2022 Car Wash M&A Wrap-Up with Lanese Barnett

With so many changes in the car wash M&A space this past year, getting advice from industry experts is more important than ever. As we wrap up 2022 and prepare for 2023, we’re taking a look back at some of the vital insights we heard on Car Wash M&A, The Podcast this past year.  

In this episode, your host Lanese Barnett looks back at her conversations with Bill Martin, Chris Jenks, and Derrick Merchant and Michael Murry. Be sure to tune in the last Thursday of each month to hear the latest from Lanese and her guests.  

For a full transcript of the episode and more, check out the post.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:07

Welcome to Car Wash MA, the podcast, brought to you by Amplify Car Wash Advisors, the number one advisors of car wash chains nationwide on mergers and acquisitions in capital advisory services.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Hi, I'm Lenise Barnett, Vice President of Business Development at Amplify Car Wash Advisors, and your host of Car Wash MA, the podcast. Here we'll take a deep dive into the current mergers and acquisitions activity of the car wash industry with the goal of keeping car wash owners informed on where the market is today and where it's going tomorrow so that you can make informed decisions about your business. We'll help you answer the question: should I sell my car wash now or should I enter growth mode and really scale my operation? Each month, I'll speak with industry experts who will share practical advice on how to sell or scale your car wash. While the industry is undoubtedly changing, what remains constant is the need for solid information so you can evaluate where you are and chart the course for the future of your business. Hi, I'm Lenice Barnett, your host of Car Wash MA The Podcast. For episode 11, we're taking a look back at some of the great conversations that we've had on the podcast this year. While things have certainly changed over the course of 2022, our guests have had some great advice that is very relevant in today's market. We want to share some of the highlights with you today. To stay up to date with the latest Car Wash MA news, be sure to subscribe to our podcast and check out our news page on Amplify site to see our monthly podcast news articles as well as other important MA news. Go to amplifywash.com backslash news to check it out. Be sure to check back in with us in January when we will have a brand new episode and look forward to talking with you in 2023. In March, we had financial markets expert Chris Jinx on the podcast. He talked with me about the strong headwinds that we were just beginning to face at that point in the year. At that time, the war in Ukraine was just beginning to impact the economy. Inflation was rising, but interest rates had certainly not yet risen significantly. Chris shared his thoughts about what could be done to combat inflation, and he talked about what car wash owners specifically can do to be proactive in an inflationary environment. Although many things have changed in the car wash MA space since I spoke with Chris back then, the advice he gives in this episode continues to be prudent, especially in today's climate. So inflation, what can be done to control inflation, or what can we do strategy-wise as far as it's going to happen, it is happening, but what are some measures that can be done to have an impact on that?

SPEAKER_04 3:11

Yeah. So so the most effective tool to combating inflation is through monetary policy. So specifically the Federal Reserve adjusting interest rates to cool down the economy and essentially combat inflation. You have to think about what causes inflation at the end of the day. And it's usually excess of the money supply. So what do you do to control that? You reduce the money supply, the supply of money that's out there in the system. The Federal Reserve by adjusting the Fed target rate and bringing interest rates higher, that's certainly an effective way. And if you were to think about today's environment, what's causing an inflation, you know, it's really a mosaic of different things, right? You have a global supply chain issue, which is putting a bottleneck on the actual supply of goods. You have surging demand following a recovering economy from COVID-19. And you really have the effects of about $2 trillion of stimulus money really coming into play here. And I know stimulus from COVID, a couple of years removed from that, but you have to think, you know, there's a little bit of a lag there between when that stimulus money is put to work and by the time that actually trickles down throughout the economy, you know, we're starting to see the effects of this. So here we are today, uh, inflationary environment. Um, as mentioned, you know, the one tool that could be used to combat this would be changes in monetary policy, specifically rising interest rates. And as of yesterday, the Federal Reserve actually increased their target rate by 0.25% for the first time since 2018.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

And that increase is projected to be a steady, continual increase for the foreseeable future, or at least throughout the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Absolutely. The CME group actually has a really interesting tool that's available on the website. It's called the FedWatch tool. And essentially what they do is they look at the futures market to figure out, okay, what's being priced in here? And what they could do is they could put implied probabilities on the future of rate hikes. As of right now, as of yesterday's hike, what the markets are telling us is that there's about a 90% probability that interest rates will go up by at least another 1.5% throughout the calendar year of 2022. So you hit it right in the head. I think, you know, this is just a start. I think if we were to look going forward in what markets are telling us today, there's a high probability that rate hikes will continue with each of the Federal Reserve meetings to come. In fact, if you're to look all the way through July of next year in 2023, there's a 100% probability of an increase in every meeting from here on out through the end of July of 2023. So certainly think that's in the cards for the future.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

We've talked a little bit about what inflation looks like and what rising interest rates look like for the US economy, but what does that mean for car wash owners specifically and what can they expect? And then what kind of tools do we have specifically related to them?

