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Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Driven Brand's fourth quarter and full-year 2024 financial results.
First, I want to acknowledge the hard work and great execution by the more than 10,000 Driven Brands' team members and our amazing franchisees for how they continue to navigate an extremely dynamic macroeconomic environment. Secondly, I'm proud of our collective efforts for 2024. This was not an easy macro environment, and we delivered very solid results.
Now our focus for 2025 is on three key priorities. Number one, delivering our 2025 outlook. Number two, utilizing excess free cash flow to reduce debt. And number three, active portfolio management. I will begin with a review of our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 highlights, corporate initiatives, and then turn it over to Danny, who will discuss some of our operating segments, and then Mike, who will detail our fourth quarter financial results and full year outlook for 2025.
For Q4 2024, we delivered revenue of $564 million up 2% versus the prior year, supported by 70 net new stores and 2.9% same store sales growth. Our 16th consecutive quarter of positive same store sales growth, an adjusted EBITDA of $130.7 million, generating diluted adjusted EPS of $0.30.
For fiscal year 2024, we delivered revenue of $2.3 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $553 million up 2% and 7% respectively versus the prior year. These results were driven by 191 net new stores and 1.3% same store sales growth generating diluted adjusted EPS of $1.14.
We continue to be pleased by the performance of our Take 5 oil change and franchise businesses, all being key contributors to a very solid 2024. As discussed on prior earnings calls, we anticipate that the ongoing inflationary environment will likely continue to pressure consumer spending for 2025, with lower income households being the most impacted.
Now we expect this pressure to be somewhat mitigated by the strength in our commercial and needs-based businesses, leading us to remain confident in our ability to navigate this dynamic environment. Mike will provide more details on our 2025 outlook shortly.
Now I'd like to spend a few minutes on some key corporate initiatives. Following a very robust sale process, we have entered into a definitive agreement to sell our US car wash business. This will likely be a Q2 closing, and Mike will give more details on the impact of this announcement.
To better reflect how we view the business, we will adopt a more simplified segment structure for reporting starting in Q1 of 2025. Firstly, our flagship growth driver, Take 5 oil change will now be a standalone segment. This change should enable investors and analysts to more easily understand the performance of Take 5 oil change and the KPIs underpinning this double-digit growth business.
Secondly, we are consolidating our stable, predictable, high margin, cash-generating franchise businesses into one segment. This includes our portfolio of needs-based franchise brands such as Meineke, Maaco, CARSTAR, 1-800, all scaled players in their respective categories. This is the core of Driven's business model, growth from Take 5 and cash from our franchise segment. We will continue to report International car wash as a standalone segment.
Finally, we are moving our early-stage glass businesses which operate in the retail, commercial, and insurance spaces under the auto glass now banner into our corporate and other segment. We will continue to manage these smaller lines of business until they reach the scale to become a standalone segment.
While we remain very confident in the long-term opportunity for this business, we recognize it will take time to deliver growth. Now the team is continuing to make good progress on divesting our US car wash pipeline properties. As a reminder, through Q3 2024, we had sold approximately $160 million of assets. We sold an additional $48 million in Q4, which puts the fiscal year 2024 total at approximately $208 million. We are now more than 75% through this process and are confident we will complete this initiative in 2025.
As I have previously mentioned, reducing our overall leverage remains one of our primary objectives. Our goal was to finish the year at 4.5 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA or below, which we achieved in Q3 and further improved to 4.4 times in Q4.
For the full year 2024, Mike and his team successfully paid down approximately $248 million of debt. Mike will walk you through the details, and our focus now shifts to achieving our target of less than 3 times leverage by year end 2026 or sooner.
Now let me spend a few minutes on some key drivers of our results. Let's start with our biggest and fastest growing business, Take 5 oil change, the largest piece of our current maintenance segment. Q4 2024 marks the 18th consecutive quarter of positive same store sales growth for Take 5 oil change, and I'm very pleased with the 9.2% same store sales growth in Q4, which resulted in 6.8% same store sales growth for fiscal year 2024.
In Q4 we opened 61 new stores, resulting in 174 net new stores for fiscal year 2024. Finally, compared to fiscal year 2023, revenue grew by 16% and EBITDA grew by 21%. As a reminder, Driven acquired Toil change in 2016 with less than 60 company-owned locations and less than $10 million of EBITDA. At the end of 2024, we had 1,181 locations, 40% of which were franchised, approximately $1.4 billion in system sales, and approximately $355 million in adjusted EBITDA, all of this in less than 10 years.
Take 5 oil change is our number one priority, and we are hyper focused on continuing to drive unit growth, franchise mix, same store sales, revenue and profits over the next five years. Over a two year period, our franchise store count has almost doubled. And we anticipate franchisees to account for approximately 50% of total Take 5 locations over time. Our unit economics continue to attract new franchisees and drive our existing franchisees to sign incremental development agreements.
Today, we have a very robust pipeline of approximately 1,000 sites in place, one that we built organically over the past five years and will continue to build. We have direct real estate visibility into more than one third of this pipeline, which provides us with clear line of sight into the next five years of unit growth and achieving our target of at least 2000 locations.
Take 5 oil change performance and growth rates over the past three years are as good or better than any national scaled oil change business. We will continue to prioritize growth for this brand as its competitive positioning and long runway for growth will help drive significant value for driven long term. And over time, we remain optimistic that analysts and investors will come to appreciate the massive value that Take 5 oil change has and will continue to deliver.
Our franchise businesses, which today are spread across our maintenance PC&G and platform services segments represent approximately two third of driven system sales, with more than 50% of those systems sales coming from longstanding sticky predictable commercial partners.
Our scales franchise businesses are the largest in the industry, and asset light, providing driven with consistent predictable growth, compelling asset-like margins, and steady cash flow that allow us to fund growth and investment in our industry leading Take 5 oil change brand. This is the compelling one-two punch of growth in cash flow. In addition to this one-two punch, we have other levers that we expect to drive growth over time for Driven, such as AutoGlass now and our e-commerce marketplace driven advantage.
Our focus in 2025 is clear, delivering on our outlook, reducing debt, and active portfolio management. We have a platform that generates high steady state returns with a long runway for reinvestment and attractive returns, and we're incredibly motivated to see our valuation mirror our results over time.
Before I hand it over to Danny, I wanted to let people know that after 13 years, I will be stepping down as CEO after our Q1 earnings call in May 2025. At that time, Danny will be taking over as CEO and will be joining the board as part of a very robust multi-year succession planning process. Danny has been my partner for 13 years and I know he'll be a great CEO. I'd also like to acknowledge our terrific CFO, Mike Diamond, who has made such a measurable impact in the time he's been with Driven.
Finally, I'm excited to be staying on the board as chair and look forward to continuing to support Danny in his well-deserved new role and the future growth of Driven. Now let me hand it over to my partner Danny, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our key business segments.

