Shiners, the story so far...
The Shiners story started, when in August 1992 good friends Richard Davison and John Whitechurch made a trip to the USA to investigate the self-service car wash business. Following an exhaustive 2 week trip criss-crossing the country, meeting with operators, distributors and equipment manufacturers, the two boys soon decided that this was an industry they wanted to be part of and selected the Jim Coleman Company to supply the equipment for their wash sites, their interest at that time being that of car wash operators.
Immediately following their return to Australia, Shiners Car Wash Systems Pty Ltd was formed and the development of two six bay self serve car washes commenced in the Melbourne suburbs of Frankston and Preston. The Frankston location, which is still owned and operated by Shiners today, was the first to open for business in May 1993.
Instant success followed with an overwhelming response to this new concept of car washing and it was not long before enquiries were being received from others eagerly wanting to develop similar facilities and seeking the boy’s assistance, there being no industry support structure or equipment distributors at the time. An agreement was soon reached with the Jim Coleman Company for Shiners to become their exclusive Australian distributor and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since those heady days of 1993, Shiners have supplied and installed in excess of 150 car wash systems, consisting of over 600 Self Serve Bays, 550 Vacuums, 60 Automatics and 20 Swipe N Clean systems for customer’s right across Australia.
In 2000 Richard purchased John’s interest in the business and 2002 saw the introduction to Australia of the Water Wizard Touch Free Automatic and Swipe n Clean Credit Card and Fleet Code Systems. These two systems heralded a substantial change in the direction of the Shiners business and have been accompanied by significant growth over the past few years.
In 2005 Shiners was presented the award of ‘diamond distributor’ by the Jim Coleman Company, a status limited to a very small and elite group of distributors world wide, further cementing the outstanding relationship Shiners enjoys with the Jim Coleman Company and Coleman family.
During 2005, Shiners moved from the humble Richmond premises from where it all began in 1993, to modern office/warehouse facilities which the company purchased in the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne.
Over recent years Shiners have become actively involved in developing and adapting water recycle technology to their systems and with the ongoing co-operation and assistance from the Jim Coleman factory, can now provide an equipment package using water volumes that were previously considered unachievable in a Touch Free Automatic/Self Serve facility.
Richard is as excited and enthusiastic about the car wash business today as he was when the business was formed and is eager to share his experiences with new comers to the industry. With the general public now accepting that water is a ‘precious resource’ and authorities and governments actively seeking ways of educating us to become more water efficient, exciting times lay ahead for the car wash industry, particularly for those willing to embrace water recycling and other water saving technology as it emerges.
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