Listen to Jim's Interview on ABC Radio Australia "Innovations"

14 September  2009 (Click here to listen)

Mobile Waterless Car Wash Goes Global

Franchising a smarter, greener way to keep cars clean

TRANSCRIPT:

DESLEY BLANCH : The days of spending an afternoon washing the car with a running garden hose and chamois are long gone in Australia's drought-stricken climate. Former race and rally car drivers and good mates, Jim Cornish and Stewart Nicolls know that it takes about 180 litres to clean a car so they started looking for an environmentally-friendly alternative to dam-draining car washes. In 2004 they combined their love of cars with their solution to suit Australia's ever toughening water restrictions and set up Ecowash, a mobile waterless car wash franchise. In less than five years the waterless innovation has expanded to over 17 countries and more than 60 franchises.

This is as much a story about coming up with a clever idea as it is about making a success of franchising. CEO and co-founder Jim Cornish talks to us from Sydney.

DESLEY BLANCH : And first the idea, and the obvious question is how do you wash a car without using water.

JIM CORNISH : We are all conditioned to believe that you have to wash a car with water when there are technologies out there that make that not necessary any more.

The way our technology works, it's a polymer compound. When you spray it on the car, it actually binds to the dirt and encapsulates it. So it lifts it from the surface of the paint and then acts as a lubricant between the dirt and the paint itself, so it protects the car and avoids scratching, which is you see a lot of scratches as a result from traditional car washing techniques, then we can remove the dirt with a cloth, and all that is left on the surface of the paint is a polymer residue which we buff off with a separate cloth and it also leaves the car looking polished. It's not actually a cut, but gives it a polished finish and a protected coating which will last up to 6 weeks.

There are a number of waterless projects on the market. I think the main difference is that obviously we're using polymer nanotechnology and the others aren't. They are using wax-based technology. And the reason for that is the products that you see that are waterless are actually aimed at retail sales, so obviously they are made to a price so that people will buy them and that they will still retain profit for the sale, whereas ours aren't made with that priority in mind. They are made to provide the best possible service. So if we tried to sell our products retail, they would be very expensive because of the technology we put into them, but we're not trying to do that, we're actually trying to provide the best level of service to the customer.

DESLEY BLANCH : Well Jim, tell us about your starting point, this is back in 2004. What brought you both to this idea, both you and Stewart?

JIM CORNISH : Well Stewart's background, he was a motor mechanic, ran his own mechanical workshop, I was in marketing with Nestle and Stew found the technology and knew it existed in Europe and had a sample of it, was trying to encourage me to wash my car with it. I said he didn't have a hope of convincing me to do that. But when I saw it, it was obvious that this technology was superior to traditional techniques and we combined in terms of putting the idea together from a franchising perspective, and approached the supplier for an exclusivity for Australia, for at least 12 months to give us a head start to get the ball rolling. That is where it began. We've never looked back since then.

DESLEY BLANCH : Well, it took you two years before you went national here in this country. So how many franchises do you have now in Australia?

JIM CORNISH : In Australia, we have 52 franchises, but we've really only just scratched the surface. The problem we have is keeping up with the demand for the service itself. So we're actively expanding, looking for more franchisees at the moment in Australia, but we've also headed overseas as well.

DESLEY BLANCH : We'll come to those points in a moment, but how soon before you went international looking for opportunities in other water-starved countries?

JIM CORNISH : Well, we didn't actually go looking. I think those opportunities came looking for us. And we were first approached by a few companies in the Middle East who obviously have severe water shortages and issues over there. So I went on a tour of the Middle East, if you like, in about February, 2006, met with a number of potential partners and selected one based in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia and we formed a joint venture company which was Ecowash Mobile Middle East and that was our first venture overseas.

DESLEY BLANCH : What's your approach to exporting? I mean how does it differ from the franchise system that you have functioning here in Australia?

JIM CORNISH : We've been fortunate, in I think the system is, you know, probably 95% the same in all the countries in which we operate. Australia is a very robust franchising country. We have more franchises per capita than any other country in the world. So if you can build a system successfully here in Australia, it is very strong and you are likely to succeed in countries overseas.

So in terms of expansion internationally, we've looked for the right people, that's been the real key to our success overseas is finding the right people with the right attitude towards the business from a franchising perspective and then we obviously refine the model according to geographical and cultural sensitivities.

