Driven Brands Holdings Inc., the parent company of collision repair franchise brand CARSTAR, laid out a new capital allocation plan on Sept. 15, including approval to buy back $100 million in stock and a new long-term debt target, according to a press release filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
$100 million repurchase authorized
Driven Brands' board cleared the company to buy back as much as $100 million worth of its own shares, a sum equal to roughly 5% of its total market value, according to the filing. The repurchase authorization began Sept. 15, and Driven Brands built no time limit into it.
The company said it can buy shares on the open market, including through a structured trading plan allowed under federal securities rules, using cash on hand and cash generated by ongoing operations. Driven Brands said the repurchase plan is optional and can be stopped at any point, with no requirement to buy back a set amount.
New leverage target
Driven Brands also adopted a new financial guideline alongside the buyback: net debt should run between 2 and 3 times adjusted EBITDA over the long haul. President and CEO Danny Rivera said the company had already made progress toward that goal.
"The strength of Driven Brand's Growth and Cash framework has been on full display over the last several years as Driven reduced its net leverage from 5.0x at the end of 2023 to an expected 3.0x at the end of Q3 2026, reaching our 3.0x target a full quarter ahead of plan," Rivera said in the release. "We are entering a new phase focused on deploying capital to support growth, maintaining financial flexibility and enhancing shareholder value. Today's announcement provides investors with greater clarity regarding the framework that will guide our capital allocation decisions going forward."
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Diamond said the company's financial position supported the move. "Driven's free cash flow profile and balance sheet create a strong foundation for the Company to execute its capital allocation priorities," Diamond said. "This initial authorization demonstrates our commitment to returning capital to shareholders while continuing to invest in Take 5."
Continued investment in the company's Take 5 Oil Change brand is included in the updated framework, according to the release, with growth expected from opening additional locations, both where Take 5 already operates and where it doesn't yet, plus acquisitions the company finds attractive.
Recovery timeline
The Sept. 15 announcement follows a year in which Driven Brands worked through an accounting restatement and a delayed annual report. An audit committee review, disclosed by the company Feb. 25, found material errors in financial statements covering fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2024 and the quarters that followed into the fall of 2025, meaning those figures no longer held up as reliable. Several law firms subsequently brought securities fraud claims tied to the disclosure, representing investors who bought Driven Brands stock between May 9, 2023, and Feb. 24, 2026.
As a result, the company missed the April 26 date it had set for completing that filing, which led Nasdaq to issue a deficiency notice.
By June 12, Driven Brands had filed the delayed first-quarter 10-Q, and Nasdaq confirmed the filing brought the company back into line with the exchange's rules on timely periodic reports, according to an Aug. 6, 2026, SEC filing. On that quarter's earnings call, Rivera called 2026 a stabilization year for the collision business, not a recovery one, with results running 100 to 300 basis points ahead of the collision sector as a whole.
