Teamwork: Builds Trust and Confidence
By Jim and Elaine Norland

Skip Boatner's start in the car wash business nearly 20 years ago wasn't a big splash -only a conversion of a former gas station. It was soon followed by another modest venture, again a conversion financed largely through a banker's faith in his plans.

(Top) Another view of the generous roof coverage at the entry to the in-bay automatics. (Bottom) Lighting provides not only security, but also a come-on. The D&S touch-free and Nu*Star friction in-bay automatics are side-by-side on the right.

Today, Boatner owns five Water Works washes in southeastern Missouri, including a just-built model combination of automatic and self-serve customer convenience.

Boatner is also owner of Professional Wash Systems, a more recent venture headquartered in Poplar Bluff. Through this 10-year-old company, he distributes both D&S and Nu*Star equipment and sells Warsaw Chemicals. Each manufacturer relationship has been built through years of his own experience and trust and teamwork with principals of those firms. Armed with such tools, Boatner can tell potential car wash investors with confidence what they can expect.

He proves the viability of his equipment and his approach to car wash development with the numbers he generates both at his newest site and four other washes - two in Poplar Bluff and one each in Puxico and Senath, MO.

Professional Wash Systems serves a vast territory that runs all the way from the edge of St. Louis on the north to down past Little Rock, AR on the south, and from central Missouri (about 100 miles from Springfield) on the west to Paducah, KY on the east, and on up through Southern Illinois.

He is not alone in operating the distributorship or the car washes, Boatner is quick to point out. He credits the shared involvement of his wife, Jean, and their twin sons, Kinard and Kyle, who at 19 literally grew up in the business, with the success and smooth operation of the ventures. The contributions made by each of his 20 employees are equally indispensable to the businesses' continued success, he happily acknowledges.

Boatner came out of the convenience store/gasoline pumping business, although he'd also had previous experience as a Snap-On Tools salesman. The c-store/gas business was labor intensive, and Boatner was looking for a business that could be run with a minimum of labor.

Boatner was well-known in Poplar Bluff, having spent numerous summers and some school years there while living with his grandparents in nearby Fisk. (His father was a construction engineer, and Skip had frequently traveled with him both in the US and abroad.)

"Poplar Bluff was kind of a home base for me," he recalls. "I met a lot of people and got to know a lot of folks." That familiarity served him well when he began investing in car washes, especially when he went to a local banker to borrow money to buy a dilapidated and abandoned wash, which was to be his second in Poplar Bluff.

The wash he wanted to buy was an old Shell full-serve gas station with one automatic and two self-serve wash bays. Ron Branum, national sales manager for D&S, had talked to Boatner about rescuing that old wash location, its bays then filled with old junk cars.

"I had almost no money, so I told him to give me a call if he ever found some used self-serve equipment. I owned an old Jeep truck free and clear, but that was about it. I said I'd hock that to buy some used equipment."

Branum called him a few months later with a deal. "The equipment cost $10,000, and Ron said he'd teach me and one of my employees how to install it as part of the deal." Boatner convinced a local banker to make the loan, even though his truck was worth about a quarter of the loan amount.

"We started out with that, added another automatic and two self-serve bays, and today it is a very modern wash with two automatics, four self-serve bays, all the vacuums, changers, fragrance and vending that make up a very up-to-date car wash," Boatner says.

Since then, Boatner has added two other washes, one each in Puxico, MO and Senath, MO. Along the way, he has owned as many as eight washes at a time, acquiring and often rehabbing them and selling some to new owners.

A resident of those respective towns monitors each of the washes, which are visited regularly to make sure equipment is running well and the premises are neat and tidy. If maintenance beyond changing a hose or nozzle is needed, Boatner sends one of his technicians to service the equipment. One person who travels throughout the day from one site to another monitors the three Poplar Bluff locations.

"We're pretty faithful to companies we do business with," Boatner says. D&S's touch-free automatic and self-serve wash equipment is one mainstay of Professional Car Wash Systems' offerings, and until a few years ago, Boatner stayed exclusively with the touch-free approach in his own automatics as well as those he sold to other car wash operators.

His relationship with Nu*Star began about two years ago as Boatner became convinced that touching the vehicles being washed was necessary in order to completely remove road film, especially at certain times of the year. He had explored that issue with several chemists who worked diligently at the problem, but hadn't come up with a solution.

