Riding the wave

How Mammoth Holdings continues to change the car wash game

Mammoth Holdings is a pioneer in changing the traditional car wash business model from pay-as-you-go to subscription service. The Mammoth Holdings vision statement may sound like a plainly stated strategy the company planned on taking when it started in 2002, but a closer look shows just how precise its edict was. With 80-plus express conveyor car washes and four flex-service car washes in 15 states under 15 brands, the company is the sixth-largest operator in the US, according to Commercial Plus’ Top 100 list. Based in Atlanta, Mammoth Holdings was founded by Gary Dennis and Chip Hackett. Today, the company operates under Busy Bee Car Wash, Finish Line Car Wash, Lulu’s Car Wash, Marc-1 Car Wash, Ollie’s Car Wash, Pals Car Wash, PitStop Carwash, PureMagic Carwash, Quick Wash Car Wash, Shine On Express, Swifty Car Wash, Ultra Car Wash, Wash Me Fast, Wiggy Wash, and Silverstar. The Mammoth way is driven by its customer-focused operationally; operator-focus in its approach to acquisitions; and its mission to be the partner-of-choice for car wash operators who desire liquidity, growth capital and a tax-deferred equity opportunity.

We sat down with Chris Donner, VP of Development, for Mammoth Holdings, to get an inside look into the Mammoth car wash platform.

Give us a snapshot of the Mammoth Holdings Brand.

Mammoth is the first express conveyor car wash platform formed by industry insiders. It is now the sixth-largest operator in the US, according to Commercial Plus’ Top 100 list. The company, based in Atlanta, was founded in 2002 by Gary Dennis and Chip Hackett. We have grown to include brands in 15 states. Mammoth operates more than 80 express conveyor car washes and four flex-service car washes under the brands Busy Bee, Finish Line Car Wash, Lulu’s Car Wash, Marc-1 Car Wash, Ollie’s Car Wash, Pals Car Wash, PitStop Carwash, PureMagic Carwash, Quick Wash Car Wash, Shine On Express, Silverstar, Swifty Car Wash, Ultra Car Wash, Wash Me Fast, Wash Time Express and Wiggy Wash. Tell us a little about Mammoth Holdings Brand.

Mammoth is customer-focused operationally and operator-focused in its approach to acquisitions. We want to be the partnerof-choice for car wash operators who are looking for liquidity, growth capital, and a tax-deferred equity opportunity. Big things are happening at Mammoth. In October, Dave Hoffmann, formerly of Dunkin’ Brands, became Chairman and CEO. He has a long history of working with franchisees, owner operators, and small businesses to drive performance and build value. We are working to leverage the history and experience of our owner operators to develop world class best practices.

What’s the coolest thing customers can expect to see?

Our owner operators are the best in the business. We’re looking to feature anything that will deliver great results and build a strong relationship with customers. That includes offering everything from modern car washing technology, compressed air and ceramics to free vacuums and unlimited clubs.

What will be the biggest surprise to customers?

Washing your car in a modern, express car wash uses fewer gallons of water than when you take a shower or bath at home.

What are the trends in the car wash sector?

The car wash industry has been fragmented, so we expect to see more consolidation and standardization. That means more regional and national brands. Look for more investments in technology and ongoing efforts to modernize facilities.

How do you pick a location for a new facility?

There can be challenges to identifying real estate whitespace. The goal is to avoid setting up shop across the street from a direct competitor. We look in existing markets or areas adjacent to markets where we already operate. Then we look where the competition is or is likely to be. We also review the “Coming Soon” locations of all the national and regional players and make sure someone else hasn’t already got a site planned. Even with all that research, it’s hard to find information on smaller players who don’t have a web presence. Nobody is assimilating car wash location data well, so that has an impact on site selection. In the end, a whole range of factors come into play—access, visibility, site navigability, signage potential and distance from competition.

How does the overall design cater to what the area needs?

Much like other retailers, we adapt our design based on the shopping center or the community standards. Oftentimes we adjust materials or building colors. Changing a color or adding wainscot materials usually has minimal impact on a project budget, but sometimes shopping centers or cities will have significant design criteria. If you want to be a part of that community and blend in, you need to conform. That can be challenging when you have brand

standards and a look and feel to your brand that you’re trying to maintain and support. Or, in our case, multiple brands to support.

Do you work with any focus groups on design?

We are going through a prototyping exercise right now and we plan on using some focus groups on the design. Initially, we are using a small group of our internal operators to tell us what they want and need, and we’re designing around their requirements. At an express exterior car wash, the customer is primarily in their car or on the site using our free vacuums. We want our facilities to look great and feel safe for our customers, and assure the design works optimally for our team members.

