At the beginning of the year, an almost unique opportunity arose in Cloppenburg in Germany for the construction of a self-service car wash. It was a matter of speed, but also of clever entrepreneurship. After all, the Willi Wewer company was successful and will open its first self-service car wash on schedule at the end of this year.

Cloppenburg will have a new self-service car wash by the end of 2021. It is currently under construction, but if all schedules can be met, the opening will take place this year.

In the past, the company Willi Wewer – Internationale Tanktransporte had its business focus on commercial vehicles. Cleaning vehicles inside and out is still one of the company’s skills today. For the management, therefore, it was an obvious step to bring its expertise in washing and washing systems as well as the entire technology in the periphery into the car wash market segment in the future.

Opportunity successfully seized

At the beginning of 2021, a change occurred in the local car wash market. A self-service car wash that was about 20 years old was looking for a buyer. However, no interested party was found, so the self-service car wash was finally closed without a successor. This gap in the car wash market had to be filled quickly. Willi Wewer took advantage of the favourable opportunity and submitted a building application for a plot of land already owned by the company. Later, in the course of the building permit process, it turned out that several competitors had the same idea at the same time. However, they failed to realize it due to the lack of building plots.

New Kärcher self-service car wash

The new self-service car wash in Cloppenburg will be equipped with Kärcher washing technology. “We had already installed the exterior cleaning system in the commercial vehicle area from Kärcher, and the system for interior cleaning is also a Kärcher system. We have always been convinced of this and that is why we said we would trust Kärcher in the self-service area,” is how Jan Tegeler from Willi Wewer describes the decision-making process for the choice of washing technology. The new self-service wash bay will offer customers three wash boxes with a height of three metres and a free wash bay where sprinters, motorhomes and tractors can be cleaned without any problems. The wash programme will include dry foam, power or intensive foam, rim cleaner, hot wax and rinsing with distilled water. In addition, four free vacuuming stations will be offered. Payment at the facility will take place with the contactless system “Charly-Pay”, where the customer can choose between EC cards, credit cards as well as payment with popular smartphone apps.

Market shows new demand

The increasing demand for motorhome tours played a major role in the decision for an additional free washing area. The new building was designed to adapt to this market development. The self-service car wash also caters to the growing share of e-cars and will also offer fast charging points in the future. Thanks to its generous dimensions, the site offers enough space to accommodate even more trends.

Time delays

The self-service car wash in Cloppenburg is also feeling the effects of delivery problems and the limited availability of service providers. It started with the processing of the building application, which was delayed by about four months due to a lack of staff in the administration. Furthermore, the shortage of service providers in the craft sector became apparent, which led to a further delay of about four months.

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