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 two week trip criss-crossing the country meeting with operators, distributors and equipment manufacturers, Richard and John soon decided that this was an industry they wanted to be part of and selected the Jim Coleman Company of Houston Texas to supply the equipment for their soon to be developed wash sites.



Immediately following their return to Australia, Shiners Car Wash Systems Pty Ltd was formed and the development of two six bay self service car washes commenced in the Melbourne suburbs of Frankston and Preston. The Frankston location, which is still owned and operated by Richard 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. With there being no industry support structure or equipment distributors at the time, it was not long before enquiries were being received from others eagerly wanting to develop similar facilities and seeking Richard and John’s advice and assistance. Recognizing the opportunity, 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 200 car wash systems, consisting of over 750 Self Serve Bays, more than 100 Automatics, 2 Express Tunnel Systems and 50 Swipe N Clean/Swipe @ The Bay Systems for customers across every State and Territory of Australia and now New Zealand.





In 2000 Richard purchased John’s interest in the business and 2001 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 since that time.

To this day, Shiners are still the only company able to provide a fully integrated credit and fleet card system in a self service car wash.



Since becoming a distributor in 1993, Shiners has consistently been presented the award for being the largest International distributor for the Jim Coleman Company and in 2005 was first presented the award of ‘Diamond Distributor’, representing a status of elite sales levels limited to a very small group of Jim Coleman distributors worldwide. In 2010 Shiners went a step further and was the only distributor to receive a ‘Double Diamond’ award, recognising Shiners as the largest Jim Coleman distributor worldwide and further cementing the outstanding relationship Shiners enjoys with the Jim Coleman Company and Coleman family.



During 2005, Shiners purchased large, modern, office/warehouse facilities in the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne and moved from the humble Richmond premises from where it all began in 1993.

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 Service 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 increasingly 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 saving technology as it emerges.