Abra Auto Body Franchise: FDD Review and Diligence Report
An FDD and diligence review of Abra, a collision and auto glass repair franchise owned by the publicly traded Driven Brands, the same parent behind Maaco, CARSTAR, Meineke, and Take 5.
Abra Auto Body Glass Repair is a collision and auto glass repair franchise owned by the publicly traded Driven Brands, the same parent behind Maaco, CARSTAR, Meineke, and Take 5. The 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) covers 55 franchised repair centers at the end of 2024, down from 63 two years earlier, with no company-owned locations and no new franchised center opened in the most recent year. Abra makes no Item 19 financial performance representation, so the FDD discloses no revenue or profit figures for any Abra center.
Abra Auto Body Glass Repair | Automotive | latest FDD 2025 | 55 outlets | franchising 38 years
Reviewer Highlights
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About the franchisor
The franchisor is ABRA Franchisor SPV LLC, a Delaware limited liability company organized in 2019 and based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The brand itself is older: the first Abra repair center opened in 1984 in Fridley, Minnesota, and the franchise system was established by a predecessor formed in 1987, so Abra has been franchised for roughly 38 years even though the current franchisor entity is recent.
Ownership runs up a chain of Driven entities: Abra is a direct subsidiary of Driven Systems LLC, which guarantees Abra's performance, and an indirect subsidiary of Driven Brands Inc., Driven Holdings, LLC, and ultimately Driven Brands Holdings Inc., a company that has been publicly traded since its 2021 initial public offering and is majority-owned by the private equity firm Roark Capital.
Abra sits alongside eight other Driven automotive franchisors, including Maaco, CARSTAR, Meineke, Take 5, Merlin, Econo Lube, 1-800-Radiator, and FUSA, and the Abra and Caliber collision operations were combined under common ownership in 2019. The franchisor owns no repair centers of its own and provides assistance through a management agreement with Driven Brands and affiliate suppliers rather than directly.
Leadership runs through Driven Brands rather than a standalone Abra team. Daniel Rivera has been Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Abra since May 2025, the same month he was appointed Chief Executive Officer and President of Driven Brands; he previously served as Driven Brands' Chief Operating Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as Brand President for Take 5. Scott O'Melia is Executive Vice President and Secretary and also Driven Brands' General Counsel, and Michael F. Diamond has been Chief Financial Officer of both Abra and Driven Brands since August 2024, after serving as CFO of The Michaels Companies. The May 2025 chief-executive change at the parent is worth noting alongside Item 3: the former CEO is a named defendant in the pending securities and derivative suits, and the two derivative suits filed in late 2025 name the current CEO, Daniel Rivera, as well.
Growth and system health
Abra's franchised system has contracted over the three years the 2025 FDD covers. Franchised centers began 2022 at 63, fell to 57 by year end after 7 terminations and 1 opening, held at 57 through 2023 (1 opening, 1 termination), and ended 2024 at 55 after 2 terminations and no openings at all. There are no company-owned outlets in any year, so the entire system is franchisee-run, and the franchisor projects only 2 new franchised centers in the next year with zero franchise agreements signed but not yet open. The latest-year termination ratio is about 3.5 percent (2 of 57 centers open at the start of 2024), and transfers, where an existing owner sells to a new one, ran 3 in 2022, 1 in 2023, and 2 in 2024. Across 2022 to 2024 the system recorded 10 terminations against just 2 openings, so the headline movement here is a system that is shrinking rather than growing.
| Year | Opened | Terminations | Non-renewals | Reacquired | Ceased | Outlets (end) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 |
| 2024 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 55 |
Transfers, where an existing franchisee sells its center to a new owner, were 3 in 2022 (one each in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota), 1 in 2023 (Minnesota), and 2 in 2024 (South Dakota). Against a system of roughly 55 to 63 centers, that is a modest pace, and on a transfer Abra holds back 2 percent of the seller's annual Gross Sales for up to 24 months to cover defects in prior work.
Abra owns and operates no repair centers. Item 1 states plainly that neither the franchisor, its predecessor, nor its affiliates currently own any Abra centers, and the Item 20 company-owned table is zero across 2022 to 2024. That means there is no franchisor-operated benchmark inside the system and no company stores to point to for performance, which matters because Item 19 also discloses no figures.
As of the December 28, 2024 fiscal year end, the franchisor reported zero franchise agreements signed for centers not yet open and projected 2 new franchised centers (one in North Dakota, one in Minnesota) and zero company-owned centers in the next fiscal year. A pipeline of zero signed-but-unopened agreements, paired with no openings in 2024, is the forward-looking side of a system that is not currently expanding.
