RICHARD ENNING
CEO,
Mr. Wash Autoservice AG
Education: MBA, University of Cologne
Richard Enning is in his second year on the ICA board as an operator member and recently took a few minutes out of his day in Germany to discuss what he’s thinking about in his business, his time with the ICA and his life outside of car wash. Enning began his car wash career working as a car wash manager at a Mr. Wash location in Munich. He went on to work in consulting and for a large industrial company before stepping back in to the family business of car wash.
Q: Alright Richard, easiest question first … what are you passionate about?
A: Water. As a real car washer, I love the water. My biggest passion is sailing in the Netherlands and the North Sea.
Q: A real car washer? What do you mean by that?
A: The best business decision I made was to start my career at the front line of our business. The daily contact with the customer benefitted me greatly and even today, 20 years later, I still have personal profits from my time as a car wash manager. If one of my kids would ever like to come in our family business, I would ask them to work for at least two years as a manager in one of our sites. You get the knowledge, the customer interaction, and you also get a good reputation among the rest of the employees.
Q: That makes sense. So, clearly the customer experience is important to you?
A: If you run a restaurant, your food should taste good; if you run an airline, your planes should be safe … and on time; and if you run a car wash, your cars should be clean; those are the basics of the business and not discussable in any way; so the final customer decision is not made by the fact if the car is clean (that’s a matter of course), but by other factors. That’s what really interests me. What makes the customer happy so that he comes back frequently and recommends your place to others?
Q: Let’s shift gears a little. This is year number two for you on the ICA board. Tell me about your experience.
A: I really felt honored to be asked to become a member of the board of directors of the ICA. We don’t have a comparable organization here in Europe, so I am very interested in all the international activities of the ICA. Besides, I got to meet with top-class car wash people.
Q: You said there isn’t a comparable organization in Europe. So, what program are you most excited about with the ICA?
A: Wash Count. In our company we have 33 different sites, all from different construction years, different sizes, some with gas stations, some with quick lube, but what unifies them all is the interest in the numbers of the others. Benchmarking yourself in relation to others is one of the most important business instruments at Mr. Wash, so I think ICA’s Wash Count is one of the most interesting program for every operator. The numbers are anonymized, so you don’t give away any secrets; but you get a lot. You can compare yourself not only with yourself, but also with others (average of others), which gives you the chance to find the strong and the weak points of your operations.
Q: Wash Count has been a good program so far, that’s for sure. What else do you think the ICA needs to do to stay relevant?
A: Keep an emphasis on the I in ICA. The car wash industry is constantly growing and changing. The wealthier a nation gets, the newer the cars, and that always creates a growing interest in car washes. The car wash map of the world will probably change in the next 10 to 20 years. Whereas in the United States and Western Europe the markets are mostly saturated, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America are very big opportunities. The ICA is the only international organization for the car wash business, and that will only become more important in the future.