Boatner looked at numerous automatics using friction washing. Many manufacturers had their "glory
stories" of how well their machines worked, he recalls, but, "No one built a soft-touch machine that I felt I could market to my customers and say, 'This is the ideal machine to clean a car.'"

Nu*Star told him that while they didn't make such a machine, they'd develop one to his specifications - if he would then go out and market that machine. Boatner agreed, and teamed his technicians with the engineers at Nu*Star.

Putting a high-pressure pumping unit on a touch machine that Nu*Star had been running for many years, the team added arches to spray pre-soak all over the customer's car. That way, Boatner explains, anywhere that might be missed by the soft-touch wraps would still be cleaned by the combination of sprayed-on pre-soak and high-pressure water.

Since the machine's development, Boatner has often proclaimed its merits to other distributors as well as car wash operators. Speaking to them from a distributor's point of view, he carefully explains each step of the process and describes how well it works.

Boatner's newest Water Works location is a showplace of that Nu*Star - as well as the D&S - equipment he represents, and a model of how a successful car wash can be located on a relatively inexpensive site and still attract the right numbers.

Situated on a 170-by-170-foot piece of ground adjoining the headquarters of Professional Car Wash Systems, the wash is, he feels, "the most advanced, state-of-the-art car wash that is out there as of right now."

It features an eye-catching checkered and multicolored roof design that shows off well to drivers on a four-lane stretch of US Highway 67, which links St. Louis and Little Rock. The wash and Professional Wash Systems' headquarters are actually on a service road running parallel to US 67.

Boatner uses that site strategy to show prospective car wash investors that they don't need to buy high-priced ground right on the highway or inside a major city.

The newest Water Works features two automatic washes - the new touch-free D&S Super 5000 and the Nu*Star soft-touch unit. Each automatic bay is 45 feet long inside, with an additional 15-foot apron or canopy in front. Part of the inside space is a sizeable drying area where drivers can move through slowly to drip off excess water and then finish the job with powerful blowers. Customers can pay for their wash with cash or credit cards.

In addition to these automatics, the wash has three self-service wash bays and a two-bay detail and
vacuum area. Those bays are about 20 feet wide, enough to allow drivers to open their doors and tend to all the finishing touches.

"You can spend all the time you want in there," says Boatner. "There's soft music playing, and it's just a very good experience. We have a vendor that offers 18 different products for car care, and our vacuums at this site offer fragrance and shampoo."

While customers of the automatic and self-serve washes form the biggest portion of the detail bay occupants, other drivers can pull in just to vacuum and wipe down their vehicles in those same detail bays.

The self-serve bays offer virtually every option a car wash customer might choose, including tire and engine cleaners, high-pressure protectants, and special choices for pre-soak, regular and spot-free rinses. The meter boxes take ones and fives as well as coins. The entire wash is brightly lit and open 24/7.

A popular sideline for the wash complex is vending pure drinking water, another profitable traffic builder. Customers can fill their own containers with water, which has been refined through Water Works' reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light treatments.

"This is a model unit to which we can bring prospective customers to show them exactly what can be done in their own communities," Boatner says. "We can give customers an idea of what this unit would cost for us to build it for them, or we can scale it down somewhat. We take them through the equipment
room, show them the quality of the equipment, give them something they can touch and feel and know they're dealing with a professional."

Boatner will pull together all the demographic and location factors for a proposed site and then run three or four different scenarios for building and running a wash. The customer can then choose the plan that he or she is most comfortable with.

As an example, three West Plains, MO businessmen came to that wash recently and told Boatner they wanted a unit "just like this" -almost. They felt that his roof was a little extravagant, so they opted for a standing-seam red metal roof, but otherwise followed Boatner's plan. Their wash was under construction as we interviewed Boatner in late December.

Showing potential car wash investors by example, Boatner and Professional Wash Systems demonstrate the profitability of good car wash systems and proper site planning. He shows his faith in quality equipment and chemicals from long-established allies in the industry.

At the same time, his Water Works locations are providing attractive car washing options to southeast Missourians who value convenience, quality and reliability. Car wash operators who become his distributorship customers value those same attributes, as well as ease of operation and good return on their investment.

Jim an Elaine Norland are regular contributors to Auto Laundry News.