Daniel Rivera

Thank you, Jonathan. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge Jonathan for his incredible leadership over the past 13 years. During his tenure, Driven has grown from just under $40 million in adjusted EBITDA to approximately $550 million, a testament to his vision and execution. I'm honored to step into this role and build on the strong foundation he has created. And I want to personally thank him for his support and mentorship, and I look forward to continuing to partner with him on the board.
Driven Brands delivered a strong fourth quarter with financial results in line with our expectations for both the quarter and the full year. I'd like to extend the sincere thank you to all of our Driven Brands employees and franchisees who work tirelessly to keep our customers on the road.
Our maintenance segment continued to demonstrate consistent growth, delivering year-over-year increases in system-wide sales, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter. Take 5 oil change, home of the stay-in-your-car 10-minute oil change, once again led the segment. Q4 marks the 18th consecutive quarter of positive same store sales growth for Take 5, supported by increases in system-wide sales, revenue, EBITDA, and EBITDA margins both year by year and sequentially. Same source sales for the quarter were particularly strong at 9.2% and 16.1% on a two-year stack.
Our strong performance was primarily driven by ticket growth. Non-oil change services continue to be the largest driver of ticket growth with premiumization, customers opting for higher quality oils, serving as a secondary contributor. Non-oil change revenue consists of the sale of engine air filters, cabin air filters, wipers, coolant exchanges, and fuel cleaner, which represented just under 20% of Take 5 's total system-wide sales.
We expect continued growth of non-oil change revenue as we continue to improve both the attachment rate on existing services and as we broaden our overall portfolio of services. Today, premium oils, which we define as semi-synthetic and full synthetic oils, account for approximately 90% of our oil changes. However, advanced full synthetic, our most premium oil, accounts for approximately 35%. We see continued runaway to expand advanced full synthetic adoption, which remains a long-term tailwind.
Take 5 also benefited from a sequential acceleration in transactions driven by our strategic marketing initiatives. Our combination of broad reach brand campaigns and cost-efficient data driven local campaigns continues to deliver strong customer acquisition and retention. With an industry leading net promoter score in the upper 70s, thanks to our fast, friendly and simple business model, Take 5 maintains high levels of customer loyalty and repeat business.
Our focus on new unit growth, driving transactions, enhancing ticket by focusing on non-oil change revenue and the organic tailwinds with premium oil, and optimizing our cost structure resulted in adjusted EBITDA growth of 21% year over year and EBITDA margins of 33.3%, a 144-basis point improvement year over year.
Take 5 experienced strong momentum in Q4, reinforcing its solid positioning in the market. While we expect its growth to remain healthy, we would anticipate a more normalized level of same store sales growth in 2025, setting a solid foundation for sustained long-term success. Take 5 's success is driven by its people, our techs, shop managers, field leaders, and franchisees who deliver exceptional service every day.
Investing in our front lines remains a priority. And in January, we hosted our seventh annual Take 5 rally in Orlando, bringing together over 90% of our franchisees, along with all corporate shop managers and field leaders. This event was both a celebration of our shared success and a moment to align our priorities for 2025. The energy and enthusiasm reinforce our culture and commitment to service, positioning Take 5 for even greater success in the year ahead.
Our paint, collision, and glass segment delivered revenue of $97.3 million, adjusted EBITDA of $33 million, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 33.9% in Q4. Despite a 7% decline in industry-wide collision repair estimates, according to industry sources, our collision business continued to gain market share, as evidenced by the segment same store sales increasing 1% for the quarter. This success is largely due to our expanding direct repair program partnerships across more than 1900 locations in the US and Canada.
Our company owns US glass businesses under the Auto Glass Now banner made continued progress in their multi-year strategy. In Q4, we delivered sequential growth in same store sales as we remained focused on expanding our relationships with regional insurance carriers and major commercial partners, both of which experienced growth during the quarter. We remain optimistic with the momentum in this emerging business.
Our platform services segment primarily comprised of 1-800 radiator, delivered revenue of $40.2 million, adjusted EBITDA of $16.3 million and adjusted EBITDA margins of 40.4% in Q4. In the fourth quarter, the car wash segment reported revenue of $143.4 million, adjusted EBITDA of $28.7 million, and same for sales growth of 7.9%. As Jonathan mentions, we have decided to sell the US car wash business.
I'd like to thank Tim Austin and the entire US Car Wash team for the incredible work they've done in the last year to stabilize the business. I'd also like to thank Tracy Gellen and her team for another great quarter and for providing such a solid foundation to the car wash segment. As a result of their combined efforts, the segment delivered sequential improvements in same store sales, system-wide sales, revenue, EBITDA, and EBITDA margins.
Looking at 2024 as a whole, I am very proud of the Driven Brands' team, both corporate employees and franchisees who helped deliver another strong year. Take 5 oil change continues its rapid expansion, opening 174 new locations to surpass 1,100 total stores, all while achieving its 18th consecutive quarter of same store sales growth and surpassing $1 billion in revenue and $350 million in EBITDA.
Our franchise businesses delivered another year of strong profitability with EBITDA margins exceeding 50%, continuing to generate substantial cash flow for the company. Our international car wash business delivered another strong and predictable year of performance, while our US car wash business stabilized and grew to over 1 million members.
Our glass businesses under the Auto Glass Now banner successfully transitioned from an acquisition and integration phase to a growth-focused strategy, resulting in year over year improvements in EBITDA and EBITDA margins, all while securing partnerships with most major national rental car companies and landing its first regional insurance carrier third party administrator deal under the Driven Brands' umbrella. We remain confident in our long term strategy and are well positioned for continued profitable growth in 2025.
With that, I'll turn it over to my partner and Driven's CFO, Mike.