SPEAKER_04 5:44

The most direct impact here obviously is with consumer behavior, right? How much is inflation going to spoot the consumer? And um, you know, if we were to look at the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey, University of Michigan, they survey over 500 participants from different geographical regions in the United States and they ask them the questions along the lines of their personal finances as well as their outlook for the economy over the short and long-term periods. And what the most recent survey showed us is that consumer sentiment is at its lowest level since November 2011, so shortly after the SP downgrade of US Treasuries. So all of the macro concerns that we've talked about between inflation, rising gas prices, the war in Ukraine, this is definitely weighing on the consumer. So the question now is how discretionary is car washing, right? Over the last decade, we've seen consumers embrace the car wash model, specifically the express car wash model. By and large, consumers are using professional car washing services more now than ever. And the express model has become a convenient solution for consumers where it's now ingrained in their daily activities, right? As you mentioned, Lenise, we have car wash operations here in Chicago. And we have some customers that are membership, membership customers. I mean, they're they're at our site daily. The question is now, are they going to stop car washing or will they maybe stop buying a $3 coffee at Starbucks? You know, the last litmus test was, you know, COVID, and car washing was resilient during COVID. So I think, you know, we're learning in real time how discretionary is car washing. And I think, you know, good indication is what's Wall Street telling us? We now have some publicly up traded companies out there, Mr. Car Wash notably. And we've actually seen some positive revisions from cell side analysts on Wall Street stating that you know the concerns over inflation and fuel prices may be overdone and they've actually changed their ratings from a hold to a buy. So a lot of consideration to be thinking around here. But generally speaking, you know, definitely an impact on the consumer. And this is the time now to get strategic if you're an operator. You know, I think the knee-jerk reaction in a rising cost environment is you know, just passing it back to the consumer and increasing your prices. But as mentioned, the consumer is certainly feeling the pain here a little bit as well through inflation, everything being more expensive. So one thing we've heard or we've seen a lot of here lately is you know, car wash chains and operators increasing their prices to accommodate for their changing cost structures. You have to be a little more strategic in that, right? I think strategic price changes may make sense, but you have to really understand your local market if you're going to do that. Specifically, you know, know your level of competition. If you are in a highly competitive market with other alternatives for car wash tunnels, um, you know, you might find yourself in a game of chicken with the local competition. Also, if you consider your local demographic, right? If you are operating in areas where there's less discretionary income, a price chain may not be prudent in the current environment because again, the consumer's feeling the pain as well with uh inflation at about 8%.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

And it's not saying that you shouldn't consider price changes, but what we're suggesting is that you should really consider all of these factors before making a knee-jerk decision or reaction based on rising input costs and rising costs on the operator side. Because as you mentioned, you know, consumers, while we're seeing that car washing is less discretionary than other things, say going to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, it's still discretionary. Like it still falls into that category. And we have to be sensitive that these price increases in such a sensitive time in their in their world and their pocketbook as well, that we don't want to drive them away for that. But there are other things that car wash operators could consider changing or re-evaluating within their own operations that could offset some of those rising costs. And that's one of the things that I wanted to talk about with you of what are some options for them to offset this?

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Great question. Yeah, there's a lot more than just increasing revenues by passing back price changes to your consumer. This is a good time in an inflationary environment. As I mentioned, one thing that usually accompanies inflation is rising interest rates. Now is a really good time to be looking at your debt for your company and specifically using this as an opportunity, potentially refinance some of your shorter-term variable rate debt and lock in longer-term debt at a lower interest rate.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Especially if we know that the interest rates are going to continue to rise. We see there's a there was a 100% probability of rates increasing over the next year, you know, continually. So we know it's happening.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

Absolutely. So again, now's a good time to understand kind of what does your debt look like? What does your cost of capital look like and intentionally restructuring short-term variable rate debt to longer-term fixed rate at the current lower rates? That'd definitely be one thing you could do here. You know, other things to consider, you know, locking in long-term uh arrangements with your vendors, you know, that's certainly something you could take advantage of today if you expect costs in general to continue to rise. Lock in long-term contracts with your vendors that could potentially keep you at a lower rate today for a longer period of time and remove kind of that exposure to what could be variable pricing in the future.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

