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Highway Stops Retail has rolled out its own Stop and Superwash valeting brand

Top 50 Indie Highway Stops Retail is considering introducing a Costa-style loyalty card as one of a number of steps to help take its burgeoning valeting business to the next level.

The Wembley-based business, which operates 14 sites, six with rollover car washes and six with jet washes, has seen an uplift of over 30% in its jet wash sales and over 40% in rollover turnover in the past year, as it rolls out its Stop and Superwash brand, and invests in the latest technology.

It is about to start operating a twin Electra jet wash with overhead boons for ease of customer use at its recently redeveloped forecourt in Lye, in the West Midlands. And it has secured planning for a similar multi-bay set-up at its Park Royal forecourt in Wembley, with plans for another four or five sites to offer jet washing by the end of the year.

This follows the installation of the recently launched Washtec SoftCare SE HSRL rollover car wash at its site in Baddesley, Warwickshire last November. Highway Stops Retail was one of the first to take the new technology which has larger dimensions – up to 2.90 metres high, and up to 2.58 metres wide – making it possible to wash larger vehicles.

It also uses water-saving technology, and gives a precise dose of chemicals to reduce operational costs and the impact on the environment. And it is also marketed as having more effective drying with the contour of the vehicle ‘memorised’ during the wash.

Highway Stops Retail is confident of a speedy payback, and says that the new machine is a “great asset”, giving potential to upsell customers, who may have used neighbouring car washes before.

The company, which also leases two sites to Essar, made a strategic decision to invest in valeting across its estate in early 2023, and it says that the results and payback have delivered, encouraging it to look to further expansion and enhancements of valeting, says director Tony Head.

“We take the view that whatever people drive in the future, they are going to need to wash it, clean it and fill up their tyres,” says Head. “This is one of a few areas which we are really excited about, we just need to find some new locations to develop further. We now see we are on a journey, and there’s a long way we still want to go,” adds Head.

The initial catalyst to invest in valeting came after the business saw “great results” from fitting air and water machines with contactless capability.

“Our jet washes and rollovers didn’t offer this feature, and we knew then we were missing out,” says Head. And so the business decided to upgrade all of its jet washes, opting for Electra equipment which takes contactless payment, as well as tokens, at the end of 2023.

At the same time it invested in nine new contactless vacuums with fragrance.

Another advantage, says Head, is that the new jet washes and vacuums have a smart chrome finish. “The machines really stood out, and we saw an immediate positive reaction from customers to both the machines, the finished product, and the method of payment,” says Head.

The next upgrade came from the rollover washers. Encouraged by industry chat that the rollover market had recovered, the business left a profit share arrangement with another company to purchase four Washtec Easy Washes in late 2023. “We are very lucky that we have six rollover washes at almost half our estate, so the expensive infrastructure works are all there,” says Head.

But with previous machines having maintenance issues, the business realised it would have to work to get staff and customers on board. “We knew that if we were to invest, we would have to both energise the site staff as well as customers, so not only did we do a comprehensive tender on the machines, which focussed on aspects other than cost, but we also developed our own brand, how we sold the washes and reviewed our pricing.”

It was then that it introduced five new contactless rollover Washtec machines, complete with flashing lights on the floor tracks, as well as its Stop and Superwash brand at five locations: Swanley in Kent, Erith in south-east London, Wexham in Buckinghamshire and Girton in Cambridgeshire at the end of 2023. In addition to new machines, which also featured flashing lights, the bays were deep cleaned.

“Customers loved seeing the lights through the windows, it really is a nice piece of retail theatre,” says operations director Sellarajah Gunalan.

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Highway Stops Retail has moved towards contactless valeting and using decorative lights in its rollover car washes

But the gamechanger for the business was having access to the My Washtec app, which enables it to monitor sales in real time, and to keep a check on any maintenance the machines might need, says Gunalan.

It also allows the business to see which wash programmes are most popular at each site and to encourage staff at locations with fewer sales of the premium washes to market them at the till. It also plans to introduce incentives for customers to upgrade to more premium washes and give the business more margin.

“We haven’t had many issues but if a machine goes down then we know about it instantly and deal with it straightaway,” says Gunalan. “We strongly believe that getting real time data is key to managing a retail business and it is fully accessible on your phone or wherever you are. This has allowed us to maximise uptime which in turn feeds through to increased consumer confidence and this then encourages the site operators to sell the benefits of the machines.”

The stats will also help the business to devise a loyalty programme, which it has in the plans. It will most likely take the form of ’buy five washes and get the sixth for free’. It says it will analyse the data to come up with a “meaningful” customer package.