By Jim Utter
Director of Journalism
While Driven Brands completed a sale of its U.S.-based car wash operations, its 2025 first quarter earnings showed its international segment provided strong results for the company.
On April 10, Driven Brands officially closed its sale of its Take 5 Car Wash operations to Whistle Express Car Wash – a $385 million deal that was first announced in late February.
With Take 5 still on the books in Q1 2025, that segment still posted a 20-percent year-over-year revenue increase ($13.5 million), higher than any other of the company’s business units.
The sale of the U.S. car wash business allowed Driven Brands Holdings Inc. to pay down nearly $290 million in debt since the beginning of the year.
Driven’s International Car Wash segment posted a strong quarter with 26 percent same-store sales growth and a 36 percent increase in adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization).
In its earnings call with the media, Daniel Rivera – who recently took over as company president and CEO on May 9 – highlighted the strength of the international car wash business.
“Car Wash International, that business has been a good business for a long time. You can see it now, obviously, with the financials that we’re posting, comps of 26 percent, margins of percent,” Rivera said.
“I’d say there’s two fundamental differences to the U.S. business. No. 1, it’s not really a franchise business. It’s an independent owner model. So, it’s slightly different from a business modeling perspective.
“And No. 2, we are the industry leader in Europe. So, there’s a clear differentiation there. I’d say, look, the team continues to do a great job, nothing new there. You’re just seeing the numbers broken out for the first time.”
Both Rivera and Mike Diamond, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, attributed some of the international segment growth to favorable weather conditions.
“The (international) business had one of its most profitable quarters ever with the same-store sales growth of 26.2 percent, driven by improved operations, expanded service offerings and more favorable weather relative to a year ago,” Diamond said.
Added Rivera: “To Mike’s point, while the business is doing quite well, and we did benefit from some weather, let’s say, last year, which helped our comps in Q1.
“We’d expect the comps of that business to normalize through the back half of the year.”
Overall, Driven notched $516.2 million in total first-quarter revenue, 7 percent higher than the first quarter of 2024. System-wide sales rose 2% during the same period, hitting $1.5 billion in 2025’s first quarter.
The highest grossing Driven brand during 2025’s first quarter was Take 5 Oil change, which saw $387.5 million in sales, up 15 percent over the $326.4 million in revenue during the same time in 2024.
As of March 29, the company had $2.616 billion in long-term debt, about $40 million less than Dec. 28, and approximately $290 million less than the end of 2023.
After the divestment of its car wash business, Driven Brands has about 4,800 locations globally and is the largest automotive services company in North America.
