June 10, 2013
2013 family Business Awards: ScrubaDub AutoWash Centers, Natick
Putting A Shine On 3 Generations Of Dedication
PHOTO/Emily Micucci
From left: Danny Paisner, president, Mat Paisner, business development manager, and Bob Paisner, CEO, outside ScrubaDub's corporate headquarters in Natick. The trio lead the business founded by their father and grandfather, Marshall Paisner, in 1966.
By Emily Micucci
Going through the car wash is an errand many people don't mind, in fact even look forward to, and the owners of ScrubaDub Auto Wash Centers, headquartered in Natick, are always looking for ways to maximize the thrill.
“We think about the actual service experience — the experience a customer has when they come into one of our facilities,” CEO Bob Paisner said.
Paisner and his business partners, brother Danny Paisner, the company president, and nephew Mathew Paisner, business development manager, have devised perks like offering free peanuts to make the wait a little more pleasant for customers, stickers for children, and treats for the family dog “to turn customers heads to show we're a little different,” Danny Paisner said.
Their approach has seemingly paid off. Since Bob and Danny's father Marshall Paisner founded the company in 1965, the family-owned chain has grown to 17 locations in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. It is now the 12th-largest car wash chain in the nation, according to trade publication Professional Car Wash & Detailing's 2012 ranking of the 50 largest car washes in the U.S.
But added value isn't the only secret to keeping the family business strong through three generations, according to the Paisners. They rely on the wisdom of their father when faced with business decisions, like whether to acquire new locations or hold tight.
Slow & Steady Growth
The Paisners have taken a measured approach to growing their business through the decades, Bob Paisner said, establishing locations from the ground up and making acquisitions throughout New England.
Danny Paisner said this approach served the company well through the economic downturn in particular, as ScrubaDub has minimized debt through its conservative growth strategy.
“We had the opportunity to take a lot of money from individuals who wanted to spur rapid growth in our company and we turned that down,” Paisner said, noting that there has been a “roll up” of many family-owned car wash businesses over the last 12 years in large chains or public companies. “Our decision was basically, we wanted to keep it our own sandbox.”
And that decision is rooted in the Paisners' loyalty to their father's vision for the company.
Marshall Paisner wrote a book, “Sustaining the Family Business,” which is all about the importance of passing a business on to the next generation, rather than cashing out. Bob Paisner said every time there's an opportunity to sell a piece of the company, he and his brother refer to the book.
Also central to the ScrubaDub business model are family values and community service. That means always making sure managers — most of whom have been promoted from within over the years — have flexibility in their workdays so they can attend important family events, like children's baseball games.
“We sort of learned early on that family was critical to making it work,” Danny Paisner said.
And community service initiatives never end for ScrubaDub, which supports local sports teams, along with annual haunted carwashes on Halloween to benefit area homeless shelters and free car washes for veterans on Veterans Day. And there are fundraisers for more current causes, such as raising money to help Boston Marathon bombing victims.
Passing The Torch
Today Marshall Paisner is retired, but the family matriarch, Elaine Paisner, still works as a consultant for ScrubaDub, according to her sons. At 55 and 53, respectively, Bob and Danny are now thinking about how they'll pass the business on to their own sons.
There's hardly a Paisner that hasn't worked, at least part time as a teen, at ScrubaDub. Mat, Danny's son, recently joined the company full time after obtaining an MBA from Babson College, eschewing a career on Wall Street to help run the family business.
Bob has three sons, one of whom has entered the professional world, and whether they'll eventually find themselves working with their family remains to be seen.
Bob and Danny, who each had his own career aspirations outside of ScrubaDub as young men, have their own policy about bringing their children on as full-time employees: They must work outside the family business first.
“And our hope is they gain experience, they gain insight, they gain tools that may eventually help our family enterprise. On the way, they may find a career and good for them,” Bob Paisner said.
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2013 Family Business Awards - Scrubadub Autowash Centers
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