BY SANDY SMITH
Ned Browning and Roger Peterson might have been competitors. Or, if Browning had his way, he might have been able to buy out Peterson from the washes that held his family name.
After two years of discussions, Browning realized it was smarter to partner up than to do either.
Both Browning and Peterson have extensive backgrounds in the car wash industry and are using their new alliance to stake a claim to Virginia and West Virginia under the Valley Car Wash brand. It is a way to fend off competition, particularly from national chains that might be less likely to come to an area that has a strong local brand, the two believe.
“Convenience is the biggest benefit,” Browning said. “No matter where you are in this area, you can use one of our facilities.”
With nine locations in a 50-mile area, Peterson believes Valley Car Wash will build allegiance because of that convenience. “You can buy one pass and use it anywhere.
That’s our loyalty program,” he said.
The two have other creative ideas that combine lessons learned in other industries to enhance the customer experience.
Before combining operations, Browning operated two washes under the Valley Car Wash brand. Peterson’s operated under his name: Peterson’s Family Wash. While it might seem challenging to get an owner to give up a brand that had his name in it, for Peterson, it was an easy ask.
“There were many Sunday phone calls from friends, telling me about their experience at one of the washes,” Peterson said. “If I had it to do again, I would never use my name with Peterson’s Car Wash.”
Browning had joined the wash industry in 2002 after many years in corporate America. His first washes were self-serve with in-bay automatics. Within four years, he had five locations. “We had a great time running those, but realized the express model was the way to go,” Browning said.
He sold off the locations that could not be converted easily into an express wash and began renovating the others. His growth plans brought him to Peterson’s door to ask about purchasing.
Pictured is one of the Peterson’s Family Washes prior to renovations.
The timing was right. Peterson had gotten into the car wash industry, somewhat by accident. His father owned several Dairy Queen franchises in the area. He purchased a closed Tastee Freeze that had a car wash out back. At the time, Peterson was in pharmacy school, something he termed “the most boring job in the world.”
His father was having success with washes and built the first Modern Cloth Car Wash in the area. By this time, Peterson decided he needed something more exciting than pharmacy and began persuading his father to back him in his plans to build a cloth wash in Winchester, Va. Over the next five years, they built six more locations. Peterson’s became one of the 40 largest privately held car washes in the country.
Eventually, though, Peterson expanded into other businesses, following his father into Dairy Queen franchises and opening a regional taco chain. Car washes took a back seat until Browning came calling.
Though Peterson’s interest was in growing the food operations, he wasn’t letting go of his car washes very easily.
“When Ned came knocking, I said, ‘I’m fine with getting out of the car wash business if you give me a ridiculous offer. I’ll sell it to you, but you’ll have to give me twice what it’s worth.’
Ned’s smarter than he looks. He didn’t want to do that.”
Peterson had one caveat for teaming up. “I said, ‘I’ll get back into the car wash business, but you have to be the energy behind it.’”
He was fully engaged in the restaurant businesses, preparing to open his 13th location. And that’s where synergy struck. Every kid who comes to an oil change appointment (which is offered at one of the wash locations) or through the car wash receives a coupon for a free Dairy Queen ice cream cone.
“We give out 20,000 free DQ ice cream cones a year,” Peterson said. “That’s probably the single biggest marketing tool we have.”
But that’s not all. The car washes are used to broadly market the restaurants, too, with free lunch promotions with an oil change, for instance. “We can build some real synergies,” Peterson said.
For now, the two are focused on remodeling the washes that are merging into the Valley Car Wash brand. Valley Car Wash in Winchester was fairly new, having been remodeled in 2018. Three Peterson’s operations — two in Martinsburg, W.Va., and one in Staunton, Va. — have been rebranded.
One Winchester location was due to reopen this summer after being remodeled. Another Winchester location and one in Stephens City, Va., closed this summer for renovations and are expected to reopen later this year.
Two new Valley Car Washes — in Martinsburg and Inwood, W.Va. — are expected to open next year. If all goes according to plan, the two will share nine car washes by 2022; Peterson retains ownership of a few additional washes on his own.
“We needed to do something because we knew competition is coming,” Browning said. “They’ve been moving up I-81 for years and we need to protect our territory and offer our customers more so that we can compete with what large regional or national chains can offer.”
Now with their combined operations, “no matter what anybody does, they’ll have to settle for being number two,” Peterson said.
Browning believes that local ownership will win out, even when the large chains come into the market. “We go the extra mile to give personal service, to put a smile on their faces and make customers feel valued when they visit our facility.”
Peterson leans into his restaurant experience for an example. “You can tell a corporate owned fast-food restaurant versus a regional franchisee with five to 10 locations. In those cases, you have a family member who is known by 400 employees. With a national chain, the caretaking is impossible. You can’t run 500 locations as well as you can run five or 10.”
That also gives Valley Car Wash an advantage when it comes to hiring employees, something that is broadly difficult in the area, with competition from Amazon, Procter & Gamble and FedEx.
Pictured is a rendering of what Peterson’s Wash will look like once it is transformed to a Valley Car Wash. The new wash will have a 110-foot express conveyor, oil lube and two PDQ touch-free laser bays, 14 free vacuum stalls, free mat cleaners and free use of towels and interior cleaner. The current version has a tunnel, oil lube and five self-serve wash bays.
“I think there is a struggle to find top-notch employees in this market,” Browning said. “I know of a couple of washes that have built locations but can’t open because they can’t hire anyone.”
With their deep local ties, though, and their presence in the business, “there’s a real advantage when you do an interview and you’re talking to an owner of a family-owned business,” Peterson said.
Working together, the two are able to offer a better benefits package to employees, too, Browning said. “We can give you all the perks, but at the same time, you know the owner, so you can express an idea.”
Embracing new ideas and nurturing them to their full potential is something these two experienced wash owners had before teaming up. The merger, in addition to being a well-planned business strategy, is also allowing them to explore ideas and options for growth that will keep them competitive in this rapidly growing car wash market.