ChainXY Team - February 23, 2023
Post Recap
Assessing car wash chain growth – with Kalibrate
In January 2024, ChainXY teamed up with our analytics platform partner – Kalibrate – to take a closer look at three car wash chains to know more about their expansion strategies.
Check out our summary on the article for a quick overview:
Car wash chains have been scaling rapidly.
Check out our summary on the article for a quick overview:
- Private equity firms are investing.
- Acquisitions are on the rise.
“We have seen tremendous growth and interest in car wash brands over the last two years having added over 88 chains into our database.”
– Oszkar Breti, Chief Revenue Officer at ChainXY
Tracking three car wash market leaders over a year and a half.
Mister Car Wash: Existing market expansion strategy
Purchase chain list data for Mister Car Wash
- 1969: founded in Houston, TX.
- 2014: acquired by Car Wash Partners Inc alongside Autawash, Car Wash USA Express, and Goo-Goo Express Wash to create a network of over 200 locations.
- 2018: ChainXY begins tracking car wash locations.
- 2021: strong presence in Florida with Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa Bay and local expansion, as well as Houston, Salt Lake City, and over in San Jose, California on the West Coast.
- 2022: expansion focused on existing markets like the south.
- 2023: ChainXY shows 450 locations in chain database.
Strategy: adding units where the brands has significant presence or entries to neighboring markets.
Zips Car Wash: New market expansion strategy
Purchase chain list data for Zips Car Wash.
- 2004: founded in Arkansas with 2 locations.
- 2018: ChainXY begins tracking car wash locations.
- 2021: expansion from home markets in every direction with a big focus on Texas (excluding Mister Car Wash’s turf in Houston) and the Carolinas.
- 2022: significant number of openings in Orlando and Florida, while opening a new market in Chicago and going into direct competition on Mister Car Wash’s turf in Salt Lake City.
- 2023: ChainXY shows 277 locations in chain database.
Strategy: start out growing home markets, then march into competitor markets.
Quick Quack Car Wash: Controlled expansion strategy
Purchase chain list data for Quick Quack Car Wash.
- 2004: founded in Utah with 1 location under the name Splash & Dash Car Wash.
- 2018: ChainXY begins tracking car wash locations.
- 2021: granular geographic expansion on west coast and southwest to 160 locations.
- 2022: controlled expansion into established markets and markets neighbouring existing ones, avoiding markets where competitors reign.
- 2023: ChainXY shows 231 locations in chain database.
Strategy: grow where you know your product works (and where the competition isn’t.)
Key insights
“Having access to quality, accurate and up to date location data is essential to stay ahead of your competition especially in a rapidly expanding car wash market.”
– Oszkar Breti, Chief Revenue Officer at ChainXY
- Robust, data-driven strategies don’t all look the same.
- Avoid largest competitors at a granular level.
- When entering competitor markets, consider rapid, aggressive expansion to maximize critical mass and brand impact.
- Challenges: subscription models require convenient locations and low wait times.
- Strengths: use location intelligence to better understand your customers, competitors, market characteristics, location performance, and more.
Strategy: grow where you know your product works (and where the competition isn’t.)
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