Michael Diamond

Thank you, Danny, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by thanking Jonathan for everything he has done for Driven Brands over his 13 years at the company. While he and I have only been working together for a short period of time, I have enjoyed tremendously working with him, and I'm looking forward to maintaining an active dialogue in his new role as Chairman of our Board.
I also want to congratulate Danny on becoming CEO. I made sure to spend ample time with Danny as I was interviewing for the Driven CFO opportunity, aware of the succession plan to appoint him CEO if and when Jonathan ever decided to step down. I am excited to work with Danny on helping further Driven's growth, and I've appreciated his leadership and partnership during my first seven months here at Driven.
Turning now to our Q4 results. Driven recorded its 16th consecutive quarter of same store sales growth, increasing 2.9% in Q4, our strongest quarter of 2024. Overall, Driven added 70 net additional units this quarter, of which 51 were asset light franchise locations.
Take 5 oil change led the way with 61 units in Q4. System-wide sales for the company grew 5.5% in Q4 to $1.6 billion. Total revenue for Q4 was $564.1 million an increase of 1.9% year over year. Q4 operating expenses increased $374.7 million year over year. Key drivers of this increase include a $317.9 million increase in asset impairments, primarily related to the US car wash segment tied to the completion of our strategic review.
A $21.7 million dollar year-over-year rise in company and independently operated store expenses, driven by increased marginal variable expenses from higher sales volumes and our Take 5 oil change and international car wash businesses. An increase in SG&A of $43.4 million driven by higher performance-based compensation and losses from the disposal of assets tied to the strategic review of our US car wash segment.
Operating income declined $364.3 million to negative $318.8 million for Q4. Adjusted EBITDA increased 4.6% to $130.7 million for the quarter. As a reminder, Q4 2024 growth came without the benefit of PH Vitres, which we divested in August, but the results of which are still included in our 2023 results. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Q4 was 23.2%, an increase of roughly 60 basis points versus Q4 last year.
Interest expense for Q4 was $37.7 million, $6.2 million dollars lower than Q4 last year driven primarily by ongoing debt paydown. Income tax benefit for the quarter was $59 million. Net loss for the quarter was negative $312 million. Adjusted debt income for the quarter was $48.4 million. Adjusted diluted EPS for Q4 was $0.30, driven by strong operating performance and continued debt paydown.
Turning to liquidity, leverage, and cash flow for Q4. Net capital expenditures for the quarter were $35.8 million consisting of $69.2 million in gross CapEx, offset by $33.4 million in sale leaseback proceeds. Q4 was another strong quarter in our divestiture of assets held for sale. In the quarter, we generated an additional $48 million of cash from divested sites. For the full year, proceeds from assets held for sale were $208 million. We have now sold through more than three quarters of our assets held for sale. So we do expect a modest amount of proceeds in 2025 as we complete our divestitures.
We utilize this cash to continue executing our strategy of systematic deleveraging. We ended Q4 with net leverage of 4.4 times net debt to adjust the [EBITDA], reflecting a debt paydown of $76 million in the quarter. As of today, we have paid down an additional $35 million against the revolver in Q1.
Turning to our full year results. Full year 2024 was a successful year of growth for Driven despite the challenging macroeconomic environment. Financial highlights include system sales growth of 3.6% to $6.5 billion reflecting same store sales growth of 1.3% and net unit growth of 191 units or 3.8%. Revenue grew 1.5%, reflecting system sales growth offset by four fewer months of PH Vitres in 2024 and the refranchising of a small number of stores in our PC&G segment.
Of the 191 net new units, Take 5 oil change added 174 units in 2024, of which 108 were franchise units and 66 were company operated stores. Operating expenses declined 17% to $2.5 billion driven by lower impairments in 2024 versus 2023, offset in part by higher SG&A, driven by share-based compensation, higher performance-based compensation, and losses from the disposal of fixed assets tied to the strategic review of our US car wash business.
Operating income was negative $140.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 6.9% to $552.7 million. Interest expense was $157 million, a decline of $7.2 million driven by continued debt pay down. Net loss was negative $292.5 million. Adjusted net income was $186.3 million. Income tax benefit of $25.1 million. Diluted EPS of negative $1.82. Adjusted diluted EPS of $1.14. For the full year, net capital expenditures were $237.1 million. For the full year, we paid down $248.6 million of debt.
