Tiger Express Wash cleans up with membership model
For Roland Bartels, it’s all about keeping cars clean.
After 13 years in the car wash business, he bought out his partner in 2012 and decided to change up his business model so he could maximize his profit and provide better service to his customers.
Bartels and his former partner owned a few locations in the area, a couple of which were self-serve car washes, a model Bartels said is ineffective in cleaning cars and also not profitable.
After the partners parted ways, Bartels settled on a new business model: Memberships. For a monthly fee, customers could wash their cars as many times as they wanted at any of three locations in Columbia or one in Jefferson City. He likened it to going to a gym: People pay a flat rate and use it as much as they feel is necessary.
“There’s a need for this particular business model,” Bartels said. “It’s more like a gym. Memberships grow, and we keep our gym clean, keep everything running and take care of the car wash.”
Recently, Bartels said, he re-evaluated the membership model after reading a study from Cornell University that determined if the price was lower, membership would increase and use would decrease. He lowered the price to $20 a month, and more people signed up. Average monthly washes per member dropped to 3.1 from 4.6, he said, and that increased revenue. “It’s like a buffet,” Bartels said. “You get charged $20 for a buffet, you’re going to eat and eat and eat and waste it. But if they charge you $7.50, you just eat what you need and don’t waste it.”
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Bartels said his membership model is in line with a recent trend of services such as Netflix and other Web-based or mail-in entertainment and shopping options.
Come to one of Bartels’ four Tiger Express Wash locations and a pair of employees will start by power-washing the outside of the car, then spread some soap on it before it goes through the tunnel to be cleaned. The car is dried at the end. Not much different than a traditional car wash. What sets it apart, though, is not just the membership model.
Jeff Lasater, finance manager for all four locations, said the power wash at the beginning isn’t offered everywhere and goes a long way.
“If you see a car with a massive amount of bugs or dirt inside the wheel wells and you see it go inside a normal car wash, it’s not going to get completely clean,” Lasater said. The employees who do the power wash, however, “They’re not going to stop until it’s absolutely perfect.”
In the parking lot, the self-serve vacuums are free, and so are machines that clean floor mats. Members get towels for free to clean the inside of their cars. People who aren’t members can pay $1 for a towel they can use and exchange in virtual perpetuity. The wash at 2601 Grindstone Parkway, which also serves as the headquarters for the business, only offers exterior service.
There are two lanes to get into the wash: One for members and one for single washes. The single-wash lane is staffed with one or two clerks and the member lane reads an RFID sticker placed on the vehicle so the member can roll in quickly.
Locations on Sandman Lane and in Jefferson City offer interior cleaning as well. The fourth location is on Nebraska Avenue just west of Providence Road. On Grindstone, Bartels said, the member lane alone will serve more than 200 cars daily.
Bartels said his company’s success is derived from his staff, their attitude and how well they do the work.
“I would say our people make it more friendly,” he said. “We try to make it as fast as we can, but the car wash still has to be good.”
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When Bartels sought to buy out his partner, he needed financing, so he turned to Enterprise Development Corp., which helps entrepreneurs in 11 Mid-Missouri counties secure funding for their small businesses. Through the corporation, he applied for a loan with the Small Business Administration, or SBA, known then as the 504 Loan Program. The program has since been rebranded as the Real Estate Advantage Loan Program.
The main perk of the loan, which is funded via bonds issued with a government-backed guarantee and can last either 10 or 20 years, is that it has a fixed interest rate, said Donna Hamilton, executive director of the corporation. It’s meant to “supplement but not replace traditional financing, so there’s always a bank involved,” Hamilton said. In Bartels’ case, it was Landmark Bank.
For small businesses to be eligible for the loan, they have to have a net worth of less than $15 million, less than $5 million in average net profits over the previous two years and plan to occupy a majority of the building they plan to purchase, Hamilton said. Standards, she said, that are “pretty generous.”
A majority of the borrowers have to make a down payment of 10 percent and once all the paperwork is done, the bank’s loan will be 50 percent of the cost of the land and the SBA’s will be 40 percent, Hamilton said. The corporation, she said, serves as an intermediary for the SBA program helping the borrower through the application process.
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So far, Bartels’ business is thriving, he said. When he began, he said he had about 400 members. That has now grown to more than 8,000, and he expects to generate more than $4 million in revenue this year. In total, the four locations employ about 60 people, many of whom are young college students.
Bartels said Enterprise Development Corp. helped a lot with the paperwork and made the process flow well enough that, as he goes through it again for another location, it will make it “substantially easier.
“Buying the partner out makes it difficult, so Enterprise helped put it all together, just how to structure it because they knew exactly what SBA was going to look for,” Bartels said.
More growth also is on the horizon for Tiger Express Wash. Bartels and his crew are about to close on a building in Troy and plan to open it within the next month or so. After that, he said, he hopes to tap further into the St. Louis area, a market he said is underserved, and possibly open another wash in Columbia.
Customers at Tiger Express on Wednesday afternoon said they came to Bartels’ place for several reasons. Bill Southworth said he likes the equipment they use and friendly service. He said he goes there a couple of times a week.
“I think it’s the best car wash in town,” Southworth said as he vacuumed out his vehicle.
Jason Singh, 27, said he’s at the Grindstone location about twice a month, cleaning his and his family’s cars.
“They do the best job,” Singh said, “especially with drying. This one has the best drying tunnel.”
Tiger Express, he said, is “probably my favorite” for other reasons, too, including the free vacuums and regular promotions the business runs.
About two or three times a month when the weather’s nice, Antonio Stanfield comes to Tiger Express, depending on how often it rains or how dirty his car gets. Stanfield, 25, said he likes to keep his car looking good with a nice shine.
“This is my go-to car wash place” he said.
The service is fast and courteous, Stanfield said, with nothing notable to dislike, adding, “The free vacuums never hurt.”
This article was published in the Saturday, May 31, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Cleaning up: Tiger Express Wash owner Roland Bartels says his membership model keeps cars cleaner and boosts his revenue."