DESLEY BLANCH : So would you say that the hardest part of the start up phase is in fact finding the right franchisees?

JIM CORNISH : Absolutely, absolutely, because I guess in franchising...Now when we started, when Stewart and I first left our jobs and started washing cars ourselves, we had to survive, so we were working flat out and getting really good results and I think that you would like to think that everyone comes on board with that same motivation, but not all do. So the system has to be solid and you have to pick people that suit the principles of the system and want to look at it as their own business, not just a job.

DESLEY BLANCH : Do you find that they want to go outside of your parameters that you set, for instance, in ways business is conducted?

JIM CORNISH : I think everyone likes to have an entrepreneurial streak, it's a good balance - you've got to get the balance between entrepreneurialism if that is a word, and coachability, and I think in franchising that's a delicate balance to achieve. I mean we've had franchisees who try and short cut the system, but they always come back to what works. We've been very clear since day one on how the business is efficiently run. We've got a very comprehensive ops manual that covers everything we have ever done and it's always being updated. So I think you know we give a bit of freedom to be your own boss and do your own thing, but obviously the way we promote the system and the way things work is the short cut.

DESLEY BLANCH : So you really develop and you train them yourself?

JIM CORNISH : Yeah, we do. We have a two week induction for our franchisees and we have a comprehensive system of ongoing support, national conferences, state conferences, workshops, so it is an elaborate support system and that's what we really see franchising as. As a franchisor, our goal is a support system for our franchisees.

DESLEY BLANCH : So what sort of companies are your targets as customers?

JIM CORNISH : We have a very broad range of clients. I mean the majority of our clients are private car owners, but because of the convenience of our service, being waterless we can wash a car anywhere, they are usually looked after at their place of work. So predominantly private car owners, but we also do a lot of work for government departments, corporate fleets and a lot of the manufacturers around the world use us now for their new product launches and for their motor shows.

DESLEY BLANCH : Well Jim, how have you used branding? Your background is marketing, so how have you used branding in your marketing to convince the market that you're not fly-by-nighters?

JIM CORNISH : I guess everything that we design in the beginning was to stand out, you know so the bright orange cars with the big logo, easy to remember name. Because we didn't have a lot of money in the beginning obviously to promote ourselves, other than our actual word of mouth on the street and that's still our biggest driver today is the orange cars on the road and the word of mouth that we get from our customers.

I think that on top of that we've always looked like a franchise and coming into car washing which prior to us was a highly fragmented industry, there was no one brand nationally. We have been able to bring consistency and professionalism into that part of the industry where people now expect to have the same service interstate, wherever they may be from Ecowash and we've been able to deliver that, and that's a combination of things.

It's a combination of the system itself, but also the products that we use and how easy it is for our franchisees to duplicate the consistency of the service which they can offer.

DESLEY BLANCH : So what are the difficulties that you face when exporting and setting up in another country?

JIM CORNISH : It's a bit of a mine field. It really depends on which country you're going into. I mean probably when we went into the Middle East and also into Europe, there were some cultural differences that we had trouble getting our head around in the beginning, because obviously if you don't live in a place and live within the culture, there are things that you just don't appreciate. Having said that, I think the system is 95% as it was here in Australia.

Having said that probably the biggest mine field for us was the United States and the legalities of franchising in the US. When you hear them say the United States, you think they are actually united, but they are like 52 little countries, so the rules vary between state and you have to register as a franchise in 14 of those states.

So, just understanding and actually learning the consumer mentality within a market, it takes a little bit of time to get your head around that. I think we've managed to get through it, because the system is so applicable across all markets, but it is that last 5% that you have really got to focus on to get it right.

DESLEY BLANCH : Well, you have received some acknowledgement for your achievements so far in the form of awards, so what are your product plans for the coming year?

JIM CORNISH : We have a lot of new products on the horizon. Our service really is beyond just car washing. We are a protection service is you like, so an Ecowash is not just a car wash; it's a polish, finish, it's got a protective coating and we're doing line extensions down that line.

So in terms of our core service, we're introducing about four new products to help our franchisees add additional services to what we already offer. We're also bringing in some security products, a company called Data Dot which puts micro-identification on cars, so if they are stolen or bits go missing you can trace them.

DESLEY BLANCH : Another Australian company!

