Feasibility of Self-Service Car Wash in Saudi Arabia: Project Report

This project report investigates the feasibility of establishing a self-service car wash business in Saudi Arabia. It begins with an introduction outlining the concept, scope, and objectives, emphasizing the growing popularity of such services globally and their potential in the Saudi Arabian automobile industry. The aim is to explore market growth opportunities and profitability. The report then presents a literature review, examining the car wash and care industry in the Middle East, highlighting its evolution, growth factors (such as weather and luxury vehicle demand), and the increasing number of cars. It also discusses the benefits of self-service car washes, including cost savings, convenience, and customization. The report identifies a gap in the existing literature regarding self-service car washes in Saudi Arabia. Finally, it outlines the research methodology, including the interpretivism research paradigm, and describes the data collection and analysis process, which will be used to address the research questions and objectives.

Running head: PROJECT REPORT
Self service car wash business in Saudi Arabia: Project Report
Name of the Student:
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The research project contains a description of the business idea of self-service car wash
and its scope in the automobile industry of Saudi Arabia. This paper also includes the aim and
objectives of the above mentioned business idea. Self-service car wash systems are becoming
quite popular in the developed countries. This service is not entirely autonomous but it provides
the car owners a freedom to wash their cars as per their convenience. In other words, self-service
car wash increases the convenience of the car owners in regards to wash their cars at their
convenient time and at a lower price, as it does not include any labor charge. Thus, it can be
anticipated that in the automobile industry of Saudi Arabia, the self service car was business can
make sustainable profit.
Scope of the new business
The car wash service is quite costly in Saudi Arabia. The economy is growing along with
the cost of labor is also increasing. The existing car wash services are not autonomous and do not
provide self service to the car owners. Hence, they need to depend on the car wash stations and
the employees to clean their cars. Thus, the car owners are required to pay a high service charge,
which also includes the cost of labor along with the cost of washing materials. Moreover, it has
been reported by lifeinsaudiarabia.net (2015) that there is an underground market for car washers
with average charges between SAR 20 and SAR 25 and it varies on the basis of the model of the
car and how dirty it is. However, these expatriate people operate at the roadside and are not
associated with any other car wash business. This market affects the growth of the car wash
businesses and people enjoy slightly cheaper service in this market through bargaining. Hence, it

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is expected that if the car owners get the scope for washing their cars themselves then not only
their cost of car wash would be reduced but also the hassle of going to the service centers will
get reduced too. Thus, self-service car wash business is expected to be profitable in Saudi
Arabia.
Aim of the research project
The aim of this project is to explore the automobile market of Saudi Arabia and the
feasibility of a business of self-service car wash in that market to identify the scope of growth
and profitability.
SMART objectives
 To explore the growth opportunity for self-service car wash business in the market of
Saudi Arabia
 To evaluate how much the business can grow or earn profit in the next five years
 To examine the factors that can affect the customer participation in self service car wash
 To recommend ways to overcome the challenges that obstacle the growth of the self-
service car wash business in Saudi Arabia
Research questions
1) What is the current condition of the automobile industry of Saudi Arabia?
2) What are the growth opportunities of the self service car wash in Saudi Arabia?
3) How the car wash businesses can improve their services and implement sustainable
measures to mitigate the impact on the environment?

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Research rationale
This research project has two types of implications. Firstly, it will contribute significantly
in the academics by exploring the growth potential of the car wash businesses in the Saudi
Arabian auto industry. There are numerous studies that highlight various aspects of the
automobile and other complementary services and industries that are available in the Saudi
Arabian market. However, the self service car wash is a new business idea which is sustainable
and cheaper in cost. This study explores and evaluates the factors that can positively influence
the growth of this new business idea. Secondly, with the findings of the study, the car wash
businesses can innovate and implement new technologies and sustainable car wash practices that
can help the customers as well as their businesses to grow significantly. Thus, this research study
is quite important for the growth of the automobile industry and car wash businesses in Saudi
Arabia.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Car wash and car care industry in the Middle East
The car wash and the car care industry in the countries of the Middle East region has
evolved significantly in the past few years. As highlighted by Andreeva (2015), UAE has been
leading this evolution of the car care and car wash industry as this country has displayed
enthusiasm and eagerness to adopt innovations and modern technologies in all sectors and
thereby achieved developments across all types of industries in the nation. The automobile
industry of the Middle East has been experiencing remarkable growth in the recent years. The car
wash and care industry of the UAE has opened the door for various foreign partners to bring the
modern technologies in this industry from the global market, such as, from the USA, UK,
Canada, Singapore etc. This has resulted in the improvement in the quality of services in the
UAE (Cleanmiddleeast.ae 2015).
PetrolPlaza.com (2017) pointed out that Middle East has turned out to be the land of
opportunities and innovation for the car wash industry. As per predictions by experts, there is
going to be 60% more automobiles on road in the Middle East countries by 2020 and the annual
sales of light vehicles is expected to increase and reach around 4 million by 2020. There is high
demand for luxury vehicles. According to Lanchovichina, Mottaghi and Devarajan (2015), the
countries in the Middle East faced the economic turbulence due to collapsed crude oil prices,
however the nations which were not affected by armed conflicts took the measures for growth
and development. Saudi Arabia is one such nation and the automobile industry continued to
develop. By 2020, the total number of cars on the roads of Saudi Arabia is expected to reach 19.1
million which is the largest in the market among all the Middle Eastern countries (52.5%),

