By Tracy Charuhas

In the last two years, the Sacramento, Calif., area has seen the growth of the Splash & Dash carwash chain—from one location in Carmichael in 2004 to its four sites today. The fifth and sixth carwashes, planned for Sunrise and South Natomas, will be open by the end of the year.

So where did Splash & Dash come from, and who is behind the successful express exterior chain? The company was the brainchild of former financial analyst Jason Johnson and his father-in-law, Clif Conrad, a Utah carwash owner. The two had talked about opening carwashes in the greater Sacramento area for a few years and finally took the plunge in 2004. Conrad, who still owns his Utah carwash, moved to California to make the plan a reality.

Now Splash & Dash can be found in four California communities—Carmichael, Folsom, Foothill Farms and North Highlands.

“Splash & Dash really came out of our frustration as consumers with how long carwashes can take and also our dissatisfaction with the quality of carwashes some of the rollovers offer,” says Johnson, who is president of Splash & Dash. “We wanted to give people a clean car and do it fast.”

Conrad and Johnson teamed up with four other partners to make the project happen. They are Tim Wright, Greg Drennan, Chris Vaterlaus and Travis Kimball. Together, these six men have definitely made a splash in the greater Sacramento carwash industry.

Splash & Dash offers two levels of washes—the $5.99 basic wash and the $8.99 top wash, which includes a carwash plus undercarriage and clear-coat protectant. Tire shine can be purchased for an additional $2. Unlike many exterior express carwashes that have automatic cashiers, Splash & Dash has an employee greet each customer and help him purchase a carwash.

“We looked at auto cashiers but decided we could avoid bottlenecks with an employee,” Johnson said. “We also think our customers prefer the personal touch— someone to explain the washes to them. There are a lot of rollovers and exterior express washes in the area, and I think this helps us distinguish ourselves.”

But having a friendly face to greet people doesn’t mean there’s time to chit-chat. Customers are still moved through the site quickly so they can get what the company promises—a clean car fast.

At Splash & Dash, a vehicle can be washed in 3 minutes. If there are several cars in line, a customer can still get on and off the property in approximately 5 minutes, Johnson said. It takes only three employees to run a location at a given time. This team includes the person taking the money (the operator), the prep person and an employee who stacks the cars.

The customer stays in the vehicle while being automatically guided through the glass-enclosed, open-air tunnel where the vehicle is soaked, soaped, washed, polished, rinsed with spot-free water and blown dry all in a matter of minutes.

The all-cloth tunnels are loaded with equipment from Belanger, AVW and Sonny’s, and range in length from 100 to 120 feet, depending on the size of the property. Vehicles are dried using eight 10-hp blowers from Belanger. Each site has self-serve vacuums, the number depending on the lot size. Splash & Dash charges $1 for 5 minutes of vacuuming.

The lot sizes of Splash & Dash locations average about one acre in size. The company makes the most of the property it has to work with, and Johnson says they are fortunate to own some prime real estate.

Since street signage is heavily restricted by most cities in the area, Splash & Dash had to be creative in advertising to street traffic.

“The letters on the buildings and the architecture are all we have. Basically, our buildings are our signs,” Johnson says.

Signage isn’t the only challenging part of starting a business in the greater Sacramento area. First, there are the land costs, which are astronomical, he says. Then, it all comes down to working with the city to get the carwash built.

“Zoning was a complete nightmare,” Johnson says. “One of the biggest barriers to building in California, besides land prices, is the permits. Permits are very expensive, and it’s time-consuming to get a permit. You have to have a lot of working capital to start with because it will be at least two years before you finally open your doors.”

But one look at a Splash & Dash location and you’ll know it was worth the effort. The carwash buildings are Spanish-style with stucco exteriors and tile roofs. One thing you’ll notice about the structures is the amount of glass used in the construction.

Johnson says they wanted the sites to have an open feel so customers wouldn’t feel claustrophobic in the carwash tunnels.

Despite the hurdles, Johnson says building the washes has been a lot of fun, mainly because of his partners and the company’s great employees. Splash & Dash currently has about 50 employees.

Johnson said the process of building and opening a carwash has gotten easier with each one that is completed.

“We made a million mistakes along the way. You name it—construction, permits, financing, operations, marketing. We’ve learned through trial and error—mostly error,” he laughs.

While many states are cracking down on water use, carwashes in California are still not technically required to reclaim their wash water. But that fact didn’t stop the Splash & Dash team from installing reclaim systems that allow them to wash a car with just a few gallons of fresh water. The rest of the water used is reclaim water. The reclaim system, made by Hydro Management Systems of Atlanta, gets the reclaim water down to 5 microns of sediment, Johnson says.

“We’re really proud of our water, and we let customers know we use reclaim water,” he says. “Some customers say they come to us just because of that.”

Splash & Dash also uses environmentally friendly chemicals from Kaady Chemical of Portland, Ore.

“The soaps are for our customers, the environment and for our employees,” he says. “We don’t want our employees around caustics or acids. It’s harder to clean a car this way, but it’s the right thing to do.”

While some carwashes are waiting until it’s required by law to “be green,” Splash & Dash did not want to wait.

“We wanted to be ahead of the curve in terms of the environment,” he says. “Down the road, I think not only will the municipalities require us to be very green but consumers will too. We want to be there long before that’s required.”

This focus on the environment is one way Splash & Dash hopes to distinguish itself from the competition. And there’s plenty of that. The Sacramento area is home to many gas station rollovers, some exterior express washes and several full-service washes. But that doesn’t concern the Splash & Dash partners too much.

“Any carwash that opens is going to take away some of your business,” Johnson says. “That can’t be avoided. We compete by just being who we want to be—a carwash that offers a fast wash, a clean car and one that emphasizes the environment.”

Another way Splash & Dash distinguishes itself from the competition is by being closed on Sundays.

“This is a big deal to us,” Johnson says. “There is one day a week we can truly rest (and go to church). There is one day where no equipment is breaking down and there are no customer issues or employee problems. That’s one day we can plan uninterrupted family time. It comes at a cost, but it is worth it because of who we want to be as a company.”

As for the future of carwashing, Johnson says he sees good things ahead. “I think there’s a lot of pent-up demand for good carwashing out there,” he says. “There’s a lot of innovation out there on the part of the equipment and chemical suppliers, but we still have a long way to go. I think we can make incredible improvements in chemistry and equipment in the future.”

While the fifth and sixth Splash & Dash carwashes will open later this year, don’t expect the company to stop at six locations, Johnson says.

“In our first year and a half, we have grown to six stores,” he says. “We want to do that again in the Sacramento area in the next 18 months. We want to keep growing as long as it makes sense.”

For more information on Splash & Dash, go to www.dontdrivedirty.com. 

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