COLUMBUS, Ga. — According to www.ledger-enquirer.com, IMO Car Wash Group, a privately owned British company that markets itself as “The World’s No. 1 Car Wash,” acquired Goo-Goo 3 Minute Express Car Wash approximately two weeks ago.
Goo-Goo has been headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, and operated locally by the same family since 1972, the article continued.
Partners Lamar Beck, Roger Beck and Darren Bradham did not comment on the sale, the article noted.
Phil Wise, regional vice president of operations for IMO and formerly chief operating officer for Goo-Goo, said that customers should not notice a difference with the new ownership. “They’re going to stay Goo-Goo. The operations will be the same,” he said. “We’ll be honoring all of the gift cards and all of our current promotions. There will be no change from that standpoint.”
In 1970, Lamar Beck took over an Anniston, Alabama-based carwash company that his father, R.D. Beck, had founded over 25 years earlier and then purchased the Goo-Goo Car Wash in Columbus in 1972, which stood on the former site of a popular Columbus restaurant and drive-in called Goo-Goo, the article explained.
The Goo-Goo name originated from comedy radio broadcasts during the 1930s that featured ventriloquist Joe Penner, who ended his shows by saying, “Wanna buy a duck?”; he had a duck that would reply, “Goo-Goo,” the article continued.
Goo-Goo currently has 53 express locations in seven states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, the article added; furthermore, eight Goo-Goo self-serve carwashes will remain in the hands of the three partners.
IMO, headquartered in High Wycombe, a suburb of London, has nearly 840 carwashes in 15 countries, the article stated; over 320 locations are in Germany, approximately 280 are in the U.K. and the rest are spread across Europe, Australia and the U.S.
IMO was acquired three years ago by TDR Capital, a British private equity group headquartered in London, the article concluded.
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