Why independent car washes can still win—if they operate with discipline and intent
The ICA office contains some great car wash nostalgia—old photographs, magazine articles and even a brick from the world's first fully automated car wash. One of my favorites is an old board of directors gavel, housed in an aged leather satchel from the 1960s. On its wooden base is a quote from Emanuel Celler, a former U.S. Representative from New York:
“The well run trade association is the best friend the small business man has. It represents his foremost hope for survival in a sea of bigness.”
I read it again recently and wondered what the car wash operator wielding that gavel more than a half-century ago would think about today's industry.
Consolidation and the subscription model have reshaped competition. Technology is moving faster. Expectations—from both customers and employees—are higher.
Does "hope for survival" still exist for the small business owner? The short answer is: absolutely.
An underappreciated advantage independent car wash operators possess is the ability to maintain a long-term perspective. Many are led by long-tenured owners or leadership teams who are not just managing to the next reporting cycle. That matters. It allows operators to execute for the current quarter while investing for the next decade—in people, processes, equipment, and culture.
Closely related is another advantage: nimbleness. Independent operators can respond quickly to local conditions—adjusting pricing, staffing, hours, service mix, or marketing—without waiting for remote approval or navigating layers of oversight. Decisions can be made close to the customer, informed by direct observation.
People are another area where independents retain real advantage. Smaller organizations often have the ability to know their employees personally, invest in their development deliberately, and create clear expectations around performance and growth. Training is not just an onboarding event, but an ongoing discipline—one that improves consistency, customer experience, and results over time.
Taken together, these three opportunities—long-term perspective, nimbleness, and staff development—can create durable advantage. But they also require discipline.
Long tenure, especially when coupled with early success, can encourage complacency. Nimbleness without discipline can create inconsistency. And people development without structure can devolve into good intentions without results. In all three cases, the advantage only holds when operators impose discipline on themselves: clear standards, measurement, and a willingness to adapt.
Importantly, consolidation has not fundamentally altered the unit economics of car washing. Independent sites can still generate strong operating margins. The primary advantage of scaled platforms is not cost—it is location density. Larger networks can offer broader subscription usability and perceived convenience across a geography.
ICA research continues to show that car washing remains a local, convenience-driven habit—one rooted not just in proximity, but in familiarity and trust built over time. Most customers wash near home or work. A larger network only matters if it aligns with those daily routines. In practice, a well-run site with a reliable, customer-friendly experience still defends its trade area—even against much larger competitors.
Scale can also bring constraints. Institutional investors tend to favor models that are highly repeatable and easy to standardize. Independent operators, by contrast, can succeed with relationship-driven businesses—such as fleet contracts—that rely on local trust and responsiveness. Or, they can master models that are less attractive to larger operators (e.g., full-service, interior cleaning, or rollover and self-serve models), but still successful when executed well.
Financial structure is another potential differentiator—and one that directly reflects an operator’s time horizon. Many independents avoided peak-cycle site purchasing and overly aggressive sale-leasebacks. Sale-leasebacks can be useful tools for unlocking capital, but they reduce the margin for error if site performance softens over time. Conservative capital structures preserve optionality—and resilience.
The gavel quote also points to something else that remains relevant today: there are still challenges no single operator can reasonably manage alone, and trade associations like ICA address these through shared resources (car wash training, consumer and industry research, and government advocacy) that ensure operators have something to cling to in that big sea.
None of this is an argument against scale. Large, well-capitalized operators have raised the bar for the car wash industry in meaningful ways. The lesson for independents is not to ignore or bemoan that reality, but to learn from it—while leaning into the advantages that scale cannot easily replicate.
This industry still offers real opportunity for independent operators, but seizing that advantage takes more discipline than ever.
Eric Wulf is the CEO of International Carwash Association. His newsletter series, The Next Move, aims to highlight the shifts, challenges, and opportunities that matter most in the car wash industry. Subscribe to The Next Move on LinkedIn to be notified when new editions are published.