JIM CORNISH : It is, yeah, so we're combining with them to be applicators for that particular product and we're also working on some new range products for protecting your wheels and also more longer term paint protection as well. We hope to have those out by the end of the year.

DESLEY BLANCH : So what other countries are you opening up in?

JIM CORNISH : We've got a regional approach and we're in the US, we're in Europe, we're in the Middle East and we're also in Central America. So we really are focusing from here on, on developing from those hubs. So, within the central American region out of our base in San Salvador and the same in Europe and the Middle East. I don't think we're going to open up new countries like India and China for some time yet, because we just need to focus and consolidate the markets that we are currently in. There is so much potential there that we have to make sure that we realise it all.

DESLEY BLANCH : When you are looking at a new country, you do quite focused research. What are some of the things you look at in a country?

JIM CORNISH : We go into the country obviously, we spend a lot of time looking at the car culture within that market. Car dependency does vary greatly between countries and with variations in car dependency you will also see variations in price expectation in the level of service people expect.

Other things to look at are also the labour market. You'll find that in Australia, labour is a large proportion of our service cost, whereas in other countries, such as the Middle East and Central America, that is not the case, so the service is positioned more as a premium service, whereas here we can do everything from what people would consider an equivalent price to a standard car wash right through to a full detail.

So it's something that you fine-tune over time, but the model has got that applicability across all ranges from the beginning, so we're able to go in pretty much as we are and then fine-tune as we go.

DESLEY BLANCH : So Jim, what do you believe are your secrets to success?

JIM CORNISH : I think from an actual service point of view, we've managed to offer an environmental service without any compromise in quality. In fact we have increased the quality available to consumers versus the traditional techniques that they are used to. And I think that one of the weaknesses in environmental marketing is that people think that if you're offering an environmental solution, you're compromising in some other area, usually quality.

Whereas we've been able to offer that environmental solution, but improve the quality and I think testimony to that fact is the number of manufacturers that use us for their product launches. I mean we've looked after Audi for the last couple of years now, at the Cannes Film Festival, we did a launch for Lamborghini in the USA late last year. So the quality is there, but you've still got that environmental benefit as well.

I think from a franchising point of view, our key is that we are a professional franchisor. We don't get distracted by trying to retail product to the public or getting off into non-core areas of business. We focus on supporting our franchisees and developing products that are aligned with our key reason for being, which is car care and car protection.

DESLEY BLANCH : How do your costs compare with a car wash in a water environment to a non-water environment?

JIM CORNISH : It's a difficult comparison, because we are not a car wash you know. I mean if you go down to a local car wash cafe, you will probably be charged $25 to $35 for a car wash and a quick vacuum. Our basic Ecowash starts at $35, but it is not a wash, it is a polish finish and it actually reduces the visibility of fine scratches within the paint work and it lasts for about four to six weeks in terms of the protective coating that is left at the end of the service.

Also when we clean glass, it is not just a glass clean - it is anti fog, anti-static window tint-friendly, it removes nicotine stains so it is a real treatment of the vehicle and so that starts at $35. Normally if you described everything we do to a vehicle for that level of service, a consumer would be expecting to pay $90 to $100. So you really need to compare us to a full detail, but obviously we start at pretty much a car wash price.

DESLEY BLANCH : Well, as a former race car driver, tell us the reason why you originally trained as a veterinary surgeon?

JIM CORNISH : Yeah. Well, I think my parents in their advice was that I would never make money out of racing cars or having a business that was surrounded by cars, so they wanted me to get back up and that was to go to uni. I love animals. Vet Science was a great experience for me, I really enjoyed doing it, but my first passion was always cars.

DESLEY BLANCH : So what's next for you and the whole business?

JIM CORNISH : Well, we're really excited. I mean we've been going five years now, but what we've achieved in the last five years is absolutely nothing to what we can see happening in the next five years. So us personally, we have very much a focus on Australia and the US. We have joint venture companies in the other markets and we work closely with them as well. But for us personally, it's Australia and the US. And we're currently going through rounds of consumer research, we're fine-tuning everything we're doing, we can see that globally, the so-called economic recession is recovering and we want to be perfectly placed for what is going to come afterwards, which I think will be an exciting time for everybody.

DESLEY BLANCH : Jim Cornish is CEO and cofounder of Ecowash, a mobile waterless car wash franchise.

Next, how an Aussie entrepreneur helps the world's poorest.