Why a busy car wash closed: the rent rise Rinse Bros couldn’t outrun
Demand was steady and the reviews were good. The costs sat outside the owners’ control.
In 30 seconds
- A three-year lease is a three-year bet on your landlord
- Energy you buy at variable rates is a risk you cannot price in
- Know your break-even volume before you sign anything
A business that worked, until it didn’t
Bram and Sem Jansen opened Rinse Bros in Rotterdam in 2020. Walk-in washes and four dealership contracts sent 150–250 cars a month. For three years it worked.
Their verified sales show a business with customers. What changed was not demand.
Two costs they didn’t control
In 2023 the energy bill roughly doubled. Water heaters and dryers ran on grid energy bought at variable rates, and there was no fixed contract to fall back on.
Then the landlord raised the rent 60% at renewal. Break-even jumped from about 1,450 washes a month to 2,300. The site had never done more than 1,700.
“We were good at washing cars. We were not good at reading a lease.”
The warning signs, in order
Looking back, the brothers name three signs they saw and did not act on.
- Money kept from every $100 of sales fell from about $14 to $6 in one year
- They absorbed the rise by working more shifts themselves
- They had no plan for the lease renewal until the letter arrived
What to check before you start one
Before signing a lease, work out your break-even washes at today’s costs and at costs 50% higher. If the second number is above anything a similar site has done, the lease is the risk, not the competition.