January 4, 2010 – Arvada, Colorado – Mark VII Equipment Inc., the US subsidiary of WashTec AG of Germany, the leading supplier of innovative solutions for the carwash business worldwide, experienced a major increase in friction carwash sales in 2009.

“Friction in-bay automatics represented about a third of our rollover sales in recent years,” said Murray Kennedy, CEO of Mark VII. “But in 2009, when we introduced our next generation SoftWash XT® rollover, friction unit sales jumped to 51%.”

“There are four major factors driving this trend,” said Steve Robinson, Director of Marketing and Product Management for Mark VII. “First is the popularity of sleeker 3-brush designs compared to older, industrial-looking 5-brush systems. Second is demand for newer technology that significantly reduces water consumption to as little as 15 gallons to get a car clean. Third is the fact that friction machines require less chemicals, which combined with lower water consumption, reduces operating costs and makes the business greener. And finally convenience store chains, which represent the lion’s share of in-bay automatic carwashes, want to take advantage of friction’s lower operating costs and the excellent cleaning results they provide to their customers.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” continued Kennedy. “Touch-free carwashing isn’t going away, which is why we also launched our next generation AquaJet XT® rollover last year. Both wash formats have their place and we’re happy to see carwash operators more willing to give consumers a choice of the format that best suits their needs.”