Loogman Carwash Business Blossoms in the Netherlands

Eight miles southwest of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, is the town and municipality of Aalsmeer, which is a province of North Holland. The area attracts many water-loving visitors who relish in the beauty and sporting opportunities provided by the Westeinder lakes, which comprise one-third of the municipality. Aalsmeer also attracts a plethora of horticulturists, who travel from around the globe to visit the auction blocks at Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer. Here, an approximated 19 million flowers and 2 million plants are sold to dealers daily, earning Aalsmeer the deserved title of “the world marketplace for flowers and plants.”

It is all these comings and goings of tourists and the town’s 25,000-plus residents that prompted 48-year-old Ger Loogman to build a carwash onto his moderately prosperous gas station in 1983. He started small, worked out many kinks along the way, and now operates four successful sites with yet another in the pipeline.

Sowing the Seeds

Reminiscing back to the old days when he was just piecing together a carwash system, Loogman says his first equipment selections might not have been the wisest choices. “The first two machines were Italian made and both machines lasted no longer than three years each,” he recalls.

The experience drove him to shop for carwash equipment beyond his own backyard. “In 1989, our organization made a big step forward as one of the first carwash operators in Europe to buy American carwash equipment,” he notes.

At the time, Loogman retained his dryer, but it remained the only European machinery in the mix, alongside his PECO Carwash Systems, PDQ Manufacturing and Compuwash purchases — the latter of which is still running after 19 years, Loogman remarks proudly.

A shift to cloth washing increased volume from 70,000 to 90,000 vehicles a year. The average carwash price also leaped nearly 50 percent. “It was clear that this was a very good marketing tool,” says Loogman.

By 1991, the business was maxing out volume on its one tunnel — 100,000 washes on a 95-foot conveyor. Clearly, it was time to expand and add another. “With the second tunnel, the volume increased again by 25 percent the first year,” he says. Vehicles continued to line up for services over the ensuing years, too. By 1995, nearly 185,000 cars annually passed through the one and only Loogman Carwash.

Growing Roots

By this time, Loogman teamed up with a friend, Mark de Graaf, and broke ground on a second venture, Amstel Carwash, this time down the road in Amsterdam. Besides developing a new site, the company branched out and created a division that sold carwash equipment and developed management systems for the European market.

In 2000, the company split into two divisions. Loogman continued to operate the existing carwashes, and de Graaf devoted his time to developing still another site, Bob Autowas, and cultivating Amstel Carwash Engineering (ACE). ACE established agreements with numerous manufacturers and continues to sell Holz Autowash Techniek, PECO, PDQ and its own software.

Although Loogman and de Graaf still collaborate on some ideas, their legalized business partnership has been dissolved. Still, Bob Autowas, with its two locations in the Rotterdam area, has been managed by the Loogman Group since 2007, and Loogman and de Graaf are building a new carwash in Rotterdam South, which is due to open in September.