A new automatic tunnel car wash is to be built in Scunthorpe after the local authority granted planning permission, and WashTec signed on to supply the equipment.
The facility will be built on the site of the former Crosby Hotel, which closed in 2008 and has since fallen into a state of worsening disrepair.
Once the hotel is demolished a 34-metre-long automated car wash tunnel will be constructed. The facility will feature WashTec’s SoftLine system, which uses a conveyor belt to pull cars through its various stages of washing and drying.
The car wash centre will also offer eight valeting bays in which customers can hoover their cars, with these served by one centralised vacuum unit.
The facility will be built and run by Scunthorpe firm Pro Wash Park, whose director, Abdul Haji, describes it as a “unique system” and a “completely new digital infrastructure in UK’s car wash sector”.
WashTec, meanwhile, says the Softline system “combines high throughput with outstanding wash quality, flexible configurations and the technology needed to build a wash business for the future”.
The firm’s sales and marketing director, Ryan Lenihan, says WashTec has three new-to-industry tunnel installations planned for next year. Lenihan believes this “forms part of a wider trend as operators increasingly look for solutions that deliver the highest levels of wash quality, consistency and ultimately, vehicle throughput”, and that the SoftLine tunnel can wash as many as 120,000 vehicles a year.
He adds: “We’re also seeing operators capitalise on the ongoing shift in consumer behaviour away from hand car washes and towards professional automated wash facilities that offer greater convenience, consistency and overall wash quality.”