I'd now like to provide our outlook for the 2025 fiscal year. As Jonathan mentioned, we continue to see pressure on consumer spending, especially among our lower income consumers. That said, as we enter 2025, we anticipate another year of growth across the driven portfolio as we leverage our market leadership position and disciplined cost management.
With the announcement of the sale of our US car wash business, that business will be treated as discontinued operations for 2025 until the transaction closes. As such, this guidance reflects a full year excluding our US car wash business, but assuming no other changes to our portfolio.
Revenue between $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion. Adjusted EBITDA between $520 million to $550 million. Adjusted diluted EPS of $1.15 to $1.25 per share. Same store sales of 1% to 3%.
We recognize there continues to be a lot of uncertainty related to the macro environment, including ongoing inflationary pressures on consumer spending and the potential impact of tariffs. While we believe the non-discretionary nature of our business model and the flexibility of our supply chain provide us with a solid foundation, we want to take a prudent approach to our outlook.
Our quarterly distribution of both revenue and adjusted EBITDA will change modestly in 2025 due to the divestiture of PH Vitres in the third quarter of 2024 and the sale of our US car wash business. We expect the first quarter to account for slightly more than 20% of our 2025 full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA and the second half of 2025 to contribute a percentage in the low 50s for our full year revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
In addition, we wanted to provide additional color on other important operating metrics for FY 2025. Net store growth between 175 and 200 units. Net capital expenditures between 6.5% and 7.5% of revenue. The largest driver of net capital expenditures is our Take 5 oil change business, where we will continue to invest in high return company operated locations and targeted markets.
Interest expense of $125 million to $130 million, reflecting both lower interest expense from debt paydown tied to the sale of our US car wash business and the interest income received from that transaction [settlement], an effective annual tax rate of 26% to 27%.
We maintain our commitment to achieve our net leverage target of 3 times by the end of 2026. Free cash flow in 2025, which will be positive given EBITDA generation and our lower CapEx and interest expense will primarily be used to pay down outstanding debt on both the revolver and term loan.
As Jonathan mentioned, we will change our operating segments in 2025 to better highlight the growth drivers of this business. Moving forward, our segments will be as followed. Take 5, comprising both our company operated and franchise Take 5 oil change stores, we view this business as the growth engine of driven, supported with the majority of our capital expenditures going forward.
Franchise brands comprising the wide portfolio of automotive brands including Meineke, Maaco, CARSSTAR, 1-800 Radiator, and others. This segment is over 99% franchised. This stable business will provide strong free cash flow with de minimis CapEx needs.
Car Wash International. Our remaining car wash business is based outside of North America. This business features an independent operator model that has many of the same benefits as a franchise model and is stable with modest amounts of maintenance level cap backs.
Corporate and other. Our glass businesses, including the retail and commercial components of this business, as well as the insurance business under the AGN banner, and our corporate GNA, including functions such as IT, finance, legal, and HR, are housed in our corporate and other segment. We believe that glass is a long-term growth driver for driven. And given its current size and profile, we will let these businesses incubate within the broader corporate and other segments.
We will begin reporting these new segments as part of our Q1 2025 quarterly reports. To aid in modeling, we plan to circulate quarterly unaudited pro forma results for FY 2024 in the new go-forward segments. This disclosure will be posted on our investor relations page in mid-March before we complete Q1. As we enter 2025, we are well positioned within the broader automotive services industry and confident in our ability to drive growth.
With that, I will now turn it over to the operator, and we are happy to take your questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