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followed by UAE with 18.5% market share. Thus, the three factors which create the
opportunities for the car wash and care industry are the strong weather conditions of the desert
coupled with extreme heat, strong market for luxury vehicles and the increasing number of new
cars (Avendaño and Fanning 2014). These indicate increase in the number of car washes in this
region.
Saleem (2016) provided a similar view regarding the growth of automobile and the
subsidiary industries in the Middle East. He stated that as the automotive market of the Middle
East is growing twice as fast as the Western European and North American markets, the car care
and car wash industry is growing too as the services are complementary to the increase in the
number of cars on road, along with a harsh weather condition of the deserts. Due to the harsh
climatic and dusty condition of the roads, car wash and care on a regular basis is very important
to keep the cars in a better condition. This has contributed in the huge growth of the car wash
market in Saudi Arabia and in other GCC countries.
On the other hand, there are also some down sides of the car wash and care industry in
the Middle East. It has been found that, the car owners are not allowed to wash their cars in the
public places as that wastes precious water resources, damages pavements and roads and attracts
insects. Violation of this rule leads to heavy fine. Thus, various car wash companies have been
experiencing growth opportunities. In this regard, sustainable technological innovations are
occurring for meeting the high cost of the conventional car wash technology and for conserving
water resources. It has been found that automatic car wash technologies can save significant
amount of water (Bui 2015).

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Benefits of self service car wash
The self-service car washing has become quite popular in the Western world. It saves
cost as well as increases convenience for the car owners while providing maintenance services to
the cars. The choice of time versus budget is thus one of the primary foundations of the self
service car wash business. Various companies, such as, In N Out, has started to provide self
service car wash facilities in the countries they operate. The greatest benefit of such service is
that it allows the car owners to keep a control on washing their vehicles and at the same time can
have access to the professional and top line equipment for car washing at an affordable price and
any convenient time. The other benefits include flexibility, user friendly professional equipment
and personal satisfaction of the car owners (Inoutcarwash.com 2019).
King (2015) highlighted that self service car wash techniques are a sustainable method
that saves water. It is found from studies that self service car wash saves around 65% of the
water usage that is required in the traditional car wash method, which is done in the yards, home
garages or driveways.
Dabholkar (2015) pointed out that customization is another important benefit of self
service car wash. The owners can regulate the amount of soap to be used, level of foam, choose
any specific cleaning procedure, car fragrances, particular polishes or different cleaning products
from the vending machines. Moreover, these cleaning stations are usually open 24 hours like the
gas stations, thereby increasing convenience for the car owners. All these conveniences come at
an affordable price as the labor charge gets eliminated (Beverungen et al. 2019).

