Stars and Stripes

By Tracy Charuhas

Imagine a world where your carwash is the only convenient place people will go for a tunnel wash. What if there were 50,000 washable vehicles in the area, and they were yours alone? No competitor could open up nearby, and if your customers disappeared for some reason, you would not lose money on the business. Sound like a dream? This carwash “Utopia” is a reality for Andrew Ryder, who last year opened the first privately owned tunnel carwash on a U.S. military base Shur-Kleen at Ft. Lewis in Washington state, which is part of the Shur-Kleen Car Wash chain, opened on Dec. 20, 2004. The location cleaned 784 cars at its Jan. 5 grand opening, and car counts are still on the rise, Andrew says.

In 2004, Ft. Lewis officials approached area tunnel carwash owners and invited them to bid for the chance to build a tunnel carwash on the base. Seven companies competed for the spot, but Andrew won in the end. Maybe it was the close proximity of his other carwash that prompted the military to award the location to Andrew. Maybe it was Andrew’s boy-like charm, or even the fact that several members of his family had served in the military. It could also have been the good reputation of the Shur-Kleen carwash chain. Whatever the reason, the outcome was a great opportunity for Andrew and Shur-Kleen.

“I was confident that we’d get into Ft. Lewis, but in the back of my mind I was worried that we wouldn’t,” he says.

Andrew had good reason to worry. A large portion of Ft. Lewis personnel were already getting their cars washed at Andrew’s other Shur-Kleen location in Lakewood, Wash. If a competitor opened on Ft. Lewis, Andrew’s Lakewood car counts would plummet. Luckily for him, that didn’t happen.

But it wasn’t easy being the first public/private venture the U.S. military had undertaken. There was no official department to guide Andrew in the process. Shur-Kleen was basically a “guinea pig” for the military’s public/private venture program, he says. In the past, civilians who wanted to run a business on a military base could not own the location. They could only lease it from the military. Andrew had considered this option in 1998 when he first decided to open his own carwash, but he decided it just wasn’t the right business move. Instead, he bought the Lakewood location.

It cost $850,000 to build the Ft. Lewis Shur-Kleen, including the building, equipment, landscaping and other costs. As part of Andrew’s contract, if Ft. Lewis were to be closed, the military has guaranteed to reimburse him up to $750,000 for his business.

Getting the wash built also required Andrew to fight his way through a maze of red tape. He started construction on the wash in June 2004 and did not open until December of that same year. The only building inspector for public/private building projects lived in Florida. This geographical challenge slowed down the project.

“The public/private venture was a brand-new program. It took a lot longer than we expected it to—about six months. Now the military is seeing this as a successful way to go, and I think it’s opened the door for other public/private ventures in the future.”

While Andrew does not own the land his carwash is on, he does own the building and everything in it.

“The military has zero money invested in my carwash,” Andrew says. “I lease the acre of land the carwash is on for only $350 a month and pay a percentage of my gross back to the military each month.”

This percentage, Andrew says, is equal to that of Washington state sales tax, which is 8.2 percent. He has a 25-year contract with the base, along with the option to renew for another 25 years. This is a great deal for Shur-Kleen, no matter how you look at it. It’s also a plus for military personnel who don’t have to leave the base to get a professional carwash. The base is open to active military on base and retired military personnel off base. It is not open to the general public.

Shur-Kleen is born

Shur-Kleen was founded in 1985 by Andrew’s mother, Shirley Ryder. Shirley worked in public relations for Girl Scouts of America for several years before opening her first carwash in Lacey, Wash. By 1988, she had two locations, and that same year her husband, Ron, left his job at the power company and joined her in business. That was the same year 13-year-old Andrew first started working at the carwashes. “I was making about $3.77 an hour,” Andrew says. “I was in eighth grade at the time, so I thought that was a lot of money.”

From 1988 to 1992, Andrew worked as a prepper and cashier at the Olympia location. He also attended college, majoring in predentistry and politics. But it wasn’t until 1998 that Andrew decided to make carwashing his career.

Having parents in the carwashing business has its advantages, but the Ryders didn’t just hand a carwash over to their son. Shirley and Ron wanted Andrew to build his own business. In 1998, Andrew agreed to handle paperwork for the Shur-Kleen locations while his parents took an extended vacation to China. While they were gone, Andrew saw how much money they were bringing in and decided to give the carwash business a shot. Even before his parents set foot back on American soil, 23-yearold Andrew had made an offer on a carwash in Lakewood. The owner, carwash pioneer Gary Henricksen, took a liking to Andrew and accepted his low offer for the 47-year-old carwash. Henricksen even held the contract, since the only thing in the world Andrew owned was his car—which he had paid for in cash.

He got a bank loan for the 30 percent down Henrickson wanted and for the money needed to renovate the wash.

“He saw himself in me,” Andrew says. “He got into the carwash business when he was in his 20s. I was so impressed with him because he had been in the carwashing business three times as long as my parents had been in business. He wanted to see me succeed. I owe everything to Gary Henricksen.”

When the Ryders retuned from China, they were surprised to find their son ready to jump right into the carwashing business. When they had left for China a month earlier, Andrew had been planning to be a dentist.

“The kids hated working at the carwash when they were younger,” Shirley says. “We wanted Andrew to be sure that this was what he wanted to do.”

Andrew told them he was sure about carwashing.

He bought the Lakewood wash in July 1998. He ran it for a month and then closed in August for major renovations. His plan was to transform the business into a successful flex-serve carwash. He gave the wash a facelift, adding new equipment and even turning the existing waiting area into a drive-through espresso shop. It was during the renovations that Andrew hired 18- year-old Aaron Rusbuldt to help him get the wash ready to open. Today, Rusbuldt is the general manager for the Lakewood and Ft. Lewis locations.

Things looked great after the first two weeks of business, and then everything changed.

“It rained for 90 straight days,” Andrew recalls. “I wasn’t making any money and I had no place to live, so I slept on a futon in my office for six months.”

But business at Lakewood improved, attracting locals and military personnel from Ft. Lewis and a nearby Air Force base.

Andrew was 23 years old, but he looked a lot younger. When customers had a problem and asked to speak with the manger, they usually had a difficult time believing young Andrew was the man in charge. So Andrew grew a goatee with hopes of looking older.

But being a young operator allowed Andrew to relate well to his employees. Coming from a family carwash business, he saw his young employees as family.

“I told them that I didn’t mind if they made mistakes, but I just didn’t want them to make the same mistake twice,” he says. “If they make a mistake, you sit down with them and try to make them better. You don’t fire family.” Some of his employees, including Lakewood manager Dano Marquez, have been with Andrew for more than five years.

Shur-Kleen Ft. Lewis and Shur-Kleen Lakewood offer flex service. Customers can choose an exterior-only wash for anywhere from $7 to $15, depending on the wash, or a full-service carwash which ranges in price from $15 to $22. Self-serve vacuums are available at both locations.

The Ryder family has a lot to be proud of. Not only are their washes successful and they have the first tunnel carwash on a U.S. military base, but this year Shur- Kleen even made the “Top 50” list of conveyor carwashes in the country for the first time, coming in at number 50 (see Top 50 list on p. 64.)

“My goal in the beginning was to take what my parents had done and try to make it better,” Andrew says. “They had worked very hard and had done things right for a long time, and I wanted to continue that; but I didn’t just want to take over one of their existing washes. I wanted to prove that I could do it myself.”