What are today’s customers looking for?

Our customers are looking for a location that is convenient to how they live their daily lives. With our unlimited club memberships, customers are washing their cars more than ever, and with that frequency of visit increasing, the car wash needs to have great access, a dedicated lane just for unlimited club members, and quick time through the tunnel (that’s why it’s called “express”). Customers also need a clean facility to get a free vacuum for their cars, use our compressed air guns to blow out their dashes and cup holders, and clean their floor mats with our mat cleaners. Going forward, all new Mammoth car washes will have these features.

Our owner operators are the best in the business. We’re looking to feature anything that will deliver great results and build a strong relationship with customers.

What’s the brand’s short-term strategy? Long-term?

Short-term, Mammoth is still seeking out like-minded owner-operators to join the Mammoth Holdings team. We’re also focused on sharing best practices internally (one of the many benefits of our owner-operator makeup) so that our existing washes can operate to the fullest of their capabilities. Lastly, we are rolling out our new Greenfield program with the first sites under construction 4th quarter 2021. Long-term, we’re ramping up Greenfield growth and hope to triple our new construction capabilities by the end of 2022.

What’s the biggest issue today related to the construction side of the business?

I’m still seeing some contractors use COVID supply chain and labor issues to justify

delays. As an industry, on the owner’s side, we need to require that contractors work more efficiently and work much harder to troubleshoot and resolve any issues they face in the current business environment.

Talk about the continued importance of sustainability today.

Our water reclamation system captures over 95% of the water used, which then goes through a multi-step filtration system. From there, soaps, soil and oils get filtered out, making the water cleaner and reusable for another car wash. By reclaiming the used water, we can use as little as 20 gallons of water per car wash compared to the 100 gallons that get used when washing a car in your driveway. We never discharge our soaps into storm drains, a drawback with washing cars in driveways, and our soaps are eco-friendly and biodegradable. On the energy side, we use LED lights throughout our facilities—in the tunnel, on the building, under our vacuum canopies and on our site lights. We’re exploring more use of solar and wind energy and have installed solar panels as a test in one facility in Georgia already.

What types of opportunities do you see moving ahead?

I see an opportunity to develop more car wash locations in existing markets. Traditionally, we looked at trade areas as circles (radii) on a map. Now, with mobile data coming from our cell phones, we’re able to see true trade areas; where customers are coming from and going to, and even how long they stay at certain locations. By analyzing that data, we are able to see gaps in markets that allow us to add new locations where we might not have developed in the past.

What type of challenges have you seen?

One of the biggest challenges has been a negative perception of the car wash

If you want to be a part of that community and blend in, you need to conform. That can be challenging when you have brand standards and a look and feel to your brand that you’re trying to maintain and support.

EST 2010

industry in general. Many times in planning and zoning or city council meetings, we have to defend our industry because of misperceptions around noise level and ecological impact. In fact, we conserve water and pride ourselves on keeping clean sites that fit into most any neighborhood or commercial setting. We are very cognizant of our neighbors and take every step possible with our site designs and equipment to keep noise levels and lights contained within our sites. I think in time that negative perception will change to a positive one.

What changes do you expect to see heading into 2022?

I think we’ll see continued issues with commodity prices. We’re already looking at alternatives to steel construction by using concrete-filled PVC forms for external walls. It is a panelized system that may also give us some time and labor savings over steel structures or assembling CMU blocks. We’ll also see more multi-site programs emerging in the car wash industry, not just one or two sites a year as was the norm the last decade for each brand. With private equity backing, many brands will be adding anywhere from dozens to more than one-hundred new sites next year. Mammoth’s plan is to be a leader in the industry. We think the universe of express car washes could be double or even four times the roughly 10,000 there are today. CCR

Describe a typical day. With two kids under 3, I’m an early riser already, but I try to beat them waking up each morning to get a head start on the day around 4 a.m. At that time, there’s no scheduled meetings or calls to interrupt you so it’s a great time to focus. I guess I’m “old school.” I go to a day-planner-ofsorts (https://fullfocusplanner.com/) and think about the three most important tasks I want to accomplish that day.

The reality is there may be 10 things I have to get done by noon, but I make sure the important stuff doesn’t fall through the cracks by having this list prioritized each morning. As things come up, I add them to the list as “other tasks,” but in general, I try to actively track and prioritize tasks throughout the workday.