What it costs to get in
Item 7 estimates the total cost to open a single Abra repair center at $263,640 to $4,569,050. That range is unusually wide because real estate is the swing: the low end assumes you convert an existing body shop on a lease ($25,000 of leasehold improvements), while the high end assumes you buy land and build a 10,000 to 20,000 square foot center ($4,000,000).
Equipment and fixtures, the next largest line, run $130,000 to $375,000 depending on whether you install one paint booth and frame machine or two. The initial franchise fee is $35,000 for a single center ($25,000 for each additional one), and the estimate is built on Midwest average costs. Abra offers no direct or indirect financing, and a new center must reach I-CAR Gold Class certification within one year of opening.
| Category | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $35,000 |
| Real Estate and Leasehold/Land Improvements | $25,000 to $4,000,000 |
| Equipment and Fixtures | $130,000 to $375,000 |
| Signs | $5,000 to $25,000 |
| Computer Hardware/Software System | $14,400 to $21,600 |
| Deposits and Business Licenses | $0 to $5,000 |
| Opening Promotion Fee and POP Materials | $7,000 |
| Opening Inventory and Supplies | $10,000 to $15,000 |
| Safety Training | $240 to $450 |
| I-CAR Certification | $2,000 to $10,000 |
| Additional Funds (3 Months) | $45,000 to $75,000 |
| TOTAL (as printed in the FDD) | $263,640 to $4,569,050 |
Ongoing fees
The royalty here is structured as the greater of 5 percent of Gross Sales or $45,000 per year, and the $45,000 floor is the figure a careful buyer watches. Gross Sales means what the center collects, not profit, so the royalty is owed even in a slow month, and the floor is the equivalent of 5 percent on about $900,000 of sales whether or not the center brings that in.
On top of the royalty come a National Brand Fund fee (currently 0.7 percent of Gross Sales, up to 1 percent) and a Regional/Local Marketing fee of up to 3 percent, so the required marketing spend can reach about 4 percent before the royalty.
Several fees are tied to the insurance-driven model: an optional Call Center fee of $399 per month and a Central Review fee of up to 2 percent of sales generated through Abra's managed insurance programs, which the franchisor can switch on with 30 days' notice. A franchisee also grants Abra a security interest in all current and future assets of the center to secure these payments.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $25k to $35k |
| Royalty | 5.0% of Gross Sales |
| Brand / ad fund | 0.7% of Gross Sales |
| Minimum Continuing Fee (new franchises) | The Continuing Fee is the greater of 5% of Gross Sales or $45,000 per year, collected monthly. For a center below about $900,000 in annual sales, the $45,000 floor is the binding figure and is owed regardless of actual revenue. |
| National Brand Fund Fee | Currently 0.7% of Gross Sales, up to a maximum of 1%. |
| Regional/Local Marketing Fee | Up to 3% of Gross Sales, when Abra requires participation in a market program. |
| Call Center Fee (optional program) | Currently $399 per month per center ($349 if you operate two or more), and may rise up to $1,000 per center per month. |
| Central Review Fee (insurance programs) | Currently 0%, but Abra reserves the right to charge up to 2% of Gross Sales generated through its centrally managed insurance programs. |
| Paint Surcharge | $3,000 for each month you use a paint supplier other than a Preferred Supplier. |
| Transfer Fee | $5,000, plus a hold-back of 2% of annual Gross Sales for up to 24 months. |
| Renewal Fee | $7,500 at renewal, in place of a new initial franchise fee. |
Reported financial performance (Item 19)
This is the section a prospective buyer will feel most, because there is nothing in it. Abra makes no Item 19 financial performance representation. The FDD states directly that the franchisor does not make any representations about a franchisee's future financial performance or the past performance of affiliate-owned or franchised centers, and does not authorize anyone to do so. In plain terms, the disclosure document gives you no franchisor-provided revenue, sales, or profit figures for any Abra center, and no company-owned stores exist to fill the gap. The only numbers a buyer can get come from the actual records of a specific existing center they are considering buying, which Abra may provide for that one center. That absence matters most because the model is insurance-driven: a large share of a collision center's volume comes through direct repair programs and insurer relationships that Abra and its affiliates manage centrally, so a new owner's revenue depends heavily on factors the franchise system controls, and the FDD offers no figures to size them. A buyer should treat the lack of an Item 19 as a reason to do independent revenue diligence, not as a neutral detail.
