Nine bays, eleven people, $510,562 of owner earnings.
Offering summary
- Listing ID
- DEMO-0001
- Business
- Brightwell Auto Care, Marlow Springs
- Legal entity
- Whitaker Marlow Springs Inc., a Colorado C Corporation
- Owners
- Dan and Ruth Whitaker
- Type of business
- Franchised auto repair
- Established / owned
- March 2015 · under current ownership since February 2018
- Asking price
- $1,595,000
- Furniture, fixtures & equipment
- $429,850
- Leasehold improvements
- $95,000
- Inventory
- $6,000
- Total assets included
- $530,850
- Facility
- 9,300 sq ft detached shop, 9 bays
- Rent
- $14,717 / month, lease to 2036
- Employees
- 5 full-time, 3 part-time, 3 full-time managers
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm. Closed weekends.
- Licensing
- None beyond the franchise disclosure document. No auto repair experience required.
- Reason for sale
- Retirement
Financial snapshot
Tax returns and trailing twelve months| TTM 2026* | 2025 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | $2,360,767 | $2,594,875 | $2,595,302 |
| Discretionary earnings | $510,562 | $563,177 | $464,103 |
| Margin | 21.63% | 21.70% | 17.88% |
*Trailing twelve months to June 2026. Through the first half of 2026 the shop ran three technicians short, because the owner chose to hold the seats open until the right cultural fit was found. That decision temporarily reduced sales. All three positions are now filled.
Financing
Two SBA lenders pre-qualified- Total project costs
- $1,780,000 incl. $185,000 of closing costs, SBA guarantee fee and $100,000 working capital
- Buyer down payment
- 10% of total project costs
- Loan term
- 10 years, fully amortized
- Monthly payment
- $20,402 at the quoted rate
- Prepayment, covenants, reserves
- None
SBA financing is subject to the qualification of the individual buyer. This business has not been directly reviewed by the SBA, and neither letter is a commitment to lend.
This memorandum is furnished only to prospective purchasers who have signed a confidentiality agreement. It may not be reproduced or disclosed, in whole or in part, without the written permission of Ridgeline Business Advisors. The full notice and disclaimer are set out at the end.
Two SBA lenders have pre-qualified the business at 10% down over ten years. What follows lets you price any structure you like, not just theirs.
Move the sliders. The deal re-prices.
Two lenders have put terms on this business. Rather than ask you to take one of them on faith, the model below is live: change the price you would actually offer, what you would put down, what your own bank has quoted, and what you need to pay yourself.
Your assumptions
What that means
Where every dollar of SDE goes
At the brokered terms the loan clears 2.09× coverage before the buyer takes a dollar of salary, and still clears 1.74× after an $85,000 draw, comfortably above the 1.25× most SBA lenders underwrite to. The deal breaks coverage only if earnings fall below $391,030, which is 23% below TTM.
$17,760 of net income is really $510,562.
The tax return shows a business that looks barely profitable. The adjusted statements show one earning a 21.6% margin. The difference is ten add-backs, and a buyer is entitled to see every one of them. Here is that bridge, itemized, tying out to the cent, with the full statements underneath it.
Reported net income to seller's discretionary earnings
TTM July 2025 - June 2026| Adjustment | Why it is added back | Amount | Running |
|---|
Four years of revenue and earnings
Tax returns 2023-2025, trailing twelve months to June 2026| Period | Revenue | SDE | Margin | Rev. change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 tax return | $2,378,847 | $430,044 | 18.08% | n/a |
| FY2024 tax return | $2,595,302 | $464,103 | 17.88% | +9.1% |
| FY2025 tax return | $2,594,875 | $563,177 | 21.70% | 0.0% |
| TTM to Jun 2026 | $2,360,767 | $510,562 | 21.63% | −9.0% |
Revenue fell 9% in the trailing year while margin held and earnings stayed above 2024. The cause is stated: the shop ran three technicians short through the first half of 2026 because the owner chose to hold the seats open until he found the right people rather than fill them quickly. All three are now on the roster and are shown as recent hires in the personnel section. A buyer should treat the recovery as expected rather than proven, and ask for monthly revenue and billed hours by technician for the last six months.
Reference: trailing twelve-month profit and loss; personnel roster
Why two lines read $211,755
The franchise profit split, explainedThe trailing profit and loss carries two separate entries of exactly $211,755, and the coincidence is not one. Brightwell does not charge a percentage of sales. It takes approximately half of net monthly profit, after depreciation, amortization, employee health insurance, phones, gasoline and an owner salary allowance come out first. Net profit before that split was $423,510. Each side takes $211,755.