So, for more from Chris Jinx, listen in to episode two. Back in April, we shared an episode with Amplify Car Wash Advisors partner, Bill Martin, one of my favorite human beings. Bill is a successful car wash veteran who also operates uh Metro Express car wash. In this episode, Bill shares some of the industry insights that have helped his company find success and maintain a strong footing amid current headwinds. The tighter the market gets, the more car wash owners need to pay attention to procedures, customer experience, and their team members.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Like everybody, we're trying to find ways to make car washing more user-friendly for the customer and more manageable and scalable for the operator. Technology, we want to see technology as our friend, not as something we're afraid of. And I think technology can be you can become overly dependent on it and expect too much out of it. So you've got to manage it. But that's some of the things we've done. We're working on some other initiatives right now, actually, three or four different things in technology that we think will be pretty exciting going forward for for operators of all sizes to manage the business and to again make it a more user-friendly experience for the customer and more manageable for the owner, operator.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

So, with those different technologies and processes that you were working on and then later developed and are now widely used throughout the car wash industry, it just really points to something that's so important to the success and the scalability of a car wash, which is the processing of the cars. So sometimes I feel like we can kind of get lost in how a car wash looks and what the menu pricing is, and some of these more visual parts of it, which are all important. But at the end of the day, the ability to process the cars efficiently and process them well and have a standard for how that goes, and using that assembly process to where you can maximize how many and how much volume you're able to produce with the quality that you're looking for is so important. And that's something that you do really well. And each one of those ideas and later technologies that came into fruition address that. So getting the cars in quicker and processing them, then that's really amazing. And so I kind of like to talk about the importance of processing cars and what that means to the success of your business and how how you can train your staff and how you can implement ways that focuses on the process part of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

In our company, we call it the Metro Way. The Metro way is people, process, product, and place. The time that a customer spends on your site is critical, in my opinion. You want to try to turn them around as quickly as possible. We measure that from the time the front tire hits the threshold of the driveway till the back tire departs the threshold of the driveway. So we set standards and goals for how many minutes each process should take or how many seconds. I used to back in the full service days, I was always frustrated by the notion that we should try to sell the customer as much extra service items as we possibly could sell them so that we could maximize that revenue per customer. And my observation was that while we were doing that, we had these big gaps of empty space on our conveyor. And my argument was we can never make up in extra services what we lose in throughput. If a customer is going to pay you five or seven dollars for a car washer, 10, $10 today, let's say, but you lose a whole space because you're trying to talk them into spending $12 as opposed to 10, that's a losing proposition for the owner operator. That throughput management is so critical. Not only is it critical to maximize your opportunity that day, but it's also very important to the customer.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Because that person that's number four, five, six, or seven in line is frustrated while he or she is waiting for that customer's, you know, at the point of sale to make a decision about, well, do I want to spend an extra two dollars here? I mean, to me, that was just never what we were about in our business. We were always about the processing of the customer and to try to get them back on the street as quickly as we possibly can.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

There's something there that with the person that's getting the more attention at the point of sale, and maybe there's an idea that the salespeople should be really friendly and chat with the customer because it makes that customer feel good. But the downside of that and the other side of the coin is that all the people behind them are really annoyed that that person's taking up so much time and attention that really you're you're over. And at the end of the day, they're probably not even gonna get the upgrade. So you've wasted your time, anyways. But you're right that you can't you can't look at one part of the process or of the of the equation without taking a holistic view of what the other customers are seeing too. Because again, that that one person feels special, but the other people feel slighted.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Right. And our model for the associate that we want out there talking to the customer is somebody that can be friendly, they can engage the customer, but they know how to keep it short, concise, and move them along without feeling like they're being pushed. But they have an interaction with the customer, they tell them about our services. We always start with, you know, our unlimited plan, then make sure that once the decision has been made by the customer, we keep that queue moving. So throughput management, it's really there's a lot of things that happen in that process, but that's something that Metro that we pay a lot of attention to. Some people say, well, it's just that you want to wash as many cars as you can wash. Yeah, of course we do. We want to process as many customers any given day or hour as we can, but that's a two-way street. It works for the customer as well as for us. That's a win-win, we think. So we don't pay any commissions to our associates for selling extra services. It's just not something we do. We we let the customer make the choice. The associate, they're paid to be there and manage the quality and the courtesy, not to try to sell a customer or something that they may not want uh or need. So, anyway, that's that's how we function in that realm. And it's worked out pretty well. It's a constant training and retraining process. Uh, our general managers, their major role at the site is to train. We don't want them in the office, we want them out monitoring. We call it management by wandering around, watching what's going on at the site, giving feedback. We don't really want them plugged into a position, although sometimes they are just by nature of how busy we might be. But so we want them to be moving around and overseeing what's happening, of course, handling any kind of customer issues that may come up in the course of a day.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So and let's talk a little bit about the training aspect of it. So the general managers there on site and they are overseeing their associates, their sales associates, and their staff to make sure that they are using the scripts that you have or using the processes that you have for speaking with the customers. But what's some of your higher level part of that of how that person is trained, how that general manager receives that information and some of the infrastructure that you have built in to disseminate that across your locations?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