Pedro Gil

Good morning. This is Pedro Gil filling in for Simeon. My question is about your 2025 outlook. Your guiding to an adjusted EBITDA of $535 million at the midpoint, which is a $100 million increase relative to your adjusted EBITDA excluding car wash in 2024. So could you please give us some color, how you expect to generate so much growth and what the composition is going to be by second.

Michael Diamond

Yeah, good morning. This is Mike. I'll answer that one. I'm not sure I follow your math exactly, but I would highlight a couple of different points that I think are important as you think through our '25 outlook. I think first, for context, it's probably helpful to know that our US car wash business comprised approximately $50 million of adjusted EBITDA. And so as you're thinking through kind of the apples to apples comparison, that's probably a helpful guide point in terms of relative to the performance we had in 2024. It's also worth acknowledging that 2024, as mentioned, still has roughly eight months of PH vitres in it, which we won't have in 2025 given we divested that in September.
Other than that, when you think about growth, first and foremost, it comes down to Take 5. Hopefully that came out in the remarks. We believe Take 5 is our growth engine. We have very strong results in Q4. As Danny mentioned, we continue to see strong momentum, albeit at a normalized growth rate for 2025. Strong unit pipeline, great engagement from franchisees, good customer reaction, and some upside even as we talk about the premiumization of oil as well as some of our other add-ons there.
So you know that's not to say the other parts of the business we don't see opportunity, but I think when you look at the the pro forma apples to apples and just combined with the growth rate, we're trying to be prudent in our numbers but feel very comfortable about our opportunity to grow next year.

Pedro Gil

Got it. So just to be clear, of the $117 million for the full year in the car wash segment, you adjusted EBITDA that we see in 2024, you're saying $50 million are allocated to the US car wash, which is the business that you're selling. And the remainder, i.e. $67 million, are originated from the international car wash businesses. Is that correct?

Michael Diamond

Correct, yes, and you can tell from the revenue and the disclosures, correct. The company-owned stores are US business and the independently operated stores on the sales line are our franchise business, our international business.

Pedro Gil

So you're effectively selling the business at 8 times EBITDA that valuation.

Michael Diamond

Again, all these numbers are approximate, but yeah, that's, I mean, the US car wash business does roughly $50 million of EBITDA.

Pedro Gil

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Justin Kleber, Baird.

Justin Kleber

Hey, good morning, everyone, and Jonathan, best wish to you in the future and congrats, Danny, on your new role.
Just a few questions as it relates to the guidance. Mike, a follow up there, maybe for you. If I go back to the analyst day, which was obviously before your time, but just thinking about what the company outlined for Take 5 oil, it seems like that business could be generating at least an incremental $50 million of EBITDA this year, if not more.
I guess number one, is that fair? And then as a follow up, you mentioned in the script more normalized same store sales growth in '25. Can you maybe put a pin a point on that just as it relates to Take 5?

Michael Diamond

Yeah, I'd say a couple of different things, I'd start with the boilerplate. We're not going to provide specific subsegment guidance for '25. Although, obviously if you think about overall sales growth, the mix of corporate owned stores and franchise stores, and the pipeline we see for 2025 and beyond, we continue to believe that the Take 5 business is an incredibly powerful platform with high growth potential that we think has some good runway for for future growth both on the top line and on the EBITDA line.
As it comes to our normalization comment related to Take 5, I think that's as much as a recognition that quarter was particularly strong for Take 5. This quarter being Q4 at over 9%. And as we think through '25, we want to be, truthful and appropriate that I don't think it's fair to model that going forward. We still see growth. Danny highlighted I think some of the really key levers we see in our ability to continue to drive that business related to increased premiumization and the ability to add additional services. But as you think about a growing business that is starting to reach critical mass, a normalization below 9% is probably more realistic.

