A Spirited 2008 NECA Table Top Show

After a good run of sunny, dry weather, rain did not deter the many participants in NECA’s annual Car Wash Tour and Table Top Show. Headquarters for this year’s tour and show was the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort in Danvers. While our luxury motor coach transported a large and spirited group, the exhibitors, NECA staff and volunteers were back at the Ferncroft setting up the exhibits.

This year’s tour included four very different operations with one similarity: all featured detailing operations of some sort. Turnpike Car Wash owned by Bob Katseff was the first stop. His combination tunnel and self serve operation also offers express detailing and propane refills. Next, we visited The Barn Car Wash in Saugus, owned by Joe Coppola. The Barn is a large facility that in addition to car washing and detailing, washes moderately large trucks. The third stop was Germano’s Gateway Car Wash in Tewksbury. This newer wash offers exterior washes and detailing. The final stop was Mister Sudzy in North Andover. Tour goers were greeted by owner Ken Brunini and manager Chuck Lundberg who discussed their combination self serve, exterior, in-bay automatic and detailing services.

Beginning a 5:00 p.m., when the tour returned to the hotel, until 8:30 p.m., a wide variety of products and services were displayed by 40 companies. There was an excellent mix of new exhibitors and old favorites, and lots of wonderful prizes raffled by the exhibitors. Dinner was a generous and delicious all-you-can Italian buffet.

There was keen competition for the grand prizes offered by NECA. The scavenger hunt required participants to find items located on at least 15 exhibits to be entered in the drawing to win “A Night on the Town” – accommodations, parking, full breakfast for two at the Millenium Hotel in Boston and a $100 gift certificate for the Capital Grille. The winner was Mark King, senior manager for Super Shine Auto Wash headquartered in Braintree, MA.

Exhibitors vied for a $100 gift certificate for a Lake Winnipausakee cruise of their choice. The lucky winner was Glen Mangan of Progressive Energy, a new exhibitor.

NECA truly appreciates the sponsorship support of Simoniz USA (our tour sponsor), Innovative Control Systems (our major sponsor), Mang Insurance and East Corp Electrical Services. And, we send special thanks to our wonderful exhibitors.
 

AFLAC
Amerigas Propane
Arlen Company
Autowash Maintenance Corp.
Autowash Supply Co., Inc.
Blendco Systems, LLC
C.A.R. Products
Car Wash Services & Equipment LLC
Car Wash Solutions, Inc.
Car Washing Systems, Inc.
Cardtronics, ATM
Christ Water Technology Americas
Cleaning Systems Inc./CSI Lustra
Clearlight Car Wash Systems
DRB Systems, Inc.
Excel Tire Gauge
ERC Wiping Products, Inc.
ESP Solutions
Hartnett Enterprises
Huron Valley Sales, Inc./Propak
Innovative Control Systems
Mac Gray Intelligent Laundry Systems
Maintenance Tech.
Mang Insurance
Mark VII Equipment Inc.
Michael Geller Dirstributors
Micrologic Associates, Inc.
National Pride Equipment
National Ticket Company
Nonstop, Inc.
Popular Small Business Capital
Progressive Energy, Inc.
R.R. Lalena Corporation
RYKO
Simoniz USA
Superior Auto Extras
Trans-Mate Products, Inc.
Unitec Electronics
Zep Manufacturing
Zwash Systems