We have tier training so that when someone comes on board, we obviously show them. I mean, there's video training, there's uh written training, there's apprentice training where they work side by side with someone, you know, we'll give them feedback for the first 30 days. They're they're on a trial basis to see, you know, if they like us and we like them. Constant feedback. I'd say by and large, our employee profile, they're younger folks, not always, not all, but most. And so a lot of them, in some cases, maybe their first job or you know, they're early in the work world. And so they're sponges, they want to learn generally, and so we have to give them a lot of good feedback. We have regular employee staff and safety meetings to give feedback to our team. We mystery shop our sites, we reward people for the right behavior, and we give them feedback for the wrong behavior. So it's just a constant process. And uh, what I see happening in a lot of operations, not just car wash, a lot of businesses, they put a manager into a position of managing the business, but they're really uh become a fireman and they're trying to put out fires and fix problems other than really train, train the staff every single day. We think that's the highest and best use of that general manager at our sites, the area managers, then are observing the the results and giving that feedback to the general manager. So it's a it's a process, it's it's it's never ending. I mean, there's plenty of job security there because uh we're constantly uh trying to raise the bar and elevate uh the level of service and the uh commitment. By the way, we find that when we do correct, give the proper feedback in the proper way to these uh our staff, our associates, they uh welcome the feedback to be able to do better. Today, the cost to hire and retain employees, it's pretty high. We're starting people at in the $17, $18 an hour range in our markets. Uh, some people could even be higher than that, depending on where you're at. So we don't want to turn those people over, and we really, really work to keep that turnover down. We want to select the right people, we want to onboard them in the right fashion, but then we also we don't want to turn them, we don't want to churn them.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So and something that across industries, but I've seen in the car wash industry as well, there's kind of this idea that, or this hope, unrightfully so, that you train someone and you you give them the information one time, and magically they're going to not only commit it to memory, but to replicate it successfully every time. And it's just not the case. I mean, we are humans at the end of the day, and you're right, a lot of times there are people who are new to that role, or maybe this is their first job. And so that ongoing commitment to training and retraining, and if it's built into the expectation from the beginning, it's so much less confrontational than if suddenly six months in they're getting reviews or quiz or things like that that they didn't have from the get-go to where it feels like it's more of a negative thing than a constructive criticism or helping them get better and helping the whole team get better. So I think you're on to something there.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

So we do an uh employee survey. I don't know if you can see that. We do an employee survey regularly, which we get feedback from our team or associates. It's anonymous, they can say anything they want. And I'm always struck by how many really positive comments we get. You know, a lot of times uh uh in years past, it's like, well, this job sucks, or you know, I hate being outside or whatever. I'm blown away by the positive comments we get. And I think it's because when they join our team, they join a culture that operates at a fairly high level, and they either understand early on that they've got to adopt that culture or they're not a fit. And we see it, we you know, we have grooming standards, we have uniform standards, and they're not onerous, but there are expectations we want them to follow. Actually, just this year have gone away from up until this year, everyone wore ties every day at work, year round. Wow. Ties and you know a white shirt or a blue shirt, depending on their position. We have made the decision this year to go to polos. Maybe it's kind of a golf luck. Yeah, maybe it's a sign of the change in times. But we we supply very nice uniforms. Uh, we make sure that we have uniform standards, and I think a lot of folks do this, but we're in the retail business uh where we have retail customers and we like to say retail is detail. And so you got to pay attention to those details all the time. And you got to remind folks. And pretty soon, again, they start to bring that into the culture, and you see it, it becomes almost automatic.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

