On May 8 of this year, the professional car wash industry lost one of its true legends, Dr. Joseph Enning. Enning, who was recognized with International Carwash Association’s “Innovation Award” in 2009, made an unparalleled impact on the car wash business in the United States and Germany during his 50 years in the car wash business. In 1999, Modern Car Care Magazine named Enning one of the “Most Influential Carwashers of the Century.”
Born in Germany’s Westphalia region in 1929, Enning developed a sense of self-reliance and responsibility at an early age due to the loss of his father. Academic pursuits were his original focus, which led to his receiving a doctorate in economics from the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Immediately after graduation, he boarded a ship for the United States — with only $97 in his pocket. For a year, he studied English and the country. He made ends meet by working as a janitor, freight dispatcher and lumberjack.
In 1960, while working as the representative of a German company in New York, Enning laid his eyes on one of the first automatic car washes. Convinced that there was a tremendous opportunity for this new concept in his native land, he returned to Germany and in 1964 opened his first car wash.
In 1980, with 10 car wash sites operating in Germany, Enning decided to return to the United States. There, he established Hot Springs Autowash, Inc. Many of the locations he developed are still in operation today, particularly in the eastern parts of the United States. At the same time, Enning became focused on the potential of frictionless conveyorized car washing, citing John Jurkens of Octopus Car Washes as his inspiration. With Ron Bell of Southern Pride, he started marketing “touchless” car wash equipment under the name International Autowash Systems. Several patents were issued based on their innovations.
Ideas pioneered by Enning in the years that followed, such as a high pressure rotating wheel blaster that follows cars down the conveyor, can be found operating in leading organizations in the United States such as Hoffman Car Wash locations in New York state. Mike Mountz of Cloister Car Wash (since sold to the Mister Car Wash group of Tucson, Arizona) also cited Enning’s car wash innovations as inspiration. Perhaps most significantly in the United States, it was Enning’s free vacuum concept that was integrated with automated tellers and entry gates by Ben Alford’s Benny’s Car Wash in Louisiana that created the “express exterior” format phenomenon.
Beginning in the early 1990s, Enning’s focus returned to his fast-growing German locations. Though he kept a home in the United States, most of his time was spent at Mr. Wash’s headquarters in Essen, near Düsseldorf. Not only did the number of Mr. Wash locations grow, but the size and scale of several sites became some of the largest in the world. Some of the sites have side-by-side wash conveyors, with up to three belt conveyors for interior cleaning, and can wash more than 500,000 cars per year.
Today, Mr. Wash AG has 33 car wash locations across Germany. Two of Enning’s three sons, Raoul and Richard, work in the business, the latter as the chief executive officer. (Richard also presently serves on International Carwash Association’s board of directors.) Dr. Joseph Enning will be remembered by many of his car washing peers as a pioneer, innovator, leader and friend. The professional car wash industry will benefit from his leadership for generations to come.