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PROFIT CENTERS BY STEPHENBENNETT A sparkling clean car emerging from a car wash is a fine sight to see, and the best marketing tool, too. But not the only one MAKE YOUR CAR WASH SHINE BRIGHT Atlantic Convenience Stores operates. Gaskins is gung-ho about building up that business, so it seems likely that he'll be saying those words for some time to come. Mid-Atlantic, Richmond, Va., is a wholesale "S fuel distributor and an operator with a network of some 300 company-owned and dealer locations in Maryland and Virginia. It is on the lookout for locations where it can build new petroleum-conve- nience businesses, and plans to include car washes where there is space for them, said Gaskins, senior vice president of marketing. And acquisitions of going concerns will be considered more appealing if they have car washes, Gaskins added. Some operators might wonder whether a full- tilt attitude is justified. Some car washes in the petroleum-convenience channel have struggled in recent years as the economy has suffered, Gaskins and equipment makers acknowledged. The dives- titure of retail sites by Big Oil companies, ongoing for years now, has distracted attention from some car wash business, said Jim Belanger, marketing vice president for National Carwash Solutions, a supplier that works with Mid-Atlantic. "Big Oil moved away from retail—sold real estate or put in place multi-site operators," Belanger said. Among some that have taken over divested sites, focus and capital has been oriented toward acquisitions, "re-doing the trade dress and chang- ing operational structure to run bigger chains," Belanger said. Capital and focus on the car wash business has been lost as some operators acquired more stores, Belanger said, "and then they get into 22 MAY/JUNE 2012 IMPLIFY AND AMPLIFY"—THOSE are the words Derek Gaskins keeps in mind as he works to boost the profile and performance of the 33 car washes that Mid- managing the expenses of the car wash rather than running the business. That gets them into a kind of downward spiral because the quality suffers. Signs get old and the car wash becomes weathered-look- ing. It gets tired." Steve Robinson, marketing director for equip- ment maker Mark VII, said, "In general the biggest thing that has impacted car wash in petroleum- convenience is that the recession has limited access to financing." As a result, he said, "Operators haven't been able to upgrade when their equip- ment is fully depreciated. It's getting old and not doing as good a job of washing cars." Also, Robinson said, "Mid- to large-size chain operators have focused on things like PCI compliance which has cost them a lot of money and diverted a lot of their capital investment funds away from replacing capital equipment." But the potential revenues and profits from the car wash business remain attractive, industry experts said, and the recently released NACS State of the Industry report supported that point. The car wash category in the petroleum-convenience channel showed strong profit growth—increasing 75.4 percent in 2011—according to the report. The big margin that car wash offers "surpasses other categories" in the petroleum-convenience channel, said Russell Bell of Ryko Solutions. Automated washes especially bring an added ben- efit of no labor, he said, unlike another high- margin category, foodservice, where labor is a significant cost. While a car wash must be well-maintained and operating efficiently, that alone is not enough to make it a success, industry experts said. That is a baseline. Marketing and promotion must follow. "A car wash is not an impulse purchase any more," said Mike Perry, a former car wash equip- NPN Magazine n www.npnweb.com