Thomas Ennis is the founder and chief executive of NS Wash Systems, an Inglewood, Calif.-based car wash manufacturing company. NS was founded in 1963, meaning that next year the company will be celebrating its 50th year in the car wash business. Ennis, today a very young 70, founded the company after acquiring his first car wash at age 19. CAR WASH Magazine recently caught up with Ennis on the eve of his significant and rare milestone.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning: How did you come across the car wash business?
A: When I was 16, my parents drove me to Milwaukee to go to a football game at Marquette University, where my sister was enrolled. At that time, you couldn’t get into the games if you weren’t 18 because of liquor laws, so my parents left me at the Ambassador Hotel for the afternoon. Without much else to do, I became fascinated watching a car wash through the window. I soon found myself across the street, walking all around the property and even taking down the names of the manufacturers whose equipment I found inside. I was hooked and thought about the business all the way home to Ohio. I recently learned that car wash, now called Scrub-a-Dub, is still there on Wisconsin Avenue.
Q: Was your next step finding a job AT a car wash?
A: Not exactly, and it didn’t happen overnight. Because my family didn’t come from money, and I was still young, I didn’t have the money to start my own car wash — even after working night shifts in high school at the local A&P. But, when I was 19, Westinghouse was offering a turnkey program for coin laundry businesses. They would build you out a location, without any investment of your own, in return for a share of the revenues going forward. I soon scouted out a location, which ironically was next to an existing car wash. The more I snooped around, the more I received the attention of the car wash’s owner. When I explained that I was looking to open a business nearby, he asked if I would consider buying his car wash! When I told him that I didn’t have any money to put down, he offered me a handshake deal to build up equity — and eventual ownership — by managing the site. It was that or another year of college tuition payments … so I took the job. My family still owns that car wash, Valley Car Wash in Sharon, Pa.
Q: How did you get involved in car wash equipment manufacturing?
A: I remember going to my first car wash convention in Washington, D.C., in 1963. It was hosted by the forerunner of ICA, the Automatic Car Wash Association. I really liked the products being offered by California Car Wash Systems and I became their distributor. I had already taught myself to weld and fix my own equipment, and later that year I created NS Wash Systems as a supply and service company. In 1966 I opened a factory in Pennsylvania. After surviving the oil crisis of the early ‘70s, I opened a California factory to better serve my petroleum and fleet washing customers and closed the Pennsylvania site in 1988. Today, we are the longest running car wash manufacturing company in the world.
Q: How has NS Wash Systems remained successful?
A: Simple: innovation. We were one of the first to invent and perfect wrap around brushes. We hold more than 30 patents and will add five more this year. We had a mini-tunnel, which are hot right now in the industry, in 1968 — called the Little Demon. More recently, our Bubblizer™ foaming arch has been very successful, as has our use of Lammscloth™ synthetic fiber mitts. We test all of our products at our family’s car washes, operating under the El Segundo and Green Forest names. Finally, I’d say that our diverse customer mix, about 40 percent rental car and fleet, 35 percent transit and 25 percent owner-operator, has helped us weather the economy’s ups and downs — as well as create new products and concepts.
Q: If it wasn’t car washing, What is it that you’d be doing today?
A: I don’t know what business I’d be in, but I can tell you one thing: I’d be successful. I always see opportunities — especially in challenges. You just have to believe that there is nothing that you can’t do!
