All American

General information

Way back in 1994 we set out on our dream. Inspired by the level of service and attention to detail received at a car wash in Florida during a family trip, we wanted to bring a little bit of the American dream home with us. Spotting a niche for a car wash that went way above and beyond (during a time when ‘cheap and cheerful’ underlined the UK market), we jumped at the opportunity and All American Hand Car Wash was born.

The summer of 95 saw the opening of our first depot on Mount Vernon in Liverpool. It may have been a rubble car park without any signage or facilities but we worked hard, invested in quality products and ensured that every car left us looking as good as new. Our tireless work ethic and enthusiasm for good customer service didn’t go unnoticed and soon we had a loyal customer base that was – and still is – growing by the day.

Location, location, location! Quickly learning that the location for our depots would dictate our success – and to cope with increasing demand (after our initial location became so busy we blocked an entire thoroughfare!), we hauled our team to larger premises on Hoylake Road in Birkenhead. Celebrating its 17th birthday this year, the car wash remains as one of our flagship locations.

The importance of location, combined with the help and support of our loyal customer base has enabled us to expand our dream right across the Wirral and Chester:

1997 – Duke Street, Liverpool
Our first collaboration with a city centre car park operator, this site built up a fantastic reputation in Liverpool. The Rope Walks developments and Capital of Culture plans tempted the car park operators to sell the site for apartment developments. But we knew the concept worked and it wasn’t long before we were trying out car park based depots again.

1998 – Darlingtons Yard, Heswall
A popular choice with our customer base and tucked away in the corner of a small industrial yard, Heswall has grown to become one of our busiest full service depots. This depot even holds the mantle of being one of the most visited businesses in Heswall putting it up there with Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

2000 – David Lloyd, Cheshire Oaks.
With the General Manager at David Lloyd a great fan of our services (so much so that he asked if we’d be able to install a wash-and-valet facility in the club car park!), we were excited to provide a depot for the benefit of their gym members. The site has been a high profile part of our portfolio and even 13 years later may provide us with a springboard to opening new facilities based in hotels and Health Clubs.

2002 – Park Road, Claughton.
There’s a saying, ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ and we have come across many who have hoped to follow in the footsteps of All American Hand Car Wash. Before taking over at this site, the previous imitation business was shabby and neglected. We transformed the depot to a thriving centre of excellence that lasted for over 10 years until we amalgamated the business with our Hoylake Road depot just half a mile further out of Birkenhead.

2005 – Arrowe Park
Another new concept for All American was a shared site on a retail petrol forecourt. Once again, we made it a roaring success and only closed the site after the petrol operators and our landlords Shell were forced to re-develop the site in 2010. We took heart in the success of a petrol forecourt based operation though and immediately went looking for potential replacements.

2005 – Mobile Valeting
In 2005, we acknowledged the needs of our customers and how many of them struggled to leave their car for hours at a time to be valeted. Enter a brand new concept for All American; our mobile valeting division, which has proven to be a huge success!

2008 – Cheshire Oaks
Based in the multi storey car park at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet in Ellesmere Port, this depot is our flagship for car park washing & valeting and is our biggest venture to date! A hit with the shoppers, we helped to trial an exclusive weekend “Valet Parking” service in 2011, operated in conjunction with McArthur Glen.

2008 – Chester Saughall
Collaborating with Nationwide Auto Centres (Now Halfords Service Centres), this depot quickly captured the Chester market and has grown to become one of our most popular sites.

2008 – Mobile Valeting
With the success of our first mobile valeting operation, we put another mobile van on the road to cover Chester and its outlying areas. This service has totally wooed the Chester crowd and is fully booked almost every week!

2010 – Chester Grosvenor
Following our Cheshire Oaks operation, we secured a site within the car park of the exclusive Grosvenor/Mall Shopping Centre, in the heart of Chester’s shopping district.

2011 – Moreton, Wirral
After our Arrowe park site this was our first venture back onto a shared petrol forecourt based operation. One of the first locations to road-test our slick new signage, it was a race against time to get this site up and running before the winter of December 2011. But succeed we did and the Moreton team has gone from strength to strength with new customers added to our database every week!

2012 – A41 Whitchurch Road, Chester
Located on the ex-Dickens Motors Peugeot Dealership site and in collaboration with the new Smith’s Honda Dealership, this depot is set to become another role model for our shared site ventures.

January 2013 – Pensby Road, Pensby.
Another of our shared site ventures, this site shares its forecourt space with a BP petrol filling station, making best use of our customers’ precious time.