For more from Bill Martin, be sure to listen to all of episode three. In October, we shared our episode with guests Derek Merchant and Michael Murray from Champion Express Car Wash. Derek and Michael both share some systems and procedures that have helped them find success as they scale their business. Derek talks about the importance of building a strong executive team. Michael shares about the choices he made once he came on board, and he helped bring Derek's vision to life and as well as the vision of their merchant family to scale their car wash business, Champion Express, to a whole new level. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_06 23:32

I knew these weren't hypothetical washes that they were going to build, you know, that I had to be prepared for them and be ready for them. So yeah, back when I first started, I think the goal was was 20 or so by the end of this year, which will be at 27 by the end of this year, and then 50, 60 by the end of next year. And so as I started thinking through that and started strategizing, really the coming in, taking over eight washes, in all honesty, is no is no joke. And so that's where I was when we started, and I immediately wanted to get a foundation, right? And so it's it's truly about that foundation because I knew if we were going to get that big that fast, that nothing matters unless you have the foundation set and ready to go. So I'm immediately tried to get to work on an executive team and and finding finding the right people. I am adamant about finding, you know, there's a quote from the movie Miracle, um, but you're not, I'm not looking for the best ones, I'm looking for the right ones. And and that's really what I tried to do and and um we were able to accomplish here, someone, an executive team that could help build this thing out and build the culture and everything we were looking for. So so we did that. Um, we got to work on on building the executive team and then built our field ops team and then our uh training department as well. And so I wanted to let the washes come to us, not not us go to the washes, meaning knowing that these things were coming, whenever we took over these washes and opened them up, that we we had the staff ready. We weren't doing as much training just there on day one. You know, we already structured this thing out, even from a regional standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

When you're looking at opening new sites, do you have the team ready to go to where you guys do practicing or you do the the on-site training where you have kind of a team that comes in and they, you know, start giving them the process and the manual and the scripts and things like that?

SPEAKER_06 25:14

Sure. So what we do is we have two counterparts. So we have a we have a filled ops team and then we have a filled training team. And the training team doubles as store openers. So when they're not opening stores, they circle around to all of our washes doing continual training. And then whenever they're opening up washes, so we have it fully planned out. I I could tell you how many weeks beforehand that we start each wash, but training the site leader, um, getting everything in place before, and then then throughout opening day, we have at least two trainers on site, a regional operations person on site. And so we're very intentional about how we open up these washes and how we prep for them.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

And was it through your your background with your previous role that some of these things made sense to you? Or is this just new store openings in general or growth in general? So what kind of guided that?

SPEAKER_06 26:04

So, yeah, so for the most part, maybe a little bit from there, but for the most part, learning as we go, listening to my different team members that have had that have experience in that.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Hey, we would really like to have this when we open a store, or we really need this.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Yeah, I mean, and that's really what what managing is, right? It's it's giving the given the people that's working for you the right tools to do their job. And so I just listen, you know, what what tools do you need? Here's here's the standard, here's the expectation. What do you need to do that? And then it's really just about putting that in place.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

It sounds like you two specifically work really well together. From my own experience as well, yes, you need somebody at a counterpart or uh someone that you work that closely on an executive level, or even if it's on a store level where you have a manager, an assistant manager, or two co-managers or your teammates. It's important to have that relationship personally as well. It doesn't mean you have to be best friends, but if you have something that you can build off of that makes that trust and it makes that ability to listen to each other and to hear or actually hear what their needs are, what they're saying. And it seems like that between the two of you that you have that. And um, sometimes I think that that's overlooked in the the professional world that it still matters that your personalities click. You don't have to have the same thoughts. It's better to have the balance, but you still have to have a working personal relationship as well as the working professional relationship.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Yeah, that's 100% right. And that's what we've been building on in this culture here is we can be friends, but we can also we can also challenge each other. And I think Mike does that to me, and I do that to him. But work as you come in today is fun, and it's because Mike believes the same things we believe culturally, and it just makes me smile when I walk in the halls and I hear the laughter. One minute there'll be rap songs on because construction had a team win, so they play all I do is win. The next minute, development will be playing Queen or Champion will be playing Queen. We are the champions because they hit a goal. It's just fun. When you make it fun, and it's the same for Mike and I. I know I don't feel like I work every day because it's fun. I get up every day and I look forward to what what's going to be different in the office every day and the challenges that come with it. When you have a trust with your executive teams, then it's fun.

