing washes into standout ones.

Why car wash, and why now?

Ask most convenience retailers how important car wash is to their business and, historically, the honest answer would be: not very. Yet the numbers tell a startlingly different story. Car wash generates the highest average basket size of any convenience store category, and properly run, it is by some distance the most profitable line in the shop.

The economics of a well-run car wash

• A minimum net margin of around 75% over a ten-year horizon, after all associated costs.
• Gross margins after cost of goods of roughly 94% on soft-touch washes and 87% on touch-free.
• The highest average basket size of any convenience category.

From “red-headed stepchild” to strategic asset

“I don’t recall any other category within this space that will throw off more than 75% margin,” says Hecht. “After the cost of goods, a single wash can contribute in the region of 89% to 95%, depending on configuration.” Little wonder that he places car wash alongside fast food, EV charging and the convenience store itself as one of “the four legs” on which the modern forecourt will stand. “Fuel is on its way out,” he notes, “and if the larger convenience companies want to substitute some of their lost fuel margin, they need to find other income. Car wash most certainly is one of them.”

If the prize is so large, why has it gone unclaimed for so long? Hecht is characteristically blunt. Car wash, he says, “has traditionally been the ‘red-headed stepchild’ in the convenience store space. It’s the building out back that on-site staff find complicated and, often, simply do not understand how to manage.”

The problem is structural. In many chains the category is handed to a junior manager, and the moment that manager succeeds, they are promoted onto coffee, fresh food or another “more important” line, taking their hard-won knowledge with them. “It’s considered a junior category,” Hecht says, “which is utterly incorrect.” The contrast with operators who retain and develop expertise is stark: he singles out Circle K, which “builds knowledge now within the company and has, as a result, become ‘second to none’ in the discipline. In Saudi Arabia,” he adds, “the operator Kawisha stands out for its innovation and focus on the customer journey.”

This knowledge gap is compounded by a lack of training. Unlike the wider convenience world, with its NACS conferences and deep bench of expertise, “there are very few car wash shows and events where people can gain in-depth knowledge about the industry.” It is a small, specialist niche, but “a super-profitable niche if you do it right,” as Hecht says, “and a tragedy if you do it wrong. Closing that knowledge gap,” he argues, “is the single biggest opportunity facing the industry.”

What world-class looks like

Simplicity that welcomes the customer

The best operators, Hecht argues, obsess over the customer journey, and their guiding principle is that less is more. Confront a driver with a 25-point list of instructions, warnings and red “do not” symbols and “in most cases they’ll say, thank you, but this is too complicated, and move on.” Boil it down to five simple steps, strip out the alarming colours, and the same customer feels “Okay, I can do this.” Clarity, welcoming signage, and a frictionless experience are the hallmarks of a great wash.

The right format in the right place

There is no single template for success. Tunnel washes suit high-traffic urban junctions but saturate a market quickly. Copenhagen, Hecht observes, is served by just three tunnel washes. In-bay automatics are the global workhorse, frequently installed in pairs so that one can be serviced or cleaned while the other keeps customers moving. Jet and do-it-yourself bays remain a popular entry-level offer in the UK, Ireland and much of Central and Eastern Europe, maturing customers towards fully automatic washes over time. And because a wrong call is expensive, leaving operators “stuck with their decisions for 10, 15 years,” site selection, visibility and even the turn curve of the approach can be make-or-break factors.

Uptime, subscriptions and loyalty

“Uptime, accessibility and quality” is Hecht’s refrain, “it’s so simple, but so important.” This matters even more once subscriptions enter the picture, because a customer who has paid up front and finds the machine out of order turns quickly from advocate to critic. “If you choose to offer subscriptions, you’d better have an understanding of your NPS before you start.” Get it right, though, and the rewards are considerable. Bundled with a loyalty program, subscription car wash delivers what Hecht describes as sustained “double-digit growth.” His verdict on operators still resisting the model is unequivocal: “Spotify isn’t going away; Netflix isn’t going away. Car wash subscription is also here to stay.”

Sustainability as a hygiene factor

Regulations are tightening. Germany and Sweden increasingly prohibit washing cars at home, where detergents run into drains and rivers, pushing drivers towards professional sites bound by eco-standards such as the Nordic Swan label. Crucially, Hecht warns, “green credentials are now expected rather than rewarded. Environmental factors are becoming a hygiene factor.” Operators cannot charge a premium for compliance, but water recycling and efficient chemical use increasingly pay for themselves as both grow more expensive.

The future is already arriving

The most exciting developments in the car wash category sit at the intersection of the car wash and the connected car. WashTec, the world’s largest producer of car wash equipment, has launched a “wash broker” that buys washes from operators and resells them to manufacturers and leasing companies, surfacing them directly on the dashboard of intelligent vehicles. “In other words, your car is almost deciding when and where you need your next wash,” says Hecht, “with the option to bundle fueling or EV charging into the same journey.”

Artificial intelligence is arriving, too. A partner in Finland uses cameras to read the condition of each vehicle and tailors the wash accordingly, charging a flat price but using only as much water and detergent as the car actually needs. And demand is quietly shifting. Operators, including Circle K, report that owners of modern, sensor-laden cars wash more often, because clean cameras and sensors are essential to the driver-assistance and autonomous features they rely on. For all the technology, though, the deepest driver remains stubbornly human. The International Car Wash Association finds that the single most common reason Americans wash their car is, simply, “the feel-good feeling.”

The expert’s prescription

Hecht’s method for realising the car wash category potential is rigorous. He uses a structured assessment across 45 distinct workstreams, covering every major aspect of the business, that produces a clear roadmap for growth. He is candid that this often means overcoming internal resistance, as category and format managers worry that outside scrutiny questions their expertise. The results, however, speak for themselves. “I have not worked with a single customer where I have not been able to prove a 20% increase in margin and revenue,” he says, pointing to one client who posted 20% growth in each of two years, followed by 15% growth in the next two.

His read on the geography is just as clear;” the most promising car wash markets today are the Middle East, Germany and Central and Eastern Europe, where strong demand and attractive economics are converging. In each, he argues, the operators that invest in expertise now, rather than leaving the category to the most junior person on site, will be the ones that pull decisively ahead.

A category coming into its own

The picture that emerges is of a category in transition, moving from the forecourt’s neglected back building to one of its most valuable strategic assets. The operators setting the pace are those that combine world-class economics with an effortless customer experience, intelligent use of subscription and loyalty, genuine environmental stewardship and a readiness to embrace the connected-car future. It is, in Hecht’s words, “a discipline where the difference between doing it right and doing it wrong is the difference between a super-profitable niche and an expensive mistake.”

For an industry searching for the categories that will replace declining fuel margins, the message is increasingly hard to ignore. Car wash has spent too long as convenience retail’s best-kept secret. As Hecht makes clear, its moment has finally arrived.