Greetings from the End of Summer!

Like everyone else, we always get a little caught off guard with how quickly the summer months pass by. It's always a little sad knowing the vacation season is wrapping up, but we're extremely excited about what the next few months have to offer here at Petit.

As usual, it's a fantastic time to be part of the carwash industry. And as usual, we're busier than ever! We thought it would be a good time to check in and give you all some updates regarding the state of the business and some new things that will be hitting in the coming months.

NRCC 2022

Petit will be hosting a booth this year at the Northeast Regional Carwash Convention. These events are a great way to catch up with other industry professionals, showcase new technology and equipment, and discover other ways to benefit our awesome industry. If you're planning on making it out to Atlantic City, please stop by and say hi!

This is the 32nd Northeast Regional Carwash Convention and we're blown away with how much bigger things get every single year. It's a testament to just how expansive and innovative this industry is becoming, especially since the first event from back in 1989. For more information about the show, including this year's keynote speaker and other events, visit https://nrccshow.com/. And for more information on where we'll be on the floor, see the note below.

When:

Monday September 19 - Wednesday September 21’st

Where:

Atlantic City Convention Center

1 Convention Boulevard,

Atlantic City, NJ 08401

Booth Number:

543

Exhibit Hours:

Tuesday 1pm-6pm

Wednesday 9:30am-1:30pm

Machine & Part Availability

At the time of publishing, we’ve still been fortunate to be able to stay ahead of all supply chain issues and we currently have all parts in stock. While most of the year we've been sitting at an 8-10 week lead time, due to accelerated growth, we are looking at 10-12 week lead times at the moment. We are working hard to reduce these lead times with the goal of reaching 8 weeks or less soon.

October Price Increase

Unfortunately, like most of us have already realized, just about all materials and services are
still going up in price. We have seen stainless steel prices alone rise 23% since our last increase in 2021. Shipping and labor costs have also increased dramatically across the board since last year. 

We have worked hard to mitigate the effects of these increases on our end, but unfortunately, we have been forced to raise all unit prices. The price raise will take effect October 1st 2022. If you need a machine before the price raise all deposits will need to be transferred by October 1st and final deposit & shipment before December 31st 2022.

New Facility Site Visits

If you’re in the wash business and genuinely interested in our machines, it’s worth considering a factory tour & site visit. In our sector, we know that there are many “claims" that manufacturers tend to make that may not necessarily reflect real world applications.

When both clients and distributors visit Petit, it’s a great opportunity to see how we wash a car and how many cars we wash. Our on-site washes are designed to replicate a normal, real-world application, not a representation of a  manufactured, "perfect setting" that does not resemble realistic expectations.

We've had a lot of positive feedback from everyone that comes to visit, from getting to see the care we put into our manufacturing to seeing how much money operators who aren't using Petit machines are leaving on the table by washing so much less vehicles per hour. If you're interested in visiting, call our main office to set up a time!

Tunnel to In-Bay Solution

Tunnels, Mini Tunnels, In Bay Automatics (IBA’s), Self Serves, Touch Free, Friction, Express, Flex, Full Serve.... There are many different flavors to choose from when choosing how to get into the car washing business or to diversify an existing wash. One model that has been very successful for many of our clients has been converting old, underperforming tunnels into

unmanned In-Bay Automatics (IBA’s).

Competition within the tunnel sector is very stiff right now. If there’s a good location, you can expect multiple tunnels to spring up, sometimes right on top of one another. One secret sauce is the conversion of older tunnel locations that don’t justify a company (local or private equity) coming in to build from scratch. Oftentimes these locations need new conveyors and even a complete rehab — this also isn’t justified due to location, traffic count, or change in demographic/neighborhood over the years.

Because these washes are purpose built, and it’s too expensive to rehab, deals on these old tunnels can be had at a real bargain! What many of our clients do is convert the tunnel to an IBA. The advantages are numerous, such as:

1. Bargain of initial purchase
2. Already zoned for washing cars (cut out all the red tape and time)
3. Stacking, Stacking, Stacking
4. Length: This allows for one car to pull up and dry while the other starts washing
5. Virtually no labor

With our machines, we have customers regularly washing 30k - 40k cars per year with this IBA set up (single long bay). Often, they are washing more cars than the previous tunnel owners with their underperforming stats usually being in the 20k cars per year range. We have a couple of clients washing over 50k cars per year with this model. Whether you are looking for a way to break into the industry or looking to expand your existing footprint this creative model is worth

considering. Those who have converted are some of our happiest customers.