SPEAKER_06 28:36

Yeah, I think that's a big, a big part of it, you know, when he talks about trust. I think that's the first, there's there's trust and there's buy-in. And once you have that, it creates an opportunity to have healthy conflict. Of course, there's a lot of, but we we listen to Patrick Lincioni, you know, a lot on his books, Five Dysfunctions of a Team that that talks a lot about it. But it's so true to be able to sit in a room and speak passionately, you know, about your stance on something and then to hear someone else out. And the goal is to truly be about what's better for the organization. You know, it's not about each individual, but but I want to hear all of the different discussions and then to be a hundred percent okay if it's not your idea, you know, that that was gone out. And really it doesn't, it doesn't matter whose idea it is, it's about what's going to make the organization better. And and um, I think Derek and I have that, and uh that's what we try to create down to our teams.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Mike's better at it than me. I'm trying to learn from him still.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Speaking from, again, taking my own experience, this industry has changed a lot over the years. I I started in 2010. Obviously, I was still like, you know, 10 years old then. I'm just kidding. I had uh I'd already had a career in marketing and communications working at a public relations agency. And so I did that for about five years and then I joined the car wash industry. Over time, I've seen more and more women join into this industry. But one thing that really makes a huge difference when you're coming into a room where maybe you are different than the rest of the people that are there is if you have a room that is open to listening to your thoughts or your ideas and there is a sense of collaboration, then everybody feels empowered to share. And I feel very fortunate that that's been my journey. But it also takes building a culture that encourages people to share their ideas and to maybe you don't adopt them and maybe it's not the right path for the organization. But if you have that culture where it's okay to say something and it's okay to even have conflict, conflict isn't the end of the world. That's a that's a healthy part of growth and and a team. But if you have the safe space of everyone here is respected and everyone has their place, then that opens that dialogue. And I think that that's the most successful teams are the ones that can have those conversations and grow from them and learn from each other and listen. And listening is the hardest part. Even I struggle with that, and that's part of this whole process, it's just me listening to someone else talk, but it's harder than it seems, it just seems very fundamental. But we're all human and it's uh it's a learning process as well for me.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Agree a hundred percent. I've I've had the ability to learn under some very good listeners. My dad is a very good listener. I very much undervalued that and didn't even understand at the time to appreciate that. Mike is a very good listener, he is methodical in everything he does, he hears everybody out. I really believe to be a good leader, you have to be a good listener.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Totally. I totally agree. Back to the car wash side of it. What are your goals for 2023? We talked about some growth plans on on numbers that you want to you know extend your store count, but what will you end next year feeling most proud about if it goes kind of according to what you what you foresee and what you're what you're planning out now?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

In 2019, we told PC and D magazine that we had a goal of getting to 50 locations in five years. And so that will be an awesome accomplishment for us when we get there by the end of next year. Didn't think we would have to have the number of sales that we've had to get there, but we've we've very much always wanted to continue owning our own company, and that's just because we believe in our our mission, our vision statement, and our values. And a lot of times when you bring in a partner, that can change things. And so that's been our heart behind it. It's not been about the merchants making money. If that was the case, we would have retired after last year, but it was very much about hey, we're building something cool here, we want to continue building that, we want to see what this thing looks like operating 50 car washes. That's been the goal from the beginning.

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What a year we've had. While the market has changed drastically over the course of 2022, our car wash industry continues to thrive as we head into 2023. Be sure to join us the last Thursday of each month as we keep you up to date on the latest mergers and acquisitions activity in the car wash space. If you're loving Car Wash MA the podcast, which I'm sure you are, be sure to subscribe wherever you like to listen, share with your colleagues, and please take the time to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Reviews are a great way for more car wash owners to find us. A listener shared this review, which I'm particularly proud. If you're in the car wash world, you need to tune in to this podcast. Lanise is a fantastic host who leads really engaging and informative interviews with her guest, value-packed conversations around these episodes. Highly recommend checking it out. Thanks, Olivia Baker13. I really appreciate that. That's a nice way to wrap up the year and feel great about this time that we've shared together. And I really look forward to joining you all in 2023 as we head straight into the new year and hope you have a wonderful holiday. Thanks.

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Thank you for joining us on this episode of Car Wash MA, the podcast, with your host, Lenice Barnett. Like what you hear, subscribe to our podcast feed, and leave us a review or follow us on social media at Amplify Car Wash Advisors. Want more MA information? Visit our website at amplifywash.com and listen for new episodes on the last Thursday of each month.