There are thousands of car wash outfits in Nigeria but the name CarSpa definitely stands out especially for people living (or that have visited) Lagos. This is because, once you are on the road, chances are that you would have seen one of their well branded vans that offer their mobile detailing services to their numerous clientèle crisscrossing the length and breadth of Lagos.

For those who do not know, "car detailing is the performance of thorough cleaning, restoration and finishing of an automobile both inside and outside, to produce a show-quality level of detail".....Wikipedia. And this is what CarSpa has been doing for 5 years, restoring and maintaining cars to bespoke levels.

It will interest you to know that the powerhouse behind this blossoming brand is an equally bespoke looking lady; CarSpa or Madam CarSpa as she is fondly called.
CarSpa. MD/CEO CarSpa Ltd.

Yes, a lady owning and running a car wash all by herself in this our clime is no child's play.

We succeeded in tracking the ever busy lady down for an interview in the middle of an impressive boat detailing job which finally came to be on a perfect day March 8th, globally celebrated as the International Women's Day, a day set aside for commemorating the movement for women's rights.

Please read the scintillating interview below:

Naija Car Lovers (NCL).
CarSpa......

NCL: Great scene for an interview! Surrounded by boats and water.

We've finally made the time for this! Ok well I've taken you off duty so let's get started.

What motivated you to come back from the UK to set up this business here in Nigeria?


CarSpa: I had always wanted to do a car related business because I grew up as a tomboy. I used to race cars with my Indian and White guy friends. We would go to shopping centre car parks in the night and have loads of fun racing each other or just showing off cars.

I used to have a black Mazda MX-3 sports coupe my first Japanese import, I love that car. To this day I still love that car. I had to pay ridiculously high insurance on it as it was a Jap Imp (Japanese Import) and I was under 21 but I was so happy to finally have it after months of scouring for the best one on the car sites.


NCL: Was it manual or automatic transmission?


CarSpa: It was 4-speed auto 1.8L V6 engine.


NCL: Naa, proper racers drive manual transmission cars.


CarSpa: Yeah I know but I didn't get it as a racer, it was my personal car. I just used to take it there and show, we would all use different cars to race. Then my mechanic at that time, shout out to Jose, he would bring his Subaru. So you know how that ended! They form part of the police fleet and are used for high speed chases.

My younger brother started off with a Corrado and later got a Supra and that was whoa! That was everything!

If you saw my car magazines, it was a huge pile. You will come to the house and assume they were my brothers' but they were mine and that was a funny misconception.

Same way I'm a huge 'Gunner' (Arsenal football club fan) since I was about 8 when we both went to our first live game at the old Highbury stadium I think the energy and buzz stuck with me even though I don't remember the game. My brother isn't into football he practices mixed martial arts though and is on his brown belt - amazing!
Didi da Gunner.
Luckily we were free, no one ever told me, I couldn't do anything because I was a girl or vice versa. And I loved that, I didn't even know then I was a tomboy, I didn't even think that too, no labels, I just happened to like these things. I still had piano lessons every Saturday morning until I was 16 (got to grade 5 then stopped) and did girly things like shopping with friends but I've never liked going to the hairdressers and I still don't.

The car biz was always at the back of my mind but then I didn't take it seriously, you carry on with life, you go to school, go to Uni, you go to work, just carry on with life and slowly but surely you phase out lots of things you enjoy doing because of time, little things that formed you stop.

You just stop going to the car-meets people move on, you stop buying the magazines and they are relegated to colourful clutter.

You just fall out of things because the mundane routine of life takes over.

So I would visit Nigeria as a teenager growing up, I would always look at these beautiful cars, and think I would love to do a business that has to do with cars but I couldn't think of what. I didn't want to go back to school to learn stuff that had to do with repairs, I didn't want the risk of messing up peoples cars, I was just too scared so I thought the simplest thing I could do was just to maintain the cars instead. Why can't I just wash them and wax them?
Your high-end cars are in safe hands with CarSpa.
When I was in Uni, I invested in a small hand car wash so I have lots of knowledge and experience in this regard. And that was just at the beginning around early 2000/2001 when we had the rise of the Eastern Europeans taking over the big car wash businesses in UK. To this day, one of my suppliers is someone I have known for so many years, an Albanian guy.

On my visits what would shock me was seeing the scratches, and the swirl marks, on these luxury cars, my OCD nature would want to restore them. So always I thought maybe one day that’s what I would do if I ever came to live here. I never thought of coming here to work in a formal job setting, the idea of working in a bank still does make me nauseous. Why come to such a different place and be stuck in an office? I loved my job in London nothing would have come close to that so best to trade it in for an adventure, an experience.

But...
continue reading below...

http://www.naijacarlovers.com/2017/03/exclusive-meet-nigerias-first-and-best_20.html#more

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