Wilcomatic is widely credited as the first company to bring automatic car washing to the U.K. Founded in 1967, the company now operates 450 car wash locations on a revenue-share basis across major U.K. grocers. In 2026, Wilcomatic launched a car wash subscription program with Tesco, built with Liquid Barcodes platform technology and designed around the Tesco Clubcard.

The Challenge

The U.K. car wash market has changed a great deal. Petrol stations have closed at scale as oil companies sell sites, and a wave of unregulated hand car wash locations has created price competition that automatic operators struggle to match. Wilcomatic responded in 2017 with a revenue-share model, supplying, maintaining, and operating wash equipment at supermarket forecourts in exchange for a percentage of sales. With its equipment refresh complete, Kevin Pay, director at Wilcomatic, went looking for the next source of growth.

"The [mobile] app was really the area that I perceived, and in particular subscription, as being that opportunity," Pay said.

Pay's goals reach beyond Tesco. He wants subscriptions available at every forecourt in Wilcomatic's revenue-share estate. He also sees a role for Wilcomatic with retailers it does not serve through revenue sharing.

The Solution

Wilcomatic and Liquid Barcodes built the subscription around the Tesco Clubcard. Liquid Barcodes worked with Wilcomatic and Tesco to enable Clubcard points issuance through the program.

Subscribers receive Tesco points at signup and more points with every monthly renewal, roughly equal in value to a free month of subscription over the course of a year.

The rollout is staged to match when Tesco will begin marketing the subscription through Clubcard channels. Wilcomatic aims to reach 50 Tesco locations by the end of September. The goal is 100 locations by the end of 2026 and all 180 sites in the Tesco estate by mid-2027. Pay said Tesco is prepared to message anyone who buys fuel with a Clubcard once more than half of the estate is live.

Six months in, results have exceeded Pay's expectations for customer satisfaction.

"If you look at the metrics, I will tell you that's a world-class service, and I'm really proud of that. Within six months, we are now consistently achieving more than 70% NPS," Pay said.

Churn sits around 15% and is improving by one or two percentage points every month. Revenue is increasing by 5% to 10% every month. Pay also expects subscription to smooth out the weather swings that have defined the business.

"When it rains, car washing declines, and when it's hot and sunny, car washing increases," Pay said. "With subscription, we're hoping to flatten that curve, because we'll end up with consistent revenue every month that's predictable and renewable."

Pay is also eyeing an expansion into fleet services, using the app's data to give fleet managers visibility into wash activity.

Key Features of Tesco Subscription Program:

• Tesco Clubcard points: Subscribers receive a large bundle of points at signup and additional points with every monthly renewal.
• Mobile subscription app: Customers subscribe through an app designed around the Tesco Clubcard.
• Connection to the wash hardware: The app connects to Christ's remote diagnostics platform, known as CIS, which confirms a customer's eligibility and instructs the wash to run. 
• Timely promotions: The app supports limited-time offers. During the World Cup, Wilcomatic offered a discounted ceramic polish add-on that ran as long as Scotland or England remained in the competition, with app branding cleared under FIFA's guidelines.

About Wilcomatic

Wilcomatic has supplied car wash systems to some of the largest companies in the world since 1967. The company supplies, maintains, and operates automatic car washes, jet washes, vacuum units, and air stations, and it also serves the truck and bus, rail, and wheel wash markets. Wilcomatic is the sole U.K. provider of Christ wash systems, which it has supplied since 2000, and operates in the U.K. and India.

Learn more at wilcomatic.co.uk.