June 21, 2018—Earlier this month, Take 5 Oil Change announced extended plans to expand its franchising efforts throughout the southeastern United States. Currently, Take 5 has just five franchised stores within its 300 total stores, but over next four years the brand hopes to have about 200 open franchise stores.
Ratchet+Wrench spoke with Take 5’s vice president of franchising, Ted Rippey, to get more information on these expansion efforts and where he envisions the brand going forward.
As Rippey puts it, these expansion efforts are an effort from Driven Brands to increase its vertical reach in the automotive industry. Meineke, CARSTAR and Maaco cover the maintenance and collision vertical, while 1-800-Radiator delivers parts to the these brands. Then Take 5 covers the quick lube market and smaller jobs such as air filters and wiper blades.
Rippey says Take 5 already has commitments for about 55-60 stores throughout North and South Carolina, but everything throughout the rest of the Southeast is open. Dallas, Houston, all of Louisiana, Tampa and St. Petersburg will be developed corporately, with 30-40 stores opened a year in those locations.
Over the next four years, Rippey is looking for multi-unit developers to bring the brand to around 200 franchised stores, with a pipeline of 300-400 committed units.
Rippey believes the total capacity for Take 5 stores throughout the U.S., both franchised and corporate, is around 2,000-3,000 locations. Just in the Southeast, from Texas to Virginia, Rippey foresees the total capacity to be around 1,500 total locations.
However, there needs to be space to build these units, Rippey says, and this rapid and extended expansion effort requires a sharp focus on real estate. He says that about one third of Take 5’s total locations were converted from preexisting businesses, like other quick lube shops, but most of these businesses are built from the ground up once an ideal location is found.
“If they’re on a hard corner, have the right demographics and there happens to be a quick lube store there, then we’ll do everything we can to acquire and convert it,” Rippey says. “But we usually acquire land or sign long term leases, then construct from the ground up.”
