Big O Tires Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Big O Tires is an automotive franchise selling tires and providing installation, alignment, and general repair and maintenance. Franchisees run tire-and-service centers managing retail sales, service bays, technicians, and inventory.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Big O Tires franchise requires a total initial investment of $512K – $1.9M, including a $5K – $18K franchise fee and an ongoing 5.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $2.8M[2]. SBA 7(a) loans show a 14.5% charge-off rate across 352 loans[1]. FranchiseVerdict grade: A (Strongest tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Data last verified · figures per the 2025 FDD issuance
Overview
- Investment
- $512K – $1.9M
- 48th pct Automotive
- Avg gross sales
- $2.8M
- 19th pct Automotive
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- 9th pct Automotive
- Units
- 461
- 46th pct Automotive
- SBA charge-off
- 14.5%
- % of SBA 7(a) loans not repaid · median varies by category
Quick verdict · Automotive · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Automotive avg · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $512K – $1.9M including a $18K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $2.8M/year. Note: this is gross profit, not take-home income.
- RISKVerdict A (Strongest tier), verdict score 64/100 (higher is better). SBA loan charge-off rate of 14.5% across 352 loans (above the 16% franchise average, based on all SBA 7(a) franchise lending, 2010–2025).
- TERMSNo protected territory and the franchisor reserves the right to compete in your area. Clarify territorial boundaries before signing.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Big O Tires, LLC
- Parent company
- TBC Shared Services, LLC
- Ultimate parent
- TBC Holdings, LLC
- Predecessor
- Big O Tire Dealers, Inc.
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- Chief Executive Officer
- Don Byrd
- Incorporated in
- NV
- HQ
- 4260 Design Center Drive, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410
- Auditor
- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $3.0B
- vs $3.2B prior year
Independent franchisee associations
- Franchise Advisory Council (FAC)
Franchisee-led councils or alliances disclosed in Item 20. Indicates operator voice.
Overview
About
- CEO
- Don Byrd
- Headquarters
- FL
- Founded
- 1982
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 24
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 28% above the typical automotive franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown12 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee/Minimum Deposit | $10K | $18K | |
| Initial Training - Fees, Travel & Lodging Expensesnot refundable | $1K | $9K | |
| Real Estate Leases (Three Months' Rent Plus Security Deposit) | $40K | $160K | |
| Equipment, Fixtures and Other Fixed Assetsnot refundable | $250K | $395K | |
| Construction, Remodeling, Leasehold Improvements and Decorating Costsnot refundable | $25K | $750K | |
| Signsnot refundable | $15K | $75K | |
| Grand Opening Advertisingnot refundable | $10K | $50K | |
| Initial Inventorynot refundable | $75K | $188K | |
| Insurance and Other Security (3 months)not refundable | $10K | $20K | |
| Computer Hardware and Softwarenot refundable | $21K | $34K | |
| Non-recurring Pre-opening Costsnot refundable | $5K | $35K | |
| Additional Funds (up to 12 months)not refundable | $50K | $150K | |
| Total initial investment | $512K | $1.9M |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $512K – $1.9M
- Middle of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $50K – $150K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $5K – $18K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- tiered · typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 3.6%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 4.4%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 3.6% of gross sales |
| Technology fee | $304 |
| Training fee | $1K |
| Transfer fee | $5K |
| Inventory (initial) | $75K – $188K |
| Total fee load | 4.4% of rev |
A 4.4% total fee load is unusually lean. More of each revenue dollar stays with the franchisee.
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 94% above the automotive norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · estimated
Returns at a glance
Indicative numbers using FDD Item 7 / Item 19 inputs and category-benchmarked cost ratios. Full single-unit, 25-unit portfolio, and LBO models (with every input editable to stress-test your own scenario) live on the financials page.
Store EBITDA · annual
$463K
16.4% margin
Unlevered ROIC
36%
EBITDA / total invested capital
Payback
34 mo
cash-on-cash, unlevered
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit. The target band for an attractive franchise is 30–60% ROIC. Below that and a passive index fund likely outperforms; above that and the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses. It's the top line only. Operating costs below are category estimates. Override them to match your real lease quote, labor market, and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Big O Tires unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Estimated return on your total franchise investment, before any debt financing.
36%
Within the 30–60% "attractive franchise" band
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Big O Tires units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
26.7%
3.26× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
3.08×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$13.6M
on $26.6M purchase
Total debt
$13.0M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $2.8M
- Per unit, per year
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross revenues and cost analysis
- Sample size
- 457
- vs category median 70 · large
- Range (low → high)
- $748K→$10.2M
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Quartile band
- $1.4M→$4.7M
- Bottom 25% → top 25%
- Transparency tier
- revenue_only
- Categorical assessment of disclosure depth
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 9 / 10
- vs category median 4 / 10 · above
Compared against 167 Automotive brands
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $2.8M/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 2.4x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 4.4% — below the Automotive average of 9.3%.
Disclosure
Transparency score 9/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence.
Operator retention
System roughly stable (+0.2% 3-year CAGR) with 461 units.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Automotive averages
How Big O Tires Compares
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 461
- Opened
- 8