Driven Brands Targets 30+ More Paint, Collision and Glass Stores by Year-End 2022

Reviewing the second week of November 2022, Driven Brands Holdings Inc. released its Q3 2022 financial results and confirmed that its paint, collision and glass segment—anchored by the Auto Glass Now acquisition completed at the beginning of the year—was still in active expansion mode. The company announced plans to open more than 30 additional stores before December 31.

Driven Brands announced on November 7 that it had acquired seven glass businesses through the first three quarters of 2022 and operated 156 stores in the paint, collision and glass segment as of its Q3 report. The planned 30-plus additional stores would push the segment toward nearly 200 locations by year-end—making Driven Brands a genuinely national presence in auto glass in a single calendar year.

The speed of the expansion reflected the strategic logic of the original Auto Glass Now acquisition: Auto Glass Now provided the operational platform, insurance relationships, and brand recognition that allowed Driven Brands to make additional acquisitions without building from scratch. The $170 million purchase price had effectively bought the company an acquisition and operations infrastructure for a $5 billion market.

For independent auto glass shops, Driven Brands's rapid growth trajectory meant that by January 2023, the industry's competitive map would look significantly different than it had twelve months earlier. Two national chains—Safelite and Driven Brands/Auto Glass Now—had both dramatically expanded their footprints in 2022 while also competing for acquisitions that further reduced the number of independent operators.

The Q3 earnings also showed strong overall results for Driven Brands, suggesting that the glass segment's revenue was performing to plan. A strategically successful 2022 would likely accelerate further glass investment by the company in 2023—making the competitive pressure on independent shops a continuing and intensifying dynamic rather than a temporary consolidation wave.

The Q3 2022 earnings report also provided context for independent shops evaluating their own growth plans: Driven Brands was demonstrating that the auto glass market was large enough to support aggressive capital deployment with positive financial returns. For well-run independent shops with strong margins and documented operations, the same market conditions that attracted Driven Brands—stable demand, non-discretionary service, growing ADAS complexity—supported organic growth investment. The difference was access to capital, which for independents meant banking relationships, SBA loan programs, and in some cases private equity interest in acquiring minority stakes.