Driven Brands Files $100 Million IPO

Dec. 30, 2020

Driven Brands Holdings Inc. last week filed forms with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission for a $100 million initial public offering.

A spokesperson for the company, under which a number of automotive industry brands (including Meineke, Merlin 200,000 Miles, Take 5 Oil Change, Carstar and Maaco) operate, confirmed the filing though declined to comment further noting that the IPO is not guaranteed to go through.

Per the S-1 filing, Driven Brands sees opportunity in what it calls "the large, recession-resistant and highly fragmented automotive industry with long-term growth trends." The company operates more than 4,100 locations in 49 states and in 14 countries. More than 2,500 of those locations are franchises.

Driven Brands' network in 2019 brought in $600 million in revenue from about $3 billion in system-wide sales, per the filing.

The network “serviced 50 million vehicles across a diverse mix of customers, with approximately 50% of our system-wide sales coming from retail customers and approximately 50% coming from commercial customers such as fleet operators and insurance carriers,” reported the company in the filing. “Our success is driven in large part by our mutually beneficial relationships with more than 2,500 individual franchisees and independent operators.” 

The company added, “Our U.S. industry is underpinned by a large, growing car parc of more than 275 million vehicles, and is expected to continue its long-term growth trajectory given consumers more frequently outsourcing automotive services due to vehicle complexity; increases in average repair costs, average age of the car on the road getting older, and long-term increases in annual miles traveled.”