For generations, Jeff Fields and his family have made their living cleaning things.
The family’s cleaning roots stretch back to the 1940s, when Fields’ great-grandfather left rural Kentucky for Bowling Green and entered the dry-cleaning and laundromat business. By the 1960s, the next generation had moved into automotive care, opening Gas and Wash, one of the first conveyor-powered car washes in the area.
“I joke with people that I was born on third base,” Fields says. “The family has been cleaning things for almost 100 years.”
Fields was introduced to the business early. At 10 years old, he was handing out hot dogs and balloons at the 1988 grand opening of his father’s Tender Touch Auto Wash, a traditional full-service operation in Bowling Green.
Despite growing up around car washing, Fields initially had little interest in making it a career. After high school, he left Kentucky and eventually entered the hospitality trade, working for some of the major players in the hotel industry. The experience would greatly influence his high-end, customer-focused approach to car washing.
In the early 2000s, Fields returned to Bowling Green to help his father compete against a new wash entering the market. With his father frequently traveling, Fields was forced to learn much of the business first-hand, immersing himself in industry forums, operator groups, and various networking opportunities with fellow car wash professionals.
“I just really became a student of the industry,” he says. “After a couple of years, I decided to leave my father’s business and go out on my own, which is kind of what all the Fields have done. We’ve all gone out and started our own thing.”
In 2007, Fields launched his first Cheetah Clean with a partner. The timing was less than ideal. A year later, the financial crisis hit, but the business survived. Fields ultimately exited the partnership and, by 2013, had controlling ownership of the Cheetah Clean brand. What followed was a decidedly scrappy road to market domination.
Without significant seed capital, Fields acquired existing washes, pursued owner-financed deals, converted older locations, and looked for properties other operators might overlook.
“Dark, distressed, hairy, problematic sites that people can’t make work — we love those,” Fields says. “We’ve done some creative things regarding layouts, tunnel spacing, equipment choices, and so forth.”
Cheetah Clean eventually grew to six locations before Fields sold two of its strongest performers in 2020. Around the same time, he began reconsidering what a higher-service modern car wash could look like. A trip to Europe exposed him to interior-cleaning operations using dual tunnels and conveyor belts. Fields returned with a vision, partnered again with his father, and in 2021 developed what would become Cheetah Clean’s flagship operation: a double-tunnel wash featuring two STI belts, PECO equipment, and extensive aftercare.
The concept reflected the identity Fields had envisioned for Cheetah Clean: not just another wash, but rather a premium experience. Cheetah sites employ high-end equipment, heated high-pressure, proprietary chemicals, and extensive vehicle preparation featuring in-house developed tools the company assembles and machines in-house. At its larger operations, customers leave their vehicles and have access to amenities including coffee, water, and cappuccino while employees handle portions of the cleaning process.
“I prefer the higher-touch, higher-service operations,” Fields says. “You get to interact with the customer and provide more of an experience.”
That positioning became even more vital following a substantial investment from Blue Equity, led by Kentucky businessman Jonathan Blue, in 2022. With additional resources behind it, the company became more deliberate about controlling its South-Central Kentucky footprint while expanding into Tennessee. Today, its coverage stretches from Shepherdsville and Owensboro, KY, to the Nashville area, including Donelson and Gallatin.
Fields can see a path to 20 to 30 locations during the next few years, while a recent acquisition opportunity prompted the Cheetah Clean team to consider something different.
As part of its recent reorganization, several former ZIPS locations became available. Acquiring and rebuilding underperforming sites is nothing new to Fields and his team, but there was one major challenge. The sites were extremely close to existing Cheetah Clean washes. The company could have converted the properties to its flagship brand, but Fields saw little reason to place another premium wash alongside sites that were already adequately serving the community.
“We just felt like we didn’t need another Cheetah,” he says. “We had the high-quality car wash market covered.”
Instead, the team saw an opportunity to target another customer segment, and Cub Express was born. Where Cheetah Clean emphasizes service, extensive prep, aftercare, and customer interaction, Cub is designed as a streamlined, lower-cost express wash. Its pricing reinforces that distinction. Cub offers wash packages at $9.99, $17.99, and $22.99, resisting the temptation to stretch the menu into premium territory.
“You can’t be both,” Fields says. “You can’t be a discount offer and then also say you’re the best car wash in the world.”
Memberships connect the two concepts without eliminating their differences. Entry-level Cub member-ships are tied to an individual location, while higher tiers provide reciprocity across the Cheetah Clean and Cub Express network. Existing Cheetah members can also use Cub locations.
in the car care industry.
The early results have given Fields reason to continue testing the idea. Collectively, Cub locations have attracted several thousand members, many of whom are new to the company.
Still, Fields is careful not to let the emerging brand change Cheetah Clean’s primary mission. Cub is an opportunistic growth vehicle, not the company’s new centerpiece.
Future locations could emerge when Cheetah encounters distressed properties, overlapping trade areas, or markets capable of supporting two differentiated concepts. Fields even sees situations where a Cheetah and Cub could operate within the same immediate market, serving separate customers at separate price points. But given the choice, the company will continue putting most of its resources behind Cheetah Clean.
“Cub is definitely a secondary function to Cheetah,” Fields says. “Cheetah is the predominant force behind the company and will remain so.”
For an operator who built much of his business by finding value where others saw difficult properties, Cub Express is an extension of a familiar strategy. Rather than forcing every acquisition to fit the existing brand, Fields created a second one designed to capitalize on the opportunity.