A £300,00 investment in a three-bay jet wash hub in Earley, near Reading, marks the start of forecourt operator Johnny Srikrishna grasping what he calls the “much discussed el dorado” of valeting.
He describes replacing a hand car wash business at Loddon Bridge Service Station as SJS Group’s “first concerted attempt at a proper valeting proposition” with blue and red bespoke Auto Spa branding, and four more sites to follow.
A Shell V-Power advocate, with the brand at six of his family’s seven sites, Srikrishna says that he wanted to align his valeting offer to the premium fuel.
Two weeks in, the debut hub at the Shell/Budgens forecourt, which was developed by AKN Build, is hitting £2,000-plus a week in turnover. It features Electrajet Premium eight-in-one jet washes, with overhead booms and a lit enclosure, with a 3m van clearance.
The income compares ”very favourably” with the weekly rental the business received from the previous operation which had an ageing rollover and two jet washes.
Srikrishna also believes that the digital displays on the jet wash machines will enable him to increase car care sales with advertisements on their screens.
He has doubled the space given to car care to 3.5m, with interior cleaners, VIP dupe aftershave and perfume air fresheners, and the addition of a £7.99 Chrome-branded range included to coincide with the installation.
The products, including leather, and upholstery fabric cleaners, are likely to appeal to the increased number of car enthusiasts with more expensive cars visiting the site to use the jet washers, believes Srikrishna.
He says that the big pull to the site – which also has two new Electrajet four-in-one air, vacuum, fragrance and screenwash towers – has been the eight programme jet washes offering the combination of the ‘bleeding wheel cleaner’ which turns red on contact with brake pad dust, the hot snow foam, and the reverse osmosis streak-free final rinse.
“Users of jet washes like to have an experience which they can take photos of and share on social media,” explains Srikrishna, who has been posting stories on Facebook to advertise the self-service washing.
Most of the jet wash business takes place from 6pm to 8pm, with usage more than doubling on Saturdays and Sundays, and one customer having cleaned their vehicle on-site at midnight. Srikrishna says when he hits a £4,000 a week turnover he will consider installing a fourth jet wash bay, with the space already rigged up and ready for this.
With the operation being 24-hours there is plenty scope to build the business, says Srikrishna, who has set a minimum £2 spend and a £1 a minute fee. He expects the jet washes will pay for themselves within two or three years.
Part of the growth will come from introducing a loyalty app through the contactless Nyax payment system, and to increase the scale of posting on social media. He is also considering introducing an attendant service, in which a member of staff will clean cars for around £20 a time. “There’s a bit of a barrier with jet washes for people in their 60s-plus, who tend to prefer rollovers, but an attendant service would get around this,” he says.
In the next 18 months Srikrishna is looking to spend over £600,000 more introducing valeting with his Auto Spa brand at four sites. This includes the recent Pace acquisition in Norfolk, a new site he is hoping to complete on soon, and forecourts in Northampton and Salisbury.
