Dar Al Zain Car Wash

CASE SYNOPSYS

Company background

DAR AL ZAIN CAR WASH is a small business that’s core activities is car wash and sells car accessories on the side. DAR AL ZAIN CAR WASH is currently located in UAE, in city named as Al Ain; Al Ain lies east of Abu Dhabi and South of Dubai. Al Ain city is also known as Garden city and is the fourth largest inland city of United Arab Emirates. More specifically, Dar Al Zain Car Wash is in the industrial part of Al Ain. Late 2014 the founder of Dar Al Zain wanted to expand his business to increase his net income. However, he wanted cash based business that is both low risk and requires less than 500 thousand dirhams. The founder, known as Jamal Al Rashidi, then looked around his hometown (Al Ain), and as a residence and a citizen he tried to think of what his city was lacking. Jamal then realized what a hustle it was to get his car washed, there is only three centers and they are often always busy, nevertheless, they always had customers not because of their  good service but due to the lack of other options. Jamal then decided that this is what he was going to invest in, a car wash. The search of a location then started, according to UAE laws car washing centers cannot be located inside the city center, and therefore the only option was in the industrial part of AL Ain. A spot in the industrial area of AL Ain opened up; the space was enough to uphold had five car washing areas and a small parking lot. Jamal then contacted the owner and agreed to rent the place from the beginning of February 2015. Meanwhile, Jamal started the paper work to open up his new car wash center. The founder then lead a family discussion to decide the name of his car wash, many names were suggested but only one was agreed on , Dar Al Zain which means the home of everything good. Dar Al Zain and it was officially running on February 2015. Figure 1 is a current picture of Dar AL Zain Car wash.

[pic 1]

Figure 1: DAR AL ZAIN CAR WASH

The founder

Jamal Al Rashid is 31 years Engineer who was born in Oman. Soon after Jamal was born his parents moved to Al Ain city where most of Jamal’s family lived. Jamal however returned to Oman to study Mechanical Engineering in Prince Sultan University, he graduated at the top of his class on 2007. Being the oldest in the Family, Jamal was eager to start working and pulling his own weight around the house. He wanted to earn enough income to support his family after his dad retired. Right after graduation, Jamal was hired in Etihad Engineering Company in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Jamal was not satisfied, he knew he could do more and he wanted to start investing in his future. He had a goal that by the age of 50 he would be his own boss and he wouldn’t have to work for anyone. He was inspired by his uncle who ran his own business, Jamal’s uncle believed that starting business was a way to do good in the society; he believed that by providing an income to workers would get him closer to god and made him a better Muslim. After the first year of his employment in Etihad Engineering, Jamal started saving money from his salary. As a student Jamal worked with his uncle and independently in contracting, book stores, real-estate to acquire as much experience as he could in managing and running a business.

Jamal is the owner of three existing companies. The first official company owned by Jamal is called Al Ather for Transportation; this company was founded on 2010 in Oman, its main activities is providing transportation inside the country of Oman, he transported  passengers by busses and mini vans and  products by using trucks.  Al Ather is mainly lead by Jamal’s uncle. The second company is called The best for investment and development, this company was founded in 2012 in Al Ain, its main activities is to assist and support investors through the legal procedures of opening a business in UAE. Moreover, this company deals with real-estates. Below ( figure 2) is a presentation of Jamal’s companies.

[pic 2]

Figure 2: Jamal Al Rashidi companies

Operation of dar al zain

Dar Al Zain car wash provides two main services:

• Car washing.(Exterior)
• Car cleaning and vacuuming. (Interior)

The operation of the center is very simple as it relies only on manual car washing. Firstly, the car is driven by the customer towards an empty washing bay. At this point the customer is lead into the waiting area where he can purchase snacks and drinks from a vast variety offered by the center. The cleaners will then proceed inspecting the car for any previous dents, scratches before the car is washed. After inspection, the cleaners will start distribute the water all over the body of the car using a 12 V car wash pump. Soap is then distributed manually on the body of the car using a sponge. Lastly, the car is washed from the soap by water and dried.

The second stage is cleaning and vacuuming. Firstly, the cleaners will vacuum and clean the inside of car thoroughly. In this stage they will remove all floor mats and will start vacuum the floor and between the seats, sweep the seats and windows. At the end they will place a paper cover under the driver seat and spray air freshener inside the car.

COMPANY FINANCIAL

Jamal had multiple businesses and a good job in Etihad that brought him sufficient income to venture into the new car wash business.  The initial setup cost of the shop was around 200,000 AED; the shop was rented not bought with a yearly payment of 90,000 AED. The monthly costs included the monthly salaries and cleaning supplies. There were other accounted costs such as the electrical and water bills. The owner expressed the liquidity of his business and that he could breakeven within the first year and had a substantial profit. Due to the decrease of costs in the second year his profits doubled compared to the first year)  

[pic 3]

Figure 3: Financial Over view of DAR AL ZAIN (Currency in AED)

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

Jamal was the sole owner of all his companies. The companies were all lead by one manager appointed by Jamal, the manager lead day to day activities and was also responsible to hire most of the staff. Jamal only supervised his business, Jamal working schedule in Etihad were 4 working days followed by 4 days off.  This gave Jamal the flexibility to overlook his business from time to time. At the start of 2015, Jamal employed 4 cleaners who were easily found from his connections in Etihad Airways. Jamal was in contact with multiple nationalities, he asked the workers and cleaners around the airport and offices if they could recommend someone, inside or outside UAE who needed a job. Jamal then received multiple CVs from the cleaners that belonged to their family members and relatives who wanted the opportunity to work in UAE. The manager then collected the CV’s to interview the applicants and choose the four that would be hired in the car wash. The following step was applying for their visa application and health insurance. By the mid of January 2015, all of the cleaners arrived in UAE. The manager then hired a supervisor that was in charge of the cleaners. The supervisor was advised then to train the cleaners before the opening of the car wash.  (Should I include what the training was about ??) After 6 months, Jamal saw a frequent increase in customers, the cleaners were no longer managing the rush on the store and the customers were not happy with the longer wait. Therefore, he decided to hire four more cleaners. In 2017, there were a total of eight cleaners and a supervisor in Dar Al Zain Car Wash.