2025 Fast & Serious Winners: No. 6 Tommy's Express

Is there such a thing as car wash overkill? Amid a surge of openings from national chains, some municipalities think so and are enacting moratoriums on business licenses for new car washes. It’s a hurdle Tommy’s Express CEO Alex Lemmen said the brand overcomes by taking the lead on education and explaining to local leaders why the Michigan-based brand is a fit in their community. Tommy’s requires the use of reclaimed water at every location, for example, and over the past decade has been able to reduce fresh water usage by about 50 percent. With every car wash, a donation is made to nonprofit Water Mission. The growth pace for Tommy’s certainly isn’t slowing. It ended 2023 with 175 units (today it’s 200-plus), up 108.3 percent from 2021, with overall sales of $259 million, a 107.2 percent jump during the measurement period. A focus over the past 18 months was cost reduction, said Lemmen, particularly of “consumables for franchisees” such as detergents and parts. As a vertically integrated company—one that mixes its own proprietary detergents and assembles its own equipment. 

Tommy’s has more cost-control levers to pull, he noted. Its tunnel car washes, which operate with a subscription model, put through 200 cars an hour, on average, meaning higher topline sales for franchisees. “A typical gas station car wash is 10 cars an hour, so we’re lightning fast,” said President Ryan Essenburg. The brand over the past two years ramped up its “Love Your Ride” marketing campaign to, as Lemmen put it, “make an emotional connection with our consumer.” That’s led to same-store membership growth, he added. Last year it introduced its “World Model,” a scaled down version with a 60-foot wash tunnel versus the standard 130-foot tunnel that can still put through about 90 cars per hour but requires less than a half-acre of land.