CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Driven Brands, the parent company to six franchised automotive brands including Meineke Car Care Center and Maaco, has introduced a new franchise model. The hub and spoke model allows franchise owners to service a smaller market of about 200,000 registered vehicles with four Meineke and one-to-two Maaco locations. Maaco, one of the nation’s leading paint and collision service providers, will serve as the hub supported by surrounding Meineke centers, which provides full-service automotive maintenance and repair, specializing in brakes, maintenance services and general repair. The initial investment for this model will be about $1.2 million, according to Driven Brands.
“The hub and spoke model allows owners to dominate a market in both automotive service categories,” said Dave Schaefers, senior vice president of franchise development. “This is a great new model for franchisees with the financial and operational ability and who really want to control their market from single car owners to large fleet and trade accounts. The hub and spoke model is also a great way for car dealers to expand their business to capitalize on the trend of people keeping their cars longer instead of buying new.”
Meineke and Maaco are two of six franchised automotive brands owned by Driven Brands. Other Driven Brands companies include Econo Lube N’ Tune (automotive repair/quick-lube services), Aero Colours (automotive paint repair), AutoQual (vehicle reconditioning, protection and appearance maintenance services) and Drive N Style (aftermarket installation services), as well as Tortal.net, a training company that specializes in developing interactive online training solutions.
Growth projections for Meineke call for about 70 to 80 new franchises to be added in each of the next three years, with a total of approximately 180 to 200 franchises added by the end of 2014. Maaco plans to continue to expand its presence in markets across the U.S., and growth projections call for approximately 165 additional new centers to be opened by 2014. Markets targeted for expansion include Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Rochester, N.Y.