The franchisor's half stays in the adjusted statement, because a buyer will keep paying it. The owner's half, booked as Profit Expense (Owner), is a discretionary distribution and is added back. The $117,003 reduction applied to the gross royalty line is the portion of the present owner's royalty that services the previous owner's loan, which a buyer does not inherit.
| Royalty line, TTM | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty expense as booked | $328,758 |
| Less: prior owner's loan service | −$117,003 |
| Franchisor profit share (50%) | $211,755 |
| Owner profit distribution (50%) | $211,755 |
| Net profit before the split | $423,510 |
Adjusted financial statements
Tax returns, 2023 to 2025, adjusted figures| Line | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | $2,594,875 | $2,595,302 | $2,378,847 |
| Returns & allowances | - | $11,993 | - |
| Cost of goods | $986,077 | $967,797 | $900,783 |
| Gross profit | $1,608,798 | $1,615,512 | $1,478,064 |
| Compensation of officers (note A) | - | - | - |
| Salaries & wages | $290,793 | $431,667 | $404,814 |
| Rents | $194,339 | $190,781 | $185,463 |
| Taxes & license (note B) | $82,707 | $75,246 | $74,944 |
| Interest (note C) | - | - | - |
| Depreciation (note D) | - | - | - |
| Repairs & maintenance | $7,003 | $7,211 | $1,995 |
| Bad debt | - | $1,464 | $3,318 |
| Advertising | $34,711 | $32,030 | $32,729 |
| Other deductions (incl. royalties, notes E to G) | $436,068 | $413,010 | $344,757 |
| Total deductions | $1,045,621 | $1,151,409 | $1,048,020 |
| Adjusted net | $563,177 | $464,103 | $430,044 |
| Margin on gross sales | 21.70% | 17.88% | 18.08% |
Full trailing twelve-month profit and loss July 2025 to June 2026, as booked and as adjusted
| Line | As booked | Adjustment | Adjusted | % of sales |
|---|
Dan named three levers. Price them.
The owner names three levers: the shop can absorb roughly 20% more work without hiring, the labor rate sits well below dealership rates, and two more technicians would fit in the existing bays. He believes $3.5 million in annual revenue is a reasonable goal. Prose does not tell a buyer what any of that is worth. This does.
Growth levers
Modeled outcome
Today against the model
Twelve questions a buyer will ask.
Answered before you ask them.
Twelve questions, answered up front.
Every buyer who looks seriously at this business arrives at roughly the same twelve questions. Rather than wait for them to surface three weeks into diligence, they are set out here with the answer and the record it comes from. Where an item is genuinely still open, it says so.
There are no pending legal, environmental or regulatory issues, no customer concentration, no contracted fleet obligations, and no equipment the owner expects to replace in the next few years. All lifts and equipment are inspected annually. Anything a buyer finds that is not addressed above, ask, and it will be added here for every buyer who follows.
Nine bays at the busiest corner in town.
A 9,300 square foot detached shop at Ridgeline and Fourth, the intersection of the city's main north-south and east-west corridors, next to a drive-through coffee shop, two quick-service restaurants and a big-box store.
Facility & lease
- Square footage
- 9,300 sq ft, detached
- Service bays
- 9, incl. Hunter alignment rack
- Rent
- $14,717 / month
- Rent as % of revenue
- 8.29% (TTM)
- Lease expiry
- 2036, automatic renewal
- Escalation
- ~1% every three years
- Hours
- Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm. Closed weekends.
- Pending issues
- None legal, environmental or regulatory
Ten years of tenure at roughly 0.33% annual escalation, in a market growing 1.75% a year. Rent is the second largest fixed cost in the business and it is effectively frozen.
How the work flows
- Vehicles / week
- 55-70 (75-80 in summer)
- Average repair order
- ~$900
- Labor rate
- $159-$189 / hour
- Billed hours / week
- 150-170 (target 200+)
- Approval rate
- 45-55% of recommended work
- Customer retention
- 80%+
- Inventory held
- $6,000, parts arrive in ~15 min
- Supplier rebates
- up to $12,000 / quarter, transferable
- Warranty
- 3 years / 36,000 miles, whichever comes last
- Warranty claims
- 10-12 / year
It does not look like a repair shop
Customers say the facility is more like a doctor’s or an attorney’s office than a garage. Leather seating, a staffed counter, free cookies and bottled water on the dashboard when the car comes back round, and the heat already running in winter.
