Transchem is part of OPW, now what?
Two months ago, the family-owned business Transchem decided to join OPW Vehicle Wash Solutions. This meant that well-known brands like Turtle Wax Pro, Autolux and ClearWash changed hands. What will the impact be on those brands, we asked Mackenzie Ewing, director of Strategic Initiatives at Transchem.
Returning from two car wash fairs, Carwacs and SCWA ,Mack Ewing had to answer a lot of questions about the recent acquisition. “Every customer wanted to talk about it with us”, Ewing laughs. “Some were afraid that it would affect their businesses. The short answer to that question is: you shouldn’t see any change. If you do, we are not doing our job. Unless it is a positive improvement.”
Family-owned
For almost 50 years, Transchem was a family-owned carwash business based in Ontario, Canada,founded by Murray Ewing in 1976. One of the biggest changes in the company came in 2013, when they acquired the Turtle Wax Pro® brand, a household name among car owners the world over.
Mack Ewing reflects on why OPW®, a Dover® Company, became interested in Transchem. And once again wants to assure customers that little will change. “We have always been very much focused on being hands-on with customers, very focused on high-quality products for a fair price. Within the chemical industry, we approach things a bit different.
“With that value proposition, it was very important for us that our customers understood that that was the way forward for us. Just because we have been acquired by OPW with a large multinational parent company…, we will continue to operate with a strong focus on what is best for our current and potential customers, as we always have.
OPW wants this deal to be successful and so do we. We want our customers to be successful, so do they. To make sure that we achieve that goal, we can’t change our core philosophies and our core business principles.”
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It has now been two months since the acquisition has been announced. Did you start noticing any changes yourself?
“The short answer is no. Internally we had some changes. OPW has a very strong operations team, for example. We have a lot of specialists within our team who have worked in the car wash chemistry industry for a very long time. We can certainly learn from OPW and Dover. Internally, we have seen a lot of suggestions and support to make our business more efficient. That’s a good thing, because the goal for us is to double the size of our company. They have brought a lot of ‘best practices’ to us. My focus is sales and marketing and that part hasn’t changed that much.
In the long run, I hope customers will see a difference. But it should be a positive one.”
Long-term commitment
What makes OPW so interesting for Transchem and the other way around?
“Let me first give you some context about OPW. They have been acquiring car wash companies for decades.
Their goal was to buy an organization that has a best-in-class product and great customers. They want to buy those companies, bring them into their business and hold them for the long term. So, they are looking for long-term acquisitions. Not to sell them after only five years for-profit.
OPW is operating on an international scale. Though we do have some great partnerships in Europe, China and New Zealand, we don’t have as much presence throughout the world as we could have. And should have. This is where OPW can be of help.”
“What made Transchem interesting for OPW is the fact we have a best-in-class product: our chemistry. The Turtle Wax Pro is a brand name that resonates with a lot of consumers. In certain European markets,it’s almost more popular than in America. It’s always really fun to go to trade fairs and to hand out our little squishy turtles and see the reaction from the crowd.
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What’s interesting for OPW: we are also here for the long term. I think we have proven that.
That long-term investment and commitment really resonated with us. There have been a lot of big acquisitions in the carwash business lately. A lot of times, the customer loses. A lot of times an acquired company loses the thing that made them special. They may reduce the number of products they offer, or they start marketing their bundled offering in an aggressive way.
OPW has a very nuanced perspective, which we really appreciate. When we started our talks about this acquisition, they came with a very thoughtful team of people who really understood the industry. They seemed to speak our language.”
Will your main office remain in Ontario or will this be moved over time?
“For the time being we will be keeping all of our offices and manufacturing spaces. Those will remain in Ontario for the foreseeable future. We have a beautiful plant there, 100.000 square feet of chemical manufacturing space and our machine is well oiled there. The OPW operations team came over to visit and they were very positive.
We also have manufacturing in Belgium, which will continue where they produce products that have the Nordic Swan-certification. The regulations for this green label are quite strict. We have to have that European manufacturing space to be able to ship to countries like Sweden and Denmark.”
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Transchem is known for products like Turtle Wax Pro, ClearWash and Digital Mosaic. Which of those three products will experience the biggest impact of this acquisition?
“That’s a thoughtful question. It will be hard for me to say which product will see the influence first. With chemistry, we have a large market share. OPW is in some market segments that we are not in and certainly we could do a better job in dealerships and fleet programs so we expect to see a meaningful growth of customers.”
With ClearWash, we are still refining how to sell and market that product. You could call it the startup, a new innovation. With it, we want to make car washes more sustainable. Water reclaim will become more important in the future. We want ClearWash to become more of a household name.
Finally, Digital Mosaic is a great fit for OPW, as PSD Codax and ICS are already integrated with Mosaic. Many people already buy and activate a wash on their phone. We want to make that transaction as easy as possible. The app has to be very lightweight, without ads, contests or games.”
What will be the main challenges for Transchem for the coming years?
“A few different thoughts on that. For us, the main challenge will be developing amazing products. We want to develop products that continue to be leading the way in environmental sustainability. At the moment there are a lot of products in the industry that can be quite harmful for the environment. We compete with those products every day. The technology in our sustainable products have to be so much better to keep up with the products that are harmful.
Another challenge is to keep both our customers happy. Being it car drivers or car wash owners. Customers have to feel really good about the results of the money they have spent. The car looks really good and smells great so the overall experience of a car wash has to be very positive and valuable. The priority of the carwash owner will be a bit different. They want the lowest cost for a good wash.
Balancing these two priorities is the core challenge we see today. We want to deliver an amazing experience for a great price. That is what we think about when we wake up in the morning. That will be a big challenge, or better: a big opportunity.”
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