ScrubaDub reaches 60 years with retention and training as its scorecard

ScrubaDub, the Natick, Massachusetts, family-owned car wash chain, is marking its 60th anniversary this year by pointing to its workforce as the reason it has lasted. The third-generation company has drawn recognition on both national and regional levels, including USA TODAY's Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2026 and The Boston Globe's Top Places to Work in 2025 among medium-size employers.

According to reporting from Professional Carwashing & Detailing, the company frames employee retention and length of service as two of its most important measures of success, and leadership ties those numbers directly to a culture built around a set of core values.

Retention numbers and core values

ScrubaDub reports a 71.7% employee retention rate, which the company says far exceeds the industry average, and more than two-thirds of its management team has more than 10 years of service. Co-owner and director of people and culture Alex Paisner said the guiding principle is to treat the team like family so employees will treat customers the same way. Paisner called the awards "incredibly humbling" and said they confirm that the family-first approach encourages long-term careers.

Founded in 1966, ScrubaDub has grown into one of New England's larger car wash companies while keeping the structure of a family business. The company highlights stories of multigenerational families working together and long tenures as evidence that its investment in people pays off.

Pay, benefits and a training push

Beyond competitive pay and performance-based bonuses, ScrubaDub offers a 401(k) with company match and TrustPlus financial coaching aimed at helping employees buy a first home, start a family or pay down debt. Its scholarship program has awarded more than $135,000 to employees and their children since 2019.

The company has also formalized its training effort by hiring Wentworth University professor Dr. Sabrina Jacques as director of training, learning and development. Under her direction, ScrubaDub has invested more than $500,000 in employee training over the past two years, with roughly $250,000 of that coming from grants across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. The programs extend beyond standard car wash instruction to include English language training for non-English-speaking staff, along with Six Sigma and leadership development for managers, maintenance workers and customer service advisers. Jacques described ScrubaDub as "truly a learning organization."

The company said it has held to its people-first philosophy even as private equity investment, automation and shifting workplace expectations reshape the industry, and it continues to emphasize person-to-person customer relationships.

Why it matters for operators

Labor churn is one of the biggest recurring costs in the wash business, and ScrubaDub's numbers offer a concrete counterpoint to the assumption that car wash jobs are inherently high-turnover. A retention rate above 70% and a management bench with a decade or more of tenure reduce hiring and retraining expense and preserve institutional knowledge, both of which translate directly to consistent service quality.

The grant-funded training model is worth noting: ScrubaDub secured roughly half its training budget through state workforce grants across four states. Operators may be able to tap similar programs to offset development costs. The broader lesson is that benefits like financial coaching, scholarships and language training can serve as retention tools that competitors relying on wage alone may struggle to match. As automation and consolidation continue, a stable, well-trained team can be a differentiator that private-equity-backed express formats cannot easily replicate.