Founding Group Member
Motor City Wash Works, Inc.
Education
Bachelor of Arts,
University of Michigan
Richard Belanger recently took a few minutes out of his day to discuss his path to the car wash industry, his take on the industry and his life outside of car wash. Belanger began his car wash career with Belanger, Inc. when he was 12, working for the family business. With more than 25 years of experience in car wash manufacturing, he is a founding group member of Motor City Wash Works, Inc.
Q: Tell us about your path to the car wash industry.
A: My brother and I joke about, “being hatched in a car wash!” I started working for my Dad’s company, Belanger, Inc., when I was 12 and kept working during summer vacations through high school and college.
Q: Hatched in a car wash, and you’re still in the industry. What keeps you here?
A: I love the multi-faceted dimensions of a small manufacturing company in the car wash industry. We touch so many disciplines from sales and marketing, to engineering and production, to accounting and management. I love the feeling of pride when our guys take an idea from concept to design, to production, and on to a successful product that satisfies the needs of our customers.
Q: What do you like to do when you’re not thinking about car washes?
A: I like to spend time with my family. My wife, Kathleen, and I have been married for 20 years, and we have three teenagers who keep us on our toes. They are very busy with school and sports, and we love it.
Q: What do you think is most interesting in the industry now?
A: The level of professionalism that pervades even the smallest businesses due to the enormous exposure of information in the digital age is moving the car wash industry forward at an ever-increasing pace. Everybody in the industry — operators and manufacturers — have raised the level of their game. Business owners are more nimble. Marketing is more sophisticated. Investors, owners, operators are well-informed up to the second about the performance of their business, which allows them to adjust their labor pool, price points or marketing throughout the course of each day to maximize their return.
Q: What ICA program are you most excited about? Why?
A: I am very excited about the Car Wash Show Europe in 2015 and beyond. ICA’s new trade show will allow even more networking and learning for operators, manufacturers and distributors around the world. More closely to my business, it will create an excellent opportunity to access a very large potential market in Europe, which would be much harder to reach on our own.
Q: What has it been like for you to serve on the board of directors?
A: Being a member of the board of directors of the ICA is an honor. I want to help advance the association and the group of car wash people who have been so good to my family over the last 40 years.