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Summary
It can be summarized from the above literature review that the automobile industry in the
Middle East has been experiencing huge growth in terms of all types of vehicles. High
disposable income of the people has led to high demand for the luxury vehicles which require
extra care. Furthermore, the harsh climate of the desert areas is another reason for the demand for
car wash and care. Thus, there has been growth in demand and business of the car wash and care
industry. At the same time, it has been found that self service car wash services are gaining
popularity in the Western developed countries due to increased convenience and cost
effectiveness. Moreover it is also found that the self service automatic car wash technologies use
less water which is a sustainable option of car wash and care.
Literature gap
It has been observed that there are many literatures on the automobile and car wash and
care industries of the Middle East. However, the area of self service car wash business in the
market of Saudi Arabia was not explored earlier. This research project therefore will explore the
conditions of the above mentioned business in the context of the automobile industry and the
economy of Saudi Arabia and will evaluate its benefits and costs to get an overview of the
feasibility and profitability of this business.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology contains the systematic processes of collecting data and
interpreting it using suitable methods to address the research objectives and research questions in
the most unambiguous and rational manner (Kumar 2019). Research methodology contains some
basic steps, namely, research paradigm, research approach, design, strategy, data collection and
analysis process. The methodology followed in this study is explained below.
Research paradigm
This refers to the set of assumptions or beliefs regarding the source and nature of the
information required to answer the research questions (Kelly, Dowling and Millar 2018). The
most commonly used research paradigms are positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism and realism.
In the given study, the researcher has applied interpretivism research philosophy, in which the
information and the observations were analyzed using the qualitative interpretation skills and
rationality of the researcher (Dean 2018). The other paradigms were not used as positivism uses
scientific analysis methods on the quantitative data, realism leads to the analysis of reality
perspectives and pragmatism allows for application of both qualitative and quantitative methods
(Ryan 2018) and hence these methods were not suitable for the study that explored the growth
opportunity of the self-service car wash in Saudi Arabia and their profitability.
Research approach
The researcher applied inductive research approach in this study as this study entailed
to bring out a new perspective from the exploration of the research topic and unlike the deductive
research approach, no research hypothesis was developed and examined (Sekaran and Bougie
2016). The research topic required an exploratory and qualitative study to find out the current

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status of the automobile industry and the factors that can promote or challenge the growth of the
self service car wash business in Saudi Arabia. Hence, inductive approach was suitable as it
allows for exploratory study to get the desired outcome.
Research design
As stated by Creswell and Poth (2017), research design can be defined as the plans and
actions taken to collect data and analyze them to get the research findings. Among various
research designs, the researcher applied the document analysis method for answering the
research questions. Under this design, content analysis of written data is performed using
interpretivism. It is a useful analysis method for analyzing secondary qualitative information.
Research strategy
This explains the nature of the methods chosen and the corresponding steps undertaken to
collect the relevant information and analyze those information (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill
2012). To explore the self-service car wash business opportunities in Saudi Arabia, the
researcher chose a secondary research strategy. In this strategy, the researcher collected
secondary information on the research subject as per the research objectives. Secondary research
helps in getting a broader view of the research subject which is useful for an in-depth
understanding of the research issue, unlike the primary research which leads to a narrowed down
approach to the study (Quinlan et al. 2019).
Data collection and analysis processes
To conduct the research, secondary information was collected from various secondary
sources on the automobile industry of Saudi Arabia. Various journals, websites, industry reports,
government publications, and news articles were collected from different databases and explored

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to get substantial amount of data on the growth opportunities of the automobile sector of Saudi
Arabia and the factors that have significant influence in this sector. This information was
analyzed using qualitative methods to find out the scopes for the self-service car wash business
in the automobile sector of Saudi Arabia. Based on the findings, recommendations were also
provided to exploit the market opportunities for establishing the self-service car wash business.
Limitations
Time and budget are two primary limitations of the study. Due to limited time and
budget, the researcher applied only secondary research method in this study. As primary research
involves primary data collection, which is time and cost consuming, hence, only secondary
information on the overall industry was collected and qualitative research method was applied.

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
This chapter presents a detailed discussion on the secondary information collected from
various secondary sources to explore the research topic, that is, the growth opportunity of self-
service car wash business in Saudi Arabia. Several industry reports, journal articles, government
publications, and newspaper articles were consulted to get the findings on the automobile
industry of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, the subsidiary and auxiliary service industries, the
crucial factors that influence the growth of these industries and the potential opportunities and
threats that should be handled by these businesses to have a substantial market growth.
Document analysis method under qualitative analysis techniques was applied to interpret the
secondary information. The findings are presented below.
Automobile industry of Saudi Arabia
The economy of Saudi Arabia is one of the first economies of the world. Oil industry is
the backbone of the economy of Saudi Arabia as it has the second biggest petroleum reserve of
the world with 22% of the total oil reserve of the world. Saudi Arabia is also world’s biggest
exporter of petroleum. It also has the fifth largest reserve of natural gas to be considered as the
energy superpower of the world (Searle 2019). The nominal GDP of Saudi Arabia was $740.123
billion in 2018 (Atalla, Gasim and Hunt 2018), and according to the per capita nominal GDP,
which was $54,500 in 2017, the country holds the rank of 35. Service sector is the largest
contributor in the total GDP with 53.2% share in 2017, followed by the industries with 44.2%
share and agriculture with the least 2.6% share (CNN 2019). Thus, by analyzing this
fundamental information on the economy of Saudi Arabia, it can be inferred that the level of