Personal risk and the exit
The term is 10 years, with one 10-year renewal available to a franchisee in good standing who remodels, requalifies, pays a $7,500 renewal fee, and signs a new agreement that may carry materially different terms. The owners personally guarantee the deal, and a franchisee may terminate only if Abra fails to cure a material default; Abra has no right to terminate without cause. The cost concentrates at the exit, even without a liquidated-damages clause. On termination or non-renewal you must assign your remaining lease to Abra or its designee, return all materials, and observe the post-term covenants, and Abra can buy your center's assets at fair market value that excludes goodwill, after holding a right of first refusal on any sale. The non-compete bars you from any competing auto body business during the term, with a carve-out that lets you run another Driven Brands automotive franchise, and for one year afterward within 10 miles of your center or any other Abra center. Disputes go to arbitration in Charlotte, North Carolina under North Carolina law.
Litigation
Item 3 of the 2025 FDD, as amended December 29, 2025, discloses ten matters, and their composition matters more than the count. Six are pending. Five involve the publicly traded ultimate parent, Driven Brands Holdings Inc., not Abra: a securities class action (Genesee County Employees' Retirement System v. Driven Brands Holdings, filed December 2023, in which the court denied the motion to dismiss in February 2025) and four related shareholder derivative suits (Terwilliger and Gaiman, filed in early 2025, and Kalimon and Bushansky, filed in October and November 2025), all alleging the parent made material misstatements in its quarterly filings. The sixth lands closer to home: in November 2025, ten current Maaco franchisees sued Maaco, Driven Brands, and Driven Systems (PJC Management Group v. Maaco Franchisor SPV), alleging misappropriation of advertising-fund fees and seeking more than $1 million plus treble damages. One is a concluded arbitration involving Abra's predecessor (Anderson Ford-Mazda v. ABRA Automotive Systems, an encroachment claim arising from the 2019 Caliber combination, settled in 2020 for $57,500). The remaining three are settlements and consent orders involving Roark-affiliated brands (Arby's and Dunkin'), which the FDD states do not involve Abra or allege any unlawful conduct by Abra. Item 4 discloses no bankruptcies.
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The franchisor's financials (Item 21)
Item 21 attaches, as Exhibit D, the audited consolidated financial statements of Driven Systems (Abra's direct parent, which guarantees Abra's performance) and of Driven Brands, for the fiscal years ended December 2022, 2023, and 2024, plus unaudited statements for the quarter ended March 29, 2025. Review Exhibit D directly.
Because the entity you sign with owns no centers and relies on a management agreement with Driven Brands and on affiliate suppliers, the parent's solvency, the Driven Systems guarantee, and the related-party flows are the financial backstop worth reading closely. The ultimate parent, Driven Brands Holdings Inc., is publicly traded, so its audited annual report and quarterly filings with the SEC are an additional public source a buyer can check.
Understand the disclosures
Related FDD items
- Item 1 - The Franchisor and Any Parents, Predecessors, and Affiliates
- Item 2 - Business Experience
- Item 3 - Litigation
- Item 5 - Initial Fees
- Item 6 - Other Fees
- Item 7 - Estimated Initial Investment
- Item 17 - Renewal, Termination, Transfer, and Dispute Resolution
- Item 19 - Financial Performance Representations
- Item 20 - Outlets and Franchisee Information
- Item 21 - Financial Statements
Questions worth asking
If a collision-repair center is a sound business to own, it is fair to ask what you are actually buying here. Abra owns no centers itself, opened no new franchised center in 2024, and the system shrank from 63 to 55 centers over three years, all under a public parent that runs eight other automotive brands. At a $35,000 fee plus a royalty that is the greater of 5 percent or $45,000 a year, are you buying customer demand for the Abra name, or access to the insurance direct-repair programs that the franchisor and its affiliates manage centrally?
How do you size the revenue with no Item 19 at all? The FDD discloses no franchisor revenue, sales, or profit figures for any Abra center, and there are no company-owned stores to look at. The only numbers you can get are the actual records of a specific existing center offered for sale. What does a typical Abra center collect, how much of that volume depends on insurer relationships you do not control, and how will you verify it before signing?
What does the downside look like if it does not work? You personally guarantee the deal, the $45,000 minimum royalty is owed every year of a 10-year term regardless of sales, and the exit is tightly controlled: on termination you assign your lease to Abra, Abra can buy your assets at a value that excludes goodwill, a 2 percent hold-back applies on any sale, and a one-year, 10-mile non-compete follows. How much of your own capital is exposed if a slow center cannot cover that floor?
What does the litigation above you tell you, and how transparent is the picture? Six pending suits sit at or above the parent level: a securities class action against Driven Brands Holdings that survived a motion to dismiss in February 2025, four shareholder derivative suits (the two filed in late 2025 name Abra's current CEO), and a November 2025 action by ten Maaco franchisees alleging Driven Brands and Driven Systems misappropriated advertising-fund fees. None name Abra, but Driven Systems guarantees Abra's performance and Driven Brands provides your services under a management agreement. Have you read Exhibit D and the parent's SEC filings to see the financial footing of the entities standing behind your franchise?
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