“We keep it super clean, including the shop area, and we get compliments on it all the time.”
It is the kind of detail a buyer only understands by walking in. It is also the most plausible explanation for why retention runs above 80% in a category where customers normally go to whoever is closest.
Services performed
Everything except total engine rebuilds; tire work subcontractedMost profitable: brake and suspension work. Larger engine jobs bring higher gross dollars at slightly lower margin. All parts are OEM quality from five national and regional suppliers, each of whom has agreed to honor the three-year warranty on both parts and labor.
The team
11 people · 5 full-time, 3 part-time, 3 managers| Role | Tenure | Compensation | Status |
|---|
Benefits: company-contributed health, vision and dental; 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar match to 3%; paid time off accruing at one hour per twenty worked, plus all major holidays. Turnover is low and the owner mentors rather than manages, and one technician is being helped toward opening their own shop.
Assets included
$530,850 at stated value$149,000 of capex already spent
A 2026 three-row SUV was bought in August 2026 for roughly $58,000 to serve as the courtesy shuttle. Three new air-conditioning units, a mandatory brand standard, were scheduled for October 2026 at an estimated $91,000.
The asking price is unchanged by either. The proposed transaction terms contemplate an equitable buyer contribution toward the seller-funded portion of these recent investments. That contribution is not yet quantified and is a term for the letter of intent.
The property
Forecourt, bays, offices and the waiting room
Four in five come back.
A broad local customer base, no concentration, no contracts, and a retention rate above 80% in a category where most people go to whoever is closest. It costs about $1,300 a month to sustain.
Who they are
Primarily mid-to-upper income individuals, mostly aged 40 to 60, skewing slightly female. Most are the kind of customer who values top-level service over the lowest price, and many travel several miles past closer competitors to get here.
The shop can refer customers to finance companies it has a relationship with when a bill is large. It handles repairs for a number of local businesses but performs no contracted fleet work, a decision the current owner made on margin grounds and an opening a new owner may choose to reopen.
The small things are deliberate. In winter the technician runs the heat before bringing the car round. There is a free cookie, a bottle of water and a handwritten thank-you on the dashboard. Every repair is followed by a phone call.
What marketing costs
- Google Ads
- ~$1,300 / month, enough to hold the first or second organic position for auto repair in Marlow Springs
- Demographic targeting
- ~$500 / month of additional Google spend
- Direct campaigns
- ~$2,000 per campaign, direct email and digital
- Franchisor national
- $900 / month
- Franchisor regional
- $275 / month, includes Instagram and Facebook
- Owner-run social
- Some additional Facebook activity, unbudgeted
- Website
- Provided and maintained by the franchisor
The highest-yielding campaign costs nothing: the shop calls back customers who previously declined recommended work to ask whether now is a better time. Beyond that, the business runs on word of mouth and on a five-star review count no other shop in the county has matched.
You are buying a system, and a partner who takes half.
Brightwell has run since 1988, franchised since 1999, and operates more than 200 locations across 24 states. The support is genuinely unusual. So is the economic arrangement, and a buyer should understand both.
Transfer terms
- Transfer fee
- $35,000 (includes corporate legal)
- Initial term
- 15 years · ~10 remaining
- Renewals
- 3 × 5 years, automatic subject to brand standards
- Training
- 6 weeks in-store + 2 weeks at headquarters
- Experience required
- None. Character over mechanics
- National marketing
- $900 / month
- Regional marketing
- $275 / month
- Weekends
- Closed, by corporate mandate
The royalty
Brightwell does not take a percentage of sales. It takes roughly half of net monthly profit, and only after depreciation, amortization, employee health insurance, phones, gasoline and an owner salary allowance of up to $70,000 come out first. The franchisee is paid before corporate is.
On a sales-percentage model this would be a worse deal in a weak month and a better one in a strong month. As structured it is the reverse: downside protected, upside shared. Any growth a buyer models above should be read with that split in mind, which is why the flow-through assumption on the previous section is a control, not a constant.
Recognition
Franchisor-level awards, not shop-levelNew franchisees receive six weeks of intensive in-store training, normally near their residence, plus two weeks at the franchisor's headquarters covering ownership, accounting, marketing, processes, resources and company culture. The present owner was approved within a week of his discovery visit and describes the SBA consultant assigned to him as having handled all the paperwork.