Like many construction professionals, I have worked from a home office for most of my career, so once the family is fed and off to their daily routine, I go up to my office-above-thegarage and start diving into emails and holding conference calls. Monday is the busiest day, as we go over projects’ statuses and hold leadership and strategy meetings.

On any given day I can be working on real estate strategy, looking at a potential site, evaluating an acquisition prospect, collaborating with our owner-operators on a new equipment design, attending a city council meeting, bidding out a project, doing a punch list, or checking on a GC’s payment application. I love the scope and variety of work that comes with being a construction professional.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job? Collaborating with and learning from our owner-operators. They have an incredible wealth of knowledge. With such a variety of car wash businesses under the Mammoth umbrella, usually one of our operators has “been there, done that” for any hurdle I’ve come across.

One-on-One with... Mammoth Holdings’ Chris Donner

What’s the biggest item on your to-do list? Establishing a Mammoth Holdings prototype. Even though we are a group of many brands and owneroperators, there’s no reason the site and building we call our car washes can’t be consistent. I’m working on establishing an architecture and engineering platform that can support many brands but have one consistent site and building. That’s consistency that’s needed, not just for us in construction, but also our operators.

What was the best advice you have ever heard? “...just listen to your gut, okay? And on your way down to your gut, check in with your heart. Between those two things, they'll let you know what's what....” — Ted Lasso, (Season 2, Episode 11, Midnight Train to Royston)

What's the best thing a client ever said to you? We love working with Chris. He makes work fun.

How to Make Your Advertising in CCR…

By Jim Nowakowski, President Accountability Information Management, Inc.

We do a lot of advertising research. And today, there’s a lot of confusing information about what advertising is and isn’t.

The Readership Circles chart on the right will help you cut through this confusion. Because today, an “ad” is just part of the equation: readers get information digitally. They go through Google to fi nd you (over 4-billion searches each day), so your ad investment in CCR is just part of the equation. This article explains how to maximize that investment.

Content is the Key

Your ad appears in the print and digital version of the media outlet. The publisher of CCR, David Corson, invests most of his time and money building his “overall audience” for your ad (you can see his audience in this auditing tool: http://intrln.com/ccr)

But he also has his website to handle the audience he can’t control: the Google audience. Therefore, you can help maximize your investment by sending in your company information for CCR's website. The more content you have on the internet, the more chances you have of being found and purchased. Simple, huh?

Your Product is Really Information

No matter what product or service you are selling, your real product is information. Thus, you are in an information war competing for the attention of buyers with not just your competitors, but with everyone on the internet. The more content you have that’s yours, the more opportunities for them to see you and go through the readership circles.

Why We Know This

AIM places a tracking code on CCR’s website and each month monitors visitors. Then, because you advertise, you receive 10 “dossiers” seen on the right on companies who have consumed data – companies that represent high-valued targets because their need is NOW for what you are selling. ACCOUNTABILITY WEBSITE AUDIT Accountability Information Management, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 2020

David Corson has us audit this activity. You receive this audit if you advertise, and it represents a rich fi eld of leads for you. Call David Corson 678.765.6550 today to fi nd out more details! Or, call us and we’ll help you understand the powerful information at your disposal.

Always Trusted Information Accountability Informati on Management, Inc. 553 N. North Court, Suite 160 Palati ne, Illinois 60067 847-358-8558 www.a-i-m.com

CCR-MAG.COM

IMPORTANT. This audit covers the above website for the period of September, 2020. It was conducted by allowing Accountability Information Management, Inc. (AIM) by placing a proprietary Code on the website to provide deeper analytics from the thousands of monthly visitors to the website to the publisher (i.e., the companies utilizing the website). AIM is in the business of auditing and verifying data. For information, contact: AIM, 553 N. North Court, Suite 160, Palatine, Illinois 60067. PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT. Commercial Construction & Renovation, CCR-MAG.COM, is a community of leading commercial construction professionals within the retail, restaurant, hospitality, health care, federal, multifamily and other commercial sectors. The website content spans the design, construction and facilities operations of major commercial construction segments to meet the information needs of today’s high level executives. Visitors will find information relevant to the collaborative management process required to complete projects on time and on budget, and to efficiently manage these facilities. PRIVACY. F&J Publications, LLC discloses the information we collect on this website and how it is used. This report is based on visitors to CCR-MAG.COM. Specifically, the information in this report is aggregated to provide our advertisers information on website usage. F&J Publications always reserves the right to release information about visitors, including non-personal information.

