When Bruce Arnett, Sr. opened his first car wash on Pleasant Hill Road in 1987, his immediate plan was to build a good reputation for Carnett's Car Washes and spread the concept around Gwinnett and Metro Atlanta.
Now he's thinking even bigger.
Carnett's announced earlier this year that the family-run car wash company has partnered with Procter & Gamble Co. to help launch its Mr. Clean Car Wash brand across the nation.
"We've always wanted to go nationwide, but our problem was that while our brand is very well known in Atlanta, people in other parts of the country haven't heard of us," says Arnett.
Along came Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, the world's largest manufacturer of cleaning products. That company, which owns numerous big-name brands, wanted to leverage that brand awareness into service-oriented businesses.
"Procter & Gamble is getting into the franchise business and the service business on a large scale and the Mr. Clean Car Wash is the first of several projects that the company is rolling out," says Arnett. "This is something they worked on for three years."
The two companies spent the past year discussing a partnership and in January the two companies formally agreed to a deal. According to Arnett, 14 of the 17 Carnett's locations will become Mr. Clean Car Washes later this summer. (The other three locations will remain as Carnett's-branded car washes.)
The partnership also means Carnett's will handle the new chain's national franchising. Bruce Arnett, Sr. is the new company's CEO and his son, Bruce Arnett, Jr., will serve as its COO.
Jeff LeRoy, exteneral relations manager for Procter & Gamble says Carnett's was brought into the deal because of the company's expertise in car wash operations.
"If you're going to launch nationally, Procter & Gamble knows marketing and we've done the all research, but what do we know about car washing? Here are the Arnetts with something like 30 years of experience so brining them in was a tremendous asset to this."
