The car wash industry is far larger, more sophisticated, and more structurally attractive than most people realize. In North America alone, it generates over $15 billion in annual revenue across more than 60,000 locations. What was once a transactional, cash-based business has quietly evolved into a recurring-revenue, asset-intensive consumer infrastructure platform powered by subscriptions, density economics, and operational discipline. In this episode of Why We Like It, Sam Tidswell-Norrish sits down with John Standley, CEO of Spotless Brands, and Matthew Schroeder, CFO of Spotless Brands, to unpack what it really takes to scale a car wash business from a handful of sites into a national platform. They go deep on unit economics, market density, infrastructure investment, team building, and why execution, not just growth, is what separates the winners from the rest. The conversation then broadens with Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Car Wash Association, who brings a macro lens to where the industry is heading. From subscriptions and predictive maintenance to AI, automation, robotics, and the long-term shift toward B2B and fleet washing, Eric lays out how technology and data are reshaping both the operating model and the opportunity set. Together, they explore why this sector continues to attract institutional capital, how durable returns are really built at scale, and why car wash should be viewed not as a commodity service but as a high-utilization consumer infrastructure business with long-term growth potential.