NUMBER OF COMPANIES XXX This is the number of companies that the Code identifies. This number is the monthly universe of companies that can be identified from the thousands of visitors to this website. NUMBER OF TIMES THESE X,XXX This is the number of times these companies visited the website. The average per company is 1.41. PAGE VIEWS BY X,XXX This is the number of page views that these companies viewed on the website. The average pages viewed by a company this month is 2.04. SEARCH TERMS USED BY XX This is the number of identifiable different search terms these companies used to arrive on the website. The search terms, for example, were put into a browser which delivered results. Among the results was a page on this website. For example, while many people find it by typing in “commercial construction and renovation” or “CCR” in a search engine like Google or Bing, other terms deliver specific pages from this website based on what users type into the search engine. These searches account for less than 5% of the total search terms used. The top ten (listed) account for 48% of the identified total (not counting CCR itself). INDUSTRIES XX This is the number of companies that the Code is able to classify. It represents 5% of the total companies that visited this website, and is supplied for reference only. See UNDERSTANDING THE DATA. FIRST PAGE VIEWED X,XXX The Code keeps track of the first page viewed by the companies, and is the same number of times the companies came to the website. The chart Key First Pages Viewed lists the top ten landing pages from this grouping (excluding CCR-MAG.com itself, which is among the top, but not more than 12%).

SEARCH TERMS USED TO REACH US

• “Christopher Bushnell” AND Social Security • gary falco architecture • hi macs color TERRAZZO LUNA • inverter eon model el3 10 watt pricing • metal work very essential tools • mulehide jts1 colors • penncolor uv dispersions • permeable pavement concerns • rampart yellow wallcovering • silicone molds

KEY FIRST PAGES VIEWED (other than CCR-MAG.com)

• 7-essential-tools-for-your-metalworkingprojects • what-is-soil-reinforcement-and-how-is-it-done • 8-important-safety-measures-forconstruction-sites • new-menards-store-in-paducah-ky • construction-procurement-101 • conversations-with-bennett-van-wert-dwm • conversation-withbobby-darnell-cmc • american-dream-mall-in-nj-to-reopen-onoctober-1 • cny-group-names-new-vp-of-people-andculture • the-impact-of-building-materials-inconstruction

COUNTRY BREAKDOWN OF COMPANIES

United States XX%

India X%

Pakistan Canada United Kingdom Other (64 countries)

UNDERSTANDING THE DATA

This report is provided to you from the publisher to help you understand the creation, distribution and consumption of information on the digital highways. The companies that are provided to you in this report have visited CCR-MAG.COM and consumed information. Knowing the name of the company gives you a “heads up” to pursue for your sales efforts. If you need to explore additional ideas, including ways to utilize this information, please contact the publisher or AIM directly. In addition to the INDUSTRY/COMPANY listings, you will see a list of companies that are not categorized by Code into industries. These are sometimes more valuable and should be considered carefully for your sales efforts. Finally, often a company will utilize a general channel (like Comcast), which does not provide the individual company’s IP. These visitors are often just as valuable in terms of “what” they consume on our website. We would happy to help you pursue this type of analysis.

No matter where you place your message, this is the pattern of what we call the “Readership Chain.” And the weakest link in the chain will break it. That’s why you need as much content as you can on the Internet. People, your buyers, get distracted easily. Your messages must be compelling.

...Pay Dividends.

The magazine or newsletter or website has a specifi c number of possibilities - the overall audience. possibilities - the overall audience. You must factor that into ROI.

Some convert into readers of your message.

Not all people will "see" what you are selling. You must know some of these basics.

Some also raise the hand and ask for information.

Accountability Tools from CCR

The audience audit tool (on the left) enables you to see CCR’s audience for yourself. The Company Dossier tool on the right highlights 10 companies who have consumed CCR content that month for your marketing purposes. Advertising in CCR gets you these dossiers. And there’s much more. Below are the highlights from the prior month for your review. Imagine being able to see who is consuming content like this, and then putting them in your marketing sights!

ACCOUNTABILITY WEBSITE AUDIT

Each month advertisers receive powerful information to help them market their products and services. Here is a taste. 98,819 pages were consumed by over 2,000 companies. Among them:

• Architectural fi rms like HDR Inc. and Smithgroup • Universities like Illinois Wesleyan, Yale or University of Massachusetts • Energy companies like BP America or Schlumberger • Financial companies like American Express, Mckinsey & Company and Wells Fargo • Materials companies like USG Corp and Carlisle • Industrial companies like Aecom, Eaton and General Dynamics

And thousands more like CBRE, Texas Instruments, Goodyear, St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital. All these companies have projects going on – projects you can access to sell your products and services.

Call the publisher, David Corson for a complete details. 678.765.6550. Or email him at: davidc@ccr-mag.com.