Justin Kleber

That's very helpful. Thank you for that. And just one follow up looking back to 4Q, can you just expand a bit on what drove the modest looks like 30 basis point decline in maintenance segment EBITDA margins? Is that Meineke and some of the other brands within maintenance? Just curious, maybe how Take 5 EBITDA margins looked specifically in 4Q relative to last year.

Michael Diamond

Yeah, no, I mean, I think in general we're very pleased with where the -- where where the margin profile of our overall businesses and especially our our Take 5 business. As a reminder to our audience, obviously there's some -- in our current segmentation which will go away with our resegmentation, we do have some franchise businesses related to related to that maintenance segment that can sometimes obfuscate the margin. But I think in general for Take 5, we feel very good about that margin profile and our ability to continue that going forward.

Justin Kleber

All right, guys, thanks so much. Best of luck.

Operator

Brian McNamara, Canaccord Genuity.

Madison Callinan

Good morning. This is Madison Callinan on for Brian. Thanks for taking our questions. Could you give a little more color on the maintenance CapEx for the US carwash business? Thanks.

Michael Diamond

Well, I mean, I think so. A couple of comments, right? The maintenance CapEx on the US car wash business going forward will be treated as discontinued operations given our decision to sell the business. And so at least on a go forward perspective, in theory, those numbers really won't run through the quote unquote go forward financial statements.
To the extent there would be maintenance CapEx, it would be a modest amount used for upkeep of the tunnels and the sites we have. CapEx for the US car wash business in 2024 was still, high, partly because we had a lot of assets held for sale. And as Jonathan and I both mentioned, we did a I think, a pretty good job of getting through a lot of that this year, generating a lot of incremental proceeds for the business. But that does, in some instances, require some CapEx to get those ready for sale. But in no way is the number we had in 2024 representative of what we would expect to spend going forward.

Madison Callinan

Great. And then my second question, collision comps are outperforming the industry. Is there anything you're seeing there in terms of trends?

Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Yeah, Madison, it's Jonathan here. Look, our franchisees, the approximately 900 stores we have been growing direct repair programs, our DRPs for many years. We grow those programs because the trust that our insurance partners have in our franchisees to deliver great service to our customers. So I think we're outpacing the industry because of the execution from our franchisees across both the US and Canada.
We also believe that some of the overall industry claims being down, probably macrod driven. We've got some pressure on the lower-end consumer certainly insurance insurance premiums have, more than doubled over the last four to five years. So I think we see some reticence from our customers to actually file claims. But we're incredibly pleased with our franchise performance and expect that trend to continue.

Madison Callinan

Great. And if I could just make a quick one in there. Corporate costs were up a bit in Q4. Any color on what drove that?

Michael Diamond

Yeah, I mean there's a couple of the big drivers. One is performance-based compensation, which, look, we're always happy to pay because it means we did good performance. There's also some share-based compensation noise related to the IPO grants, from late last year that we that we lapped. So, I would say in general, it's good news and that when you have performance and you pay performance based comp, that's what it's there for and it helps reward our our hardworking employees for the efforts they did. But in general, we are focused on making sure as much of the dollars we generate on the top line flows through to the bottom line.

Madison Callinan

Great. Thank you so much, guys.

Operator

Chris O'Cull, Stifel.

Christopher O'Cull

Can you help us understand the breakdown of the unit guidance between the Take 5 system and the rest of the segments and maybe between company operated versus franchise stores? And then I believe the unit growth guidance implies net unit growth of roughly 3.5% to 4%, which is flat to down I guess over 24% when you exclude the US car wash business. So can you provide some color on the strength of the pipeline, particularly at Take 5?

Michael Diamond

Yeah, I'll give you several different answers here that hopefully get to your question. I think first and foremost, it's the line you're going to continue to hear me say around really any sort of guidance related metric. Our goal with this guidance was to make sure we were honest and prudent in our perspective going forward, given the uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment. And just a desire to make sure that we, set off the year on the right foot.
From a unit specifically, if you look at our range of 175 to 200, I think the significant majority of that will come from the Take 5 pipeline, which is strong. We continue to feel very good about our pipeline, both company owned and franchisee, not just on a year to year basis, but as Jonathan mentioned, with the, over 1,000 sites, in the pipeline, we feel really good about that.
On any given year-to-year basis, the number of corporate owned or franchise owned will vary a little bit,. But as we've mentioned historically, we've typically opened two thirds of our Take 5 stores as franchised, with about a third company owned, and would expect roughly, over the next several years that that's to hold.
Danny mentioned the Take 5 rally we had, which was not only a company attended event but franchise, very well attended. I would say growth outside of Take 5 will largely come from our portfolio of franchise brands going forward in the collision and some of the glass space that are franchised. But in general we feel good about the pipeline. We want to be prudent. We also recognize that we have a much higher base every year as we continue to grow more and more stores, and so that may make the percentage moderate a little bit just given the higher base every year.

