Benny Alford still shows up to work every day.
At 80, the founder of Benny’s Car Wash keeps an open door at the company’s corporate headquarters overlooking Airline Highway, greeting employees, family members and the occasional visitor seeking advice. It’s a small but telling detail in a story that spans more than seven decades of family business and industry innovation.
Business Report’s Hall of Fame. The March edition of the magazine looks back at Alford’s unlikely journey from a third grader working as a cashier at his father’s car wash to the patriarch of a Baton Rouge institution celebrating its 75th year.
The roots of the business trace back to the early 1950s. Alford’s father, Lloyd Alford, opened a car wash in Pensacola, Florida, before moving to Baton Rouge and launching Florida Street Car Wash in 1953. At the time, gravel and dirt roads meant cars were often caked in mud and dust, creating steady demand for the fledgling service…