ZIPS Car Wash hires Scott Brown as divisional VP of operations

ZIPS Car Wash has named Scott Brown its divisional vice president of operations, adding an executive with more than 25 years of retail and hospitality leadership to its management team. The appointment was announced in reporting from Auto Laundry News.

Brown arrives from a career built at large national chains. Most recently he served as regional vice president at Harbor Freight Tools, where the source says he oversaw operations spanning five states and more than 160 stores generating over $800 million in annual revenue. His earlier resume includes stints with 24 Hour Fitness, AMF Bowling, and Circuit City.

What Brown brings to ZIPS

In his new role, Brown will concentrate on strengthening operational performance, improving the customer experience, and supporting continued growth across the ZIPS location network. CEO Pete Nani welcomed the hire, pointing to Brown's background in running large-scale operations and building teams.

The source highlights several markers from Brown's Harbor Freight tenure, including employee engagement scores of 98 percent for four consecutive years and a role in advancing hundreds of leaders through structured development programs. Brown describes himself as a servant leader focused on collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. "When you invest in your people," he said, "success follows." He studied business administration with concentrations in finance and accounting at East Carolina University and completed executive leadership training through Franklin Covey.

Brown has also earned recognitions during his career, including district manager of the year honors, according to the source.

Why it matters for operators

ZIPS continues to pull senior talent from outside the car wash industry, a pattern common among large express chains that lean on retail and hospitality veterans to manage multi-site consistency. Brown's background is in operations at scale: standardizing execution across dozens or hundreds of locations, developing management pipelines, and tying labor engagement to financial results. Those are the same disciplines that separate high-performing wash portfolios from struggling ones.

For independent and regional operators, the hire is a reminder that the competitive gap with national chains is increasingly about people systems, not just equipment or real estate. The metrics ZIPS chose to spotlight, sustained employee engagement and structured leadership development, suggest where large operators are placing their bets. High turnover remains one of the biggest cost and quality drivers in the express wash model, and chains that keep frontline and management talent engaged tend to deliver a more consistent customer experience.

Operators watching ZIPS should note the emphasis on linking customer experience to business performance. That framing, investing in staff to drive throughput and retention, is a practical playbook any size operation can borrow. Building clear career paths for site managers, measuring engagement rather than assuming it, and standardizing daily execution across locations are moves that do not require a national footprint to implement.