Christopher O'Cull

Okay, that's helpful. And then, Mike, just given some of the or given the structure of the car wash transaction, can you help level set us by letting us know where you expect leverage to fall initially and then maybe the glide path over the rest of the year as the company works towards its leverage target by the end of '26?

Michael Diamond

Yeah, so I mean I would say a couple of things. To your point, with the existence of the seller node, expect leverage to be largely neutral with net proceeds from the transaction. That said, we continue to see strong free cash flow this year, as we mentioned with some of our EBITDA -- sorry, our CapEx outlook from 6.5% to 7.5%. That gives us the ability to generate some meaningful free cash flow. We will use the proceeds of the deal to pay down some debt. That's on top of the over $30 million we've already paid down in Q1 this year. We also mentioned we had some additional assets held for sale that we expect to be able to transact through this year as well.
So our -- it's going to continue to be a drumbeat of the leverage as we move through the year, not going to provide specific quarter by quarter numbers other than we still feel comfortable on our path to 3 times net leverage by the end of 2026. And we'll -- I think you'll continue to see us methodically move through the deleverage as as we generate free cash flow.

Christopher O'Cull

Great, thanks guys.

Operator

Robby Ohmes, Bank of America.

Hi, good morning. This is [Vickylio] on for Robby Ohmes. Thank you for taking our questions. Have we started seeing the benefit from TPA materializing to revenue for Auto Glass Now? And then could you speak to what drove the margin improvement in PCG? Thank you.

Daniel Rivera

Hey there, Vicky. This is Danny. So to the first part of your question, so we -- the TPA deal that you're alluding to, we landed that deal back in Q4 or Q3 of 2024. That contract actually became active in Q1. So signed the deal last year, but obviously there was an incumbent that we took over the business from and the contract became active in Q1.
So literally as we speak, we're activating that account and operationalizing it. And you should see those numbers start to flow through into Q1 and Q2 of this year in the business. I'd say from a broader perspective on Auto Glass Now, the focus really hasn't changed, so we are very focused on growing top line. We've said that we want to focus in on really growing our regional and national insurance and commercial. We grew both of those sides every quarter last year. And that continues into this year. And so the team remains very focused on landing the accounts. And then obviously once the accounts -- the contracts become active operational operationalizing those at the ground level.

Thank you. And then for Take 5, where do you see the attachment rate go and I guess what other services would you consider adding? Thank you.

Daniel Rivera

Sure, so as it relates to attachment, right, so I've mentioned this before, so we have five non-oil change services today. Had you asked me this question a couple of years ago, it would have been four. So we have been growing the number of services, as far as sealing is concerned, I look at it two ways. Attachment rates are in the high 40s for us on our existing five services. That's been growing for some time now.
We have both corporate and franchise locations that have attachment rates into the 60s. So I don't see any short term ceiling with the existing services that we provide. And to your point, we can and we have in the past added services, we'll continue to add services over time. I'm not going to get into what specific services we're looking at, but suffice it to say we know that we can grow the portfolio services here, and we plan to do so.

Thank you.

Michael Diamond

Thanks thank you.

Operator

Philip Blee, William Blair.

Phillip Blee

Hey, good morning guys. Appreciate the question. Can you talk a bit more about what the separation of the car wash business will look like? Is there an opportunity for labor to be funneled through into some of the remaining businesses or any other cross functional efficiencies? And then what's your plan for the European car wash segment longer term?

Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Hey Phil, Jonathan here. Yeah, look, when we sell the or consummate the transaction probably likely in Q2, there won't be really any sort of overlap with existing car wash employees with other opportunities within the business. So I think, look, ultimately Mike will probably drive some SGNA synergies out of that business over time. But we're not modeling that in right now.
And then secondly, on the international car wash business, as Danny mentioned, Tracy Gelon and the team in Europe have been doing a phenomenal job the last three to four years. It's an independently operated business which is similar to French, very stable and consistent performance and very stable margins. So we will continue to own and operate that business all with the umbrella within Driven that we will remain active portfolio managers. So we will continue to assess various components of the organization and the international car wash business certainly would fall under that umbrella.

Phillip Blee

Okay, great. And then I guess any renewed appetite for M&A is part of this and I just was asking, broader strategic portfolio review largely, still an active part of your strategy going forward.

Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Yeah, I mean, we have historically been highly acquisitive. I think we've now got our brands and segments to the right scale, so we're more focused on organic growth. That being said, we look at all assets that sort of trade in the automotive aftermarket space, and if something appears accretive and an opportunity for us, we'll certainly take a look at it. But as we look at 2025 and beyond, we're not modeling in any significant M&A activity.

Christopher O'Cull

All right. Great, thank you.

Operator

Christian Carlino, JP Morgan.

