The move brings 720 locations to the private equity firm.
By Andrew Carlo
Franchise Equity Partners, LP (FEP), the private investment firm specializing in providing capital to franchise businesses, is acquiring IMO Car Wash from Driven Brands.
IMO is one of the largest tunnel car wash businesses in the world. Founded 60 years ago, IMO’s portfolio includes 720 locations. This includes sites across the United Kingdom and Germany, with locations in nine other European countries and Australia.
“We believe IMO represents a rare opportunity to acquire a market-leading, long-standing brand with a highly defensible footprint and a strong operating team,” said Scott Romanoff, co-managing partner at FEP. “Our goal is to help optimize and enhance performance across the existing portfolio. With IMO’s established customer base, retail partnerships, and experienced leadership, we see significant opportunity to drive organic growth and continue strengthening the brand.”
“Our investment in IMO is FEP’s inaugural transaction outside the United States,” added Mike Esposito, Co-Managing Partner at FEP. “We believe this represents the ideal foundation to expand our strong multi-unit retail presence in the United States to the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond.”
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by FEP. Under its ownership, FEP said that it intends to focus on increasing wash volumes, elevating the customer experience, and leveraging strategic retail partnerships. FEP noted that IMO maintains “strong relationships” with retailers across the United Kingdom and Europe.
“This marks an important milestone for IMO Car Wash,” said Adam Green, president of IMO Car Wash. “FEP understands both the heritage and the potential of our brand. Their long-term approach, commitment to operational excellence, and deep experience in multi-unit business models make them an ideal partner as we focus on unlocking more value from our existing network. We look forward to working with FEP to strengthen our market position and continue serving our customers.”
FEP is based in New York and said that it has an initial target portfolio size of $1 billion.