Dan is 66. That is the whole reason.
Dan and Ruth Whitaker bought the franchise in 2017 and took over operations on 5 February 2018. Sales have gone from roughly $1.7 million to over $2.5 million since. Dan came from logistics and two decades of running distribution centers; Ruth from teaching and school administration. Neither had turned a wrench.
Dan works about 40 hours on a flexible schedule and describes the business as running “pretty much on autopilot”, overseeing operations, handling customer issues, marketing and staffing, and driving the shuttle because it is the best way to get honest feedback. Ruth puts in about five hours a week. He believes one person can take over everything the two of them do.
He will stay 30 days post-sale for transition, and estimates a buyer needs $80,000-$100,000 in working capital.
The story the numbers do not carry
A high school teacher broke down the night before she was due to drive her students to a state competition. The shop was closed. Dan took the call anyway, a technician came back in, and she left at six the next morning in the courtesy shuttle with the keys to her own car waiting for her return. Nobody mentioned a rental fee. Her whole department has brought their cars in since.
It sits oddly in a document about earnings. It is also, plausibly, why retention runs above 80% and why customers drive past competitors to get here. A buyer who treats that as decoration is buying a different business than the one being sold.
A city that doubled, and cars that keep aging.
Why this corner
Ridgeline and Fourth is one of the busiest intersections in Marlow Springs. Ridgeline runs north-south, Fourth east-west. The shop sits next to a drive-through coffee shop, with two quick-service restaurants, a big-box store and a shopping center within sight. Every car queued in a drive-through is looking at the building. Marlow Springs is also home to a regional medical center and a large distribution hub, the two biggest employers in the county.
Seasonality is mild: peaks around tax refunds and from late May through August, softer late November to February, though the shop's single best month on record was a January.
The highest-rated shop in the county.
Top five customer scores within a brand of more than 200 locations, and more five-star reviews than any other shop in the county. Marketing spend to sustain it: about $1,300 a month.
Four things, then a call with Dan.
Proof of funds for the deposit
A bank statement or letter is enough at this stage.
SBA pre-qualification letter
From either lender named here or any other. Worth getting regardless: it travels to every other listing you look at.
If not SBA, how you intend to fund it
With supporting documentation.
A short bio for the seller
Dan is choosing a successor, not just a buyer. Say why this one.
Send to deals@ridgeline.example. Once received, the information goes to the seller and a buyer/seller call is arranged with suitable candidates.
Also available
35-minute owner interview
The broker and the owner on camera, 35 minutes, covering the questions buyers ask most. Link on request.
Two lender scenarios
Lender A and Lender B pre-qualification, both at 10% down over 10 years.
Full financial detail
Three years of tax returns with adjustments, plus the trailing twelve-month profit and loss.
deals@ridgeline.example
Confidentiality,
and the terms you accepted
when you opened this.
Confidential.
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This Confidential Information Memorandum, presented by Ridgeline Business Advisors, is intended to acquaint a prospective purchaser with preliminary information regarding the client company whose business is currently available for acquisition, sale or merger. Its format is designed to reflect to a prospective purchaser the factors that create value within the Company. It is furnished only to prospective purchasers who have signed a Confidentiality Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreement or Non-Interference Agreement and have made a specific request for information regarding the Company for the purpose of determining any interest in submitting an offer to acquire the Company or its business. Each prospective purchaser is responsible for the performance and expense of their own due diligence review prior to any acquisition.
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It is highly important to the Company and its current owners that all Confidential Information be held in the strictest of confidence. The Company could be seriously damaged should word that “the company is for sale” reach its customers, competitors or others, or should information contained here fall into other wrong hands.
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Disclaimer
The Company has supplied the information contained in this document. Ridgeline Business Advisors has not audited or otherwise confirmed this information and makes no representations, expressed or implied, as to its accuracy or completeness or the conclusions to be drawn, and shall in no way be responsible for the content, accuracy and truthfulness of such information. Any and all representations shall be made solely by the Company as set forth in a signed agreement or purchase contract, which agreement or contract shall control the representations and warranties, if any.
By requesting this information package, the recipient acknowledges the responsibility to perform a due diligence review prior to any acquisition in whole or in part, and/or merger or interest with or of the Company. The marketing information presented here is the result of the Client's or Management's representations and research utilizing sources and materials considered to be reliable and to contain information deemed to be relevant to the Company, but without any guarantees or specific statements or implied meaning.
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