How Poland became a self-service heaven
With the very first SHINE Car Wash Show kicking off in Krakow this autumn, we wanted to speak to someone who knows everything about the interesting Polish car wash market. That man is Piotr Andrzejewski, CEO of the Polish company BKF Car Wash. He saw how the business in his country developed over the years. “We are at the beginning of a transition.”
Let us first introduce BKF Carwash. The company from Skarbimierzyce (near Szczecin) supplies self-service car washes to more than 30 countries and recently also introduced a self-developed rollover. “Thanks to our daughter company’s BKF Myčky s.r.o., we are exporting a lot to the Czech Republic,” says CEO Piotr Andrzejewski, when asked about his main export markets. “Slovakia and the Baltic states are also going well.”
Even though they sell mostly car washes in countries in Central and Eastern Europe, BKF also has supplied self-service car washes to customers in Great Britain, France and Germany.
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According to Andrzejewski, the Polish market makes up almost half of his company’s annual turnover. So when the local car wash market suffered a major dip in 2023, the consequences for BKF were limited. More about that in a bit.
Self-service is king
The Polish car wash market is quite different from Western and Northern European markets, Andrzejewski tells us. Most Polish motorists wash their cars at self-service car washes, so-called myjnia samochodowa.There are now thousands of them, with names like Port, Anwa, Elefanten and Auto Spa Polska.
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The biggest players in the Polish car wash market are the gas station chains, which often offer a washing station and sometimes also run a rollover. The Polish multinational Orlen is the market leader when it comes to the number of rollovers. Andrzejewski estimates the number of their stations between 350 and 400, with Christ being the main supplier of the gantry. This is followed by BP and Shell.
BP has the largest number of self-service washing stations at their petrol stations, approximately 200. They are followed by Shell and Orlen. “All in all, my guess is that we have about a thousand gantries and about 5000 self car washes. We don’t have many tunnels in this country. At the most it will be about 20 conveyors. They are not so popular. The main reason is the price.”
That is yet another special aspect of the Polish car wash market. Due to the fierce competition, you can have your car washed in Poland for just €3. “Too cheap, if you ask me,” laughs Andrzejewski. “In general we are paying half the price compared to elsewhere in Europe.”
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Ehrle
Let us dive a little deeper into the history on how that peculiar situation came about. According to Andrzejewski, the Polish car wash market started to grow rapidly about 20 years ago.
“The first company that was really doing good work was Ehrle (from Germany, rp). They have the highest amount of self-service car washes in the country right now. We were working with them from the beginning but later we separated. They won the contract with BP, which helped them tremendously.
“Then the Italians (like Aquarama and Cecatto, rp) and Istobal from Spain came to the Polish market, because they saw what was happening. BKF was the first domestic producer of self-service car washes. After about 10 years, the domestic producers started to push out the foreign companies.
“Now the market is like this: Poland has about 40 producers of self-service car washes. Almost all the foreign companies have left. As BKF Carwash we are still the market leader in Poland, but we experience strong competition. For example from Euro Ekol, Euro wash, Hydro Wash, Wash Service. Those are all Polish companies.”
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Easy money
Why are there so many producers of self-service car wash equipment active in Poland, one might ask. Andrzejewski has a simple answer to that. “Unfortunately it’s not so complicated to build a self service car wash. It is much more complicated to build a properly working gantry service. You cannot compare the two. In my opinion it’s even easier to build a tunnel than a rollover. That’s why we don’t have so much competition when it comes to building rollover car washes in Poland.”
According to Andrzejewski, Polish people are dynamic and they are constantly looking for business opportunities. “So you start in an existing car wash company, gain knowledge and then leave to start your own company. Everybody wanted a piece of the cake.”
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The first year after Covid (2022) was the best year in the car wash sector, Andrzejewski looks back. “There was a lot of cheap money on the market, it was easy to get your company financed. That year, Poland saw the birth of about 400 new car washes. It was a big moment. But then it collapsed. It collapsed totally. In 2023 there were only about 100 new car washes built. Maybe even less.”
According to Andrzejewski, this was due to a couple of reasons. Interest had risen steeply, the inflation in Poland was huge and the market was simply saturated. “But even more important: we had a fiscalization in Poland. Each carwash suddenly had to pay tax. So that took a lot of attraction out of the business. It’s no secret that many car wash owners were evading tax, back then.”
In the old days, it was possible to make a decent living with a stand-alone car wash. “You and your family could live from one car wash, 20 years ago. Now it’s not like this. Many single car washes have gone bankrupt. A lot of companies are struggling. Thank God, BKF has a big export. That really saved us. But we also had to make some cuts last year. We shrunk about 20%.” In a way it was also healthy, we learn. “The waiting time for car washes has shrunken from about 9 months in 2022 to about 2 1/2 months now.”
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Contactless payment
In many North European countries the use of cash is disappearing. How is the situation in Poland, we ask Andrzejewski. “People are using a bit more cash here in Poland, but it’s not like in Germany where cash is still dominant. The transition to cashless payment is going fast here though. Touchless payment is well accepted nowadays. In about 90% of the car washes it is now possible to pay cashless. We started installing touchless payment about 10 years ago. BP was also fast to adapt to it. A card reader is now standard on each bay in Poland. So now it’s up to the customer if he wants to pay cash or or with a card.”
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Water shortage
When asked if sustainability is a topic in Poland, Andrzejewski starts to smile and shakes his head. “To be honest, we are at the beginning of the beginning. It’s definitely a topic when it comes to rollovers and petrol stations. Orlen just had a big campaign last year about sustainability. But in self-service car wash, it is zero. ZERO. Maybe three or four self-service car washes in the whole country are using recycled water for their business (one being Tix E, rp). It also has to do with the technical aspect. It’s much more complicated to use recycled water in a self-service bay, because you’re washing mainly with chemicals and not with brushes.”
But it will be a topic soon, Andrzejewski thinks. “Because Poland has a huge problem with water. We are one of the driest countries in Europe. People do not expect this, because the climate cannot be compared with Spain or France. But in summer, many places experience drought and the use of hoses and car washing is forbidden. Some car washes here are even closed during summer. The main river that is flooding through Warschau is drying up during July and August. It’s terrible. So the law on the subject might change very fast. This will also bring business opportunities. In the future, I think Poland will see a change from self-service to gantry car washing and tunnels. “We are at the beginning of a transition.”
In the beginning of October, Poland will see the light of a new car wash event: SHINE Car Wash Show Central Europe. The event for car wash professionals will take place in Krakow on October 1 and 2 2024.
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