Christian Carlino

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our questions and congratulations to Danny and Jonathan. First, Auto Glass Now is the second growth lever after Take 5. So could you just expand on why it's not grown, broken out and sort of what's the plan there? Is there a timeline for when you will break it out? And then just stepping back, could you help us bridge the gap between the prior 850 target and what the business looks like now? You're using -- you're losing $50 million for car wash. So is the rest of the shortfall AGN or is it -- is Take 5 not where you thought it would be and just help us understand the puts and takes there. Thanks.

Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Hey, Christian. I'll start with the 850 and certainly some of the baloney that we've had to deal with with this with this over the last couple of years. We gave that target for 2026, a couple of years ago at our investor day. And really, the business has changed fundamentally since we gave that target. So one of the things that we've entered into now is this period of active portfolio management. And we started that with the exit of PH Vitres last year. We've now just announced the car wash divestiture, which will happen at some point in Q2.
So I think fundamentally the 850 has been removed from our internal strategy and goals. What we are absolutely focused on is, continuing to pay down debt to get to that 3x leverage to grow our flagship Take 5 brand. We'll show that with the segmentation this year and really focus on hitting and delivering our 2025 outlook. So I would say that the 850 is no longer relevant, and we look forward to executing on all our plans for 2025. And then I'll let Mike maybe or Danny talk about the AGN in question. Yeah.

Michael Diamond

Yeah, I'll answer that. It's as much just given the overall size of the portfolio where it is today. The fact that it's, under one banner, but a couple of different businesses, one that services insurance customers which has a longer, different sell cycle than some of the retail and commercial. We thought it best to incubate it within corporate and other.
It's obviously an important part of the business. We still spend some time talking about it, but believe it's most important to focus on growing that business and getting it to a point where it's ready to shine, and then we'll evaluate that then. But it's largely a size-based determination given the sales of the various components there and the size of the EBITDA, thought it more appropriate to fit in with the corporate and other, given some of the other support it requires across our corporate business.

Christian Carlino

Got it. That's all really helpful. And it seems like, excluding the car wash business, you're implying roughly flat margins this year on a like for like business, with positive comps and unique growth. So could you help us, think through the puts and takes there? Is it just prudence and is there anything embedded into sales or margins for tariffs?

Michael Diamond

Yeah, I mean, I would say first of all thank you. You hit the bingo word right appropriately, which was prudence. We're trying to be appropriately prudent as we lay out our perspective for 2025. Obviously it's a dynamic macroeconomic environment. We've tried to reflect the current operating environment as we see it today.
Given we're in a non-discretionary category, tariffs have an interesting little wrinkle in our ability to potentially price as we need to for some of those increases as we see it. I think in general, we do expect to have same store sales growth between 1% to 3%. We expect to manage our business, as tightly as possible. And I made a previous comment around being able to flow as much down to the bottom line. So we're really just focused on operating these businesses as best we can and making sure we continue to drive growth.

Christian Carlino

Got it. And I guess one clarifying point, just given the franchise mix of the business and where potential tariffs would impact you, is it fair to say it's a net benefit given you pass the franchisees who pass along the, to the extent they can, the higher prices and sales, but they would face the incremental costs from that, which wouldn't flow through to the broader business?

Jonathan Fitzpatrick

Christian, we don't think of it like that. Our franchisee is expected to pick up the burden. What we think about is that we operate in needs-based services where we have arguably some pricing power that in the event we need to pass on to our customers, we will. But we're also very conscious that there's been a lot of price taking over the last three to four years. So again, I think Mike's commentary is really just a potential thing that we need to deal with, but certainly we wouldn't be looking for our franchisees to absorb all of that.

Christian Carlino

Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Tristan Thomas-Martin, BMO Capital Markets.

Tristan Thomas-Martin

Hey, good morning. Just one kind of clarification question, I think you called out, AGN insurance partnerships grew year over year. Does that mean you captured more insurance partnerships or the partnerships themselves extended?

Daniel Rivera

Both. I think the answer to both of those questions is yes, we grew overall insurance, partnerships over 2024 and the individual partnerships that we've had historically have also seen some growth.

Tristan Thomas-Martin

Okay. And then just can you talk a bit more about some of the Take 5 marketing initiatives and kind of what your plans are for 2025? Thanks.

Daniel Rivera

Sure, happy to answer that. So Take 5 from a marketing perspective, we've been deploying the same strategy here for some time. And we really, I mentioned in my prepared remarks we saw it pay some dividends in Q4 as we saw some nice sequential growth quarter over quarter. So it's kind of been a two-part strategy. I'm not going to get into into a lot of competitive specifics, but we do a broad reach brand strategy across all of our DMAs. We want to be always on. We want to be top of mind for our consumers so that when that Oil change light pops on, they immediately think of Take 5.
And then we've got a second lever which is this data driven local campaign approach. So that is a more refined, we look at specific DMAs, specific cohorts of customers where we see unique opportunities and we deploy some investment to go capture those eyeballs, so that one-two punch we've been deploying for some time now and it paid some nice dividends in Q4.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.