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Tony (left), Jason and Bruce on the "Job."

was in the 1950s. The Pop is Jack Milen. Some
of his employees even call him "Papa Jack." Al-
though founder Jack Milen, 78, is retired and
spends the winter in Florida, he is there for his
sons, Bruce, 45, and Tony, 36, who now run the
business. Bruce's son, Jason, 23, is assistant man-
ager at the Southfield location.
"Our father has always let us come in with new
ideas. We still don't make any major decision
without discussing it with him," Bruce says. Bruce
adds that this is a family business, where the fam-
ily members get along and respect each other. He
over at Tony, vice president of the compa-
ny, and jokes, "He just knows I'm the older broth-
er."
Jax is the largest car wash chain in Michigan.
The 10 locations, with 500 employees, span the
metropolitan area from Farmington to Rochester,
Birmingham to Oak Park, Royal Oak to West
Bloomfield and Detroit. It is one of the largest
privately held car wash chains nationally. Ac-
cording to Ward's 1992 Business Directory of U.S.
Private and Public Companies, Jax Kar Wash's
operating revenue is $33 million. Jax washes more
than 1 million cars annually and sometime in
1993 will wash its 40-millionth car.
Gus Trantham, executive director of the Inter-
national Car Wash Association, says Jack and

Bruce are the only father-and-son combination to
become president of the association. Jack was
president in 1958 and 1959, while Bruce was pres-
ident 7_983. "Jack Milen is one of the origina-
tors of the business and a stalwart of the the
association early on," Mr. Trantham says.
40 years in the business have many
memor,Ae moments like — the time a lady
brought in the first wide-track Pontiac. "I told
her I wished the car companies would let me know
when they made these changes. So, she called her
husband," Jack recalls. Her husband was Pete
Estes, then general manager of Pontiac, who be-
came president of General Motors. The incident
started a dialogue between the car wash business
and the auto industry that remains today.
Jack Milen could have easily sold the company
for a profit. He called a family meeting. His sons
said they wanted to work in and expand the fam-
ily business. So, he kept Jax Kar Wash a family
business, now in its fourth decade with three gen-
erations of the Milens.
He involved his sons in the business at an ear-
ly age. There's a photo in his office of Tony, then
2, cleaning a car. Both sons recall working on the
line, pumping gas and wiping down cars. Jack
Milen nostalgically points out a photo of all his
sons, including his late son, Michael.

"I taught my boys and my help the same phi-
losophy," says Jack. "Always treat the customers
properly. Greet the customers and say goodbye
to them," he adds.
Bruce expands on the customer-service mot-
to. "You can spend thousands and thousands of
dollars on advertising, but if you don't do what's
right when they come in, they won't come back."
Bruce adds that the bible for employees and man-
agers is How to Win Customers and Keep Them
For Life by Michael LeBoeuf.
Jack is proud of his sons' accomplishments in
the business, learning and incorporating the lat-
est technology. "They are professionals," he says
and mentions that Bruce is teaching a marketing
class at Walsh College.

Jack Milen opened his first car wash in 1950
on Alfred and Woodward in Detroit next to the
Detroiter Hotel. He was looking for a career move,
since peddling pots and pans wasn't rewarding.
He and his partner, the late Dave (John) Jassey,
opened a car wash. "We were open 24 hours a day.
We needed lots of manpower then," Jack recalls.
They were banking on volume with the active De-
troit night life and factories with round the clock
shifts. The car wash price was $1.
"We ran into tough times. We were under-cap-