Made in Saskatchewan: Suds Car Wash

Every other week on The Greg Morgan Morning Show, Greg profiles a local business with Made in Saskatchewan, as entrepreneurs go from dreams to reality. In this episode, he talks to Kirby Kazeil from Suds Car Wash.

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Listen to the full interview, or read the transcript below:

GREG MORGAN: Suds Car Wash, it’s on Winnipeg Street. It’s been a Regina fixture for like 23 years, making Kirby and Natalie Kazeil almost household names here. Not only for building a successful business, but for being such enthusiastic community supporters too. 23 years ago, things looked a little different, though. Four young daughters, an empty warehouse, no clear idea what to do with it. But there was a light bulb moment, courtesy of their four-year-old daughter, and just like that, Suds Car Wash was born. Kirby can even recall the exact moment the plan all started coming together.

KIRBY KAZEIL: So our deal was my wife Natalie and I, whenever you went somewhere, you had to take at least two of them because there were four of them under the age of four. Pure chaos. I would bring them here a couple of times a week to check on the building. Making sure the pipes weren’t broken or for any vandalism or whatever, just check on the property. So I would bring them here, and there were a couple of old roller chairs. In the back of the building, there were these freezer curtains that divided the areas; they would push themselves in the chair through these freezer curtains.

Like they were getting a car wash?

KAZEIL: Like they were in a car wash, so it was actually my four-year-old daughter that came up with the idea that this should be a car wash.

She didn’t come up with the money, though.

KAZEIL: She didn’t come up with the dough.

Did you have the dough at the time?

KAZEIL: No, I was broke. Back then, they had that small business development loan that you could access interest-free for 10 years. So I accessed that loan, and that was enough money to at least get open, right?

How lean was it?

KAZEIL: Honestly, when we first opened up, the idea made sense. There wasn’t a company cleaning cars like we were cleaning them. People just didn’t understand that you would take your car to get it cleaned. The concept was new. It took a while for people to say, “Yeah, you go there, they clean your car, you just wait, and then you leave, and the car is clean.” That sounds simple today, but in 2003, the concept was you book an appointment two weeks in advance, you drop your car all day, sometimes longer. You pay back then maybe $150 to get your car clean. Well, we were like 30 dollars while you wait.

At any time, did your wife Natalie look over across the kitchen table one evening and say, “We’ve got to do something better. We got to do something differently.” Or was she always behind you?

KAZEIL: Day one, Aug. 20, she said, “What have we done?” Because we lost six cars, and it took us the better part of the entire day. And we maybe had eight staff.

And now, how many staff do you have now?

KAZEIL: We have 40 staff.

On a good day, how many cars are you doing?

KAZEIL: Well, on a good day, 300 cars.

What was the turning point?

KAZEIL: You know what? That’s a good question. The turning point was one day Bob Hughes…

The late great Leader-Post writer.

KAZEIL: Yeah, somebody had an accident in his car. I think it was his dog. So my dad said, “Well, come here, and we’ll clean out your car, get rid of the smell and everything else,” which we did. And then he wrote an article about his experience. Literally that day, our business changed. That was a turning point.

Has it been hard on your family being in this business?

KAZEIL: I mean, the girls don’t know any different. They grew up in it. You know, I remember when Cassie, my oldest daughter, maybe then she was like seven, bringing customers to the till, taking their credit cards, sliding them through. And people would look at me and ask, “Does she know what she’s doing?” “Oh yeah, no, she’s got it.” This is like a second home for all of them.

And you work closely with your wife here, too.

KAZEIL: Yeah, we’ve had some scraps.

Would you recommend working with your wife in a business like this?

KAZEIL: I think it’s been the greatest joy of the business. That next office, right to the north here, is her office, and that’s where she meets people here doing life coaching, which she’s been doing for several years now.

Greg Morgan and Kirby Kazeil pose at Suds Car Wash in Regina. (Brett Horton/980 CJME)

What’s the biggest innovation in your industry that’s come along?

KAZEIL: It’s the products you can apply online. Like we put a graphene wax on now with our diamond chilled wash, and we charge $39.95 for that wash. 15 years ago, we’d be charging you $120 for it, and we’d need two guys to put a wax on and take it off your car and have it for an hour. And now you can do it through the wash process; it’s applied directly through our equipment, and it’s better than what we were doing 15 years ago when it was well over $100; now it’s $39. So the technology for the chemicals has come a long, long way.

What do you say to a young entrepreneur coming up, rising right now, a man like yourself that has been in business in this community? How do you feel about this community and opening up a business?

KAZEIL: I think it’s a great community for opening a business, right? And I don’t think today our young people have enough patience. You’ve got to stick it out. Be better every day. Never be happy with the product you’re putting out. Even today, I’m still not happy with what we put out every day. I always want it to be better. And treat the customers how you want to be treated yourself. That’s the advice. Treat people how you’d want to be treated yourself. And you’ve got to stick it out. You’ve got to work; it’s not going to happen quickly.