Playbook #057: Car Washes
🖼️ The Big Picture
Car washes are a stereotypical “eternally profitable” business that can be relatively passive cash cows. As long as there are cars on the road, they’ll need to be cleaned, regardless of the economy or disruption in the automotive industry.
Conservative investors will like their proven and relatively stable business model. And creators and catalysts can get excited about the returns and upside to grow. The market is much more fragmented than other service industries, so you may not recognize the big car wash brands like you would fast food restaurants.
That means acquisition entrepreneurs have an opportunity to buy one or more car washes in a region, update the branding and marketing, and consolidate them into a bigger company (for a bigger exit).
You could also get into mobile detailing, which requires little money upfront and provides unique and higher end services for luxury cars.
Since car washes fall in line with other old-school business models that have been tried-and-true over a long period of time, with many owners who have been happy to hold them as “lifestyle businesses” without putting a ton of time and money into growing...
There’s a lot of opportunity for passionate entrepreneurs to come in and level up the marketing and technology to achieve greater returns. Large investors and funds have become more active in recent years acquiring car washes, which means that if you can grow a brand, you may be able to sell for a decent windfall in the near future.