WashTec Cleaning Technology GmbH
Argonstraße 7
86153 Augsburg
Telephone +49 821 5584 0
WashTec Best Practices:
SmartCare is extremely low-maintenance, which is why we can guarantee our customers maximum availability.
The district of Lippe is home to the medium-sized company August Riemeier Mineralöle und Transporte GmbH & Co. KG is at home. There is hardly anything that Riemeier does not offer: In addition to transport services, a waste disposal service and a mineral oil trading business, the Bad Salzuflen-based company (around 160 employees in total and around 80 lorries in its fleet) also operates 13 petrol stations in the region: the five it runs itself and the three leased stations in a brand partnership with Aral, four automatic stations are independent brands or run under Tankpool24. Riemeier also offers customers a car wash service at all of its own and leased petrol stations. The preferred technology partner has always been carwash specialist WashTec. Tenant Sascha Bernoth, with his petrol station in Hövelhof - a good half hour's drive from the Riemeier headquarters in Bad Salzuflen - was one of the first to install the full version of the new SmartCare portal car wash with polish and wax from WashTec.
That was in August 2021, and since then Sascha Bernoth has been delighted with the car wash business at his station in Hövelhof, which is doing well with an average of around 800 car washes per month: ‘SmartCare is extremely low-maintenance, which is why we can guarantee our customers maximum availability,’ he emphasises. And if something does happen, the fault is analysed and reported to the WashTec service immediately. The gantry car wash is connected online to the ‘my.washtec’ service platform. Sascha Bernoth also had WashTec set up the fully automatic ‘WashMaster’ pre-wash unit with the SmartCare. ‘Our customers love the WashTec WashMaster,’ says Benroth, who has leased another Aral petrol station from August Riemeier in Paderborn and also has two self-service car washes. and also operates two self-service car washes in Bergkamen (six bays) and Barntrup (five). These are also all equipped with WashTec technology.
True to the motto, everything from a single source, Bernoth also obtains the washing chemicals for its washing services from Augsburg, namely from the WashTec subsidiary AUWA from the Tecsline premium line. WashTec/AUWA sales consultant Eugen Traksel emphasises to TankstellenWelt that all AUWA products use only high-quality, environmentally friendly ingredients that achieve the best cleaning effect and are also quickly and easily biodegradable. This is why they also carry the Green Car Care label. Because his company has also installed a modern water recovery system at Aral in Hövelhof, the station has now been awarded the ‘Sustainable Car Wash’ certificate by WashTec for the second year in a row.
ÜWhat's more, tenant Bernoth knows that a clean car wash also requires a well-maintained wash bay (equipped with a temperature sensor, it can automatically switch to winter mode and close the doors). That's why, following a complete refurbishment by euro-top, he now has it cleaned once a month by the local cleaning service Stefan Over. He also uses AUWA cleaning products from the Bay Clean series. The Riemeier company has also invested in the carwash service elsewhere - and continues to do so. At its Aral petrol station in neighbouring Lemgo, for example, seven new self-service wash bays have just been built - in March of this year: six bays plus an outdoor bay where trucks, motorhomes and other oversized vehicles can also be cleaned in self-service. The washing technology here also comes entirely from WashTec. The self-service offer has been well received right from the start, says Daniel Riemeier, Managing Director of the family-owned company, in an interview with TankstellenWelt. Nevertheless, there is always room for more, which is why Riemeier and his team are currently developing various marketing measures to make the offer even better known in the region. At Riemeier, they really haven't let themselves get carried away and have also set up ten brand new vacuum cleaner bays at the Lemgo site. Customers can choose from four compact washing programmes at the self-service washing stations. What's more, the entire car wash park is coloured green: ‘We want to draw attention to the special car wash offer,’ says Daniel Riemeier.
Investments are also planned for the car wash at the Riemeier Aral petrol station in Lemgo. In addition to the water pre-spray arch that has already been installed, the WashTec road with a chain length of 26 metres will soon be equipped with a chemical pre-rinse arch from the WashTec plant in Augsburg in the entrance area. According to Eugen Traksel from AUWA/WashTec, this will take the pressure off the employees, who will then be able to concentrate on the areas of the vehicle where the system cannot reach during the manual pre-wash. Managing Director Daniel Riemeier, who also sits on the advisory board of UNITI Bundesverband EnergieMittelstand e.V. for the North Rhine-Westphalia regional group, is certain that the car wash business at the petrol station in Lemgo - ‘we already achieve an average of 3,000 car washes per month here in the car wash’ - will increase significantly with these investments. August Riemeier also wants to develop its own petrol station business further, particularly on the shop and bistro side, where it is already actively working on various ideas and concepts. Expanding the network is also an option - ‘if suitable opportunities arise for us,’ concludes Daniel Riemeier.
