Kerner's Cleans Up With 2 Million Car Washes

How long does it take to wash two million cars and change one million quarts of oil? For Dave and Lorraine Koerner, it's taken 38 years-they hit those big milestones earlier this year. Kerner's Car Wash and Quick Lube Centers, a family-owned business, has three quick-lube centers and five car washes with locations in Manchester, Exeter, Merrimack and Franklin.

Their car washes range from a tunnel car wash offering soft-cloth, hand-wiped service to self-serve bays and touch-free automatics. Collectively, the business generates about $3 million in revenue and employs 24 to 28 people depending on the season.

While the rest of us dread the thought of winter, Dave Koerner can't wait for snow. We bring in 60 percent of our business in car washes between December and March, he says. Our biggest competitor is someone washing their car in their driveway. On a busy day, a single facility can generate more than $10,000. The tunnel car wash alone services about 60,000 cars a year.

Koerner has also invested in cost-saving measures. At one of the self-service facilities, Koerner installed a high-efficiency boiler to generate the hot water used to wash the cars and also warm the floor to prevent it from getting icy and people slipping. The cost was $20,000 to put the boiler in, but I'll get that money back fairly quickly, he says. He also worked with Public Service of NH, which provided a free energy audit and helped to pay half the cost of installing new, more efficient lighting.

Koerner faces more competition than ever, but he says cost-saving measures and excellent customer service have been key to the company's growing success. That path began in 1973, when Koerner started as a part-time attendant working at a tunnel car wash and gas station in Manchester. Over the years, he worked his way up. Last year he acquired the car wash business where he started, and earlier this year acquired the land it sits on instead of paying rent. That completes the cycle for me, he says. 

For more information, visit www.KernersCarWash.com.