On average, washing your car at home requires about 140 gallons of water. Automated drive-thru car washes average between eight to 45 gallons per wash.
But Always Glossy, a new Austin startup, doesn’t even use half a gallon. In fact, every wash with their service averages one pint.
Co-founded by J.C. Butler and Shane Sareli, Always Glossy offers nearly waterless exterior and interior car cleaning services using an eco-friendly solution.
In addition to saving on water, the company prioritizes customer care and convenience. Via the Always Glossy customer portal, clients can lock in appointments at one of 50+ service locations, ditch their car for the day and return to a squeaky clean whip after work.
While the company is relatively young — having gone live last summer — the concept has been around since the early 2000s.
“The product that we’re using is pretty incredible,” said Sareli. “It’s actually been around for a long time and was used for detailing spray for touch ups on showroom and collector vehicles. But it’s gotten a lot more sophisticated within the last two years and can now be used to wash a dirty car.”
Sareli said Butler first saw this process in action while living in Dubai, where he co-founded and launched dubizzle.com, a classifieds website supporting the UAE and 10 additional countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
“They offered something similar, where people would come to your office or apartment and spray on solutions,” said Sareli. “It was a water-efficient way to get your car clean in an area without any water, but it wasn’t very organized.”
Butler returned to Austin in 2013 upon stepping down from Dubizzle following its significant growth. He and Sareli then teamed up on local startup studio Unihorn Labs.
“We were brainstorming different ideas at Unihorn Labs, trying to find something that had heat for our next venture,” said Sareli. “J.C. pitched it to me after his wife asked if it would be possible to bring what they had in Dubai to the U.S. We started investigating and it’s taken off from there.”
Since going live, Always Glossy has partnered with major local tech employers like Google, VMware and Oracle, and apartment management group Greystar, to offer the services to its employees and residents, and those who work or live nearby.
Although the average time it takes for a cleaning varies according to the services purchased, Sareli said they request at least a four-hour window for the appointment.
The four packages include a basic exterior wash, limited interior, maintenance exterior and maintenance interior priced individually. Clients who sign up for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly appointments can take advantage of a 15 percent discount off every appointment.
Solely available in Austin now, Sareli said they hope to expand into additional cities soon.
"Texas is definitely a priority,” Sareli said. “We want to expand to all of the major Texas cities and get as much density in each city as possible. We’ve tried to keep a low profile, but we’ve reached critical mass, a lot of people know who we are, and it’s time to expand and increase the profile of the company.”
As they continue to grow, they are bringing more people to the team. If you are a business interested in partnering with the company, reach out to Sareli directly.
“We have a very open door, and we’d love to work with more local businesses,” said Sareli.
Image provided by Shutterstock.
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