Driven Brands Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:DRVN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

From a calibration perspective, calibration continues to be a tailwind for us. So part of the integration work that we did was really making sure that we had the stores outfitted with the right equipment that the team was trained and that we were able to capitalize on that part of the business. That’s been a nice tailwind for us in 2023. And we expect it to continue to be a nice tailwind for us going into 2024.

Christian Carlino: Got it. Thank you very much. Best of luck.

Operator: And your next question comes from the line of Peter Keith from Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Peter Keith : Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Just focusing on the Take 5, I don’t want to scoff at a 7% comp. But it did slow rather meaningfully, sequentially from Q3 at 14. And I’m wondering if this lap in price increases or if you give any color on continued deceleration? Are we going to settle out here at about 7%?

Danny Rivera: Hey, Peter, thanks. Thanks for the question. Yeah, you look, you hit it on the head, right. So really, the majority of that slowdown was just lapping over price increases that we took Q4 of 2022. So nothing systemic, they’re just lapping over some price increases.

Peter Keith : Okay, very good. And then just on the 850 EBITDA target, maybe you can put some context around the straight line rent adjustment, does that make it harder to reach the target? And it sounds like the guidance for this year is a little bit below what you thought because of some divestiture. So how does that kind of play into the three year 850? Target?

Jonathan Fitzpatrick: Hey, Peter, Jonathan here. Yeah, I think the guidance for 2024 is literally exactly what we said it would be at Investor Day. So if you go back and look at that, the notes and comments from that, I think it’s very much in line with that. In terms of the 850 the only change would be the, whatever it is the $15 million, the rent adjustment that would be the only change to how we think about the 850 at this point.

Gary Ferrera: Yeah, Peter, the only place where that the EBITDA I said we would hold the only place where the adjustment you mentioned impacts was on the revenue side some sales and stuff, so that did have revenue slightly lower, but even guys that will have cost savings that will make sure that we will get to the 24 number.

Peter Keith : Okay, very good. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. And your next question comes from the line at Brian McNamara from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Good morning, this is Nancy Madison [ph] on for Brian thanks for taking my questions. How much industry capacity is expected to come around corrosion 2024 in the next few years and which markets are the most saturated? And how many more location do you expect to close? Thanks, guys.

Jonathan Fitzpatrick: Madison your line was a little choppy, but I’ll do my best to answer what I think your question was. I think, broadly, what we’ve said on prior calls is we expect sort of new unit growth in the US market sort of in that 700 range in 2023, we expect sort of a similar number in 2024. So, I think there’s definitely some markets, you know, generally not necessarily for us that have some saturation characteristics. In terms of, I think your next question was store closures, other than normal day to day management of our multi-unit retail businesses we don’t foresee at this point in time any sort of wholesale closures within our US Car Wash business at this point.

Unidentified Analyst: Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Simeon Gutman: Hey, guys, good morning. My question is first on EBITDA margin. If the math is right on the adjustments, it looks like the implied margin should grow by about 50 bps. And if that’s not right, and correct it. And can we think about that relative or proportionate to the sales growth by each business? Or is there a disproportionate given cost savings or efficiency in one or more of the segments?

Gary Ferrera: Yeah, okay. That’s a good question to make my head work early this morning, is the when if I think of the different segments, I mean, you can expect just start with corporate go bottoms up I don’t see that being a big change from year-to-year. So that’s been and obviously the maintenance segment would be the biggest driver, as we mentioned. And then in the middle it’s just a matter of how it falls out. So I can’t guide you to specific segments for the year. But as we mentioned before the biggest driver will be maintenance. And, and if you look through the thing all the way down to corporate, I mean, corporate will probably it won’t detract but it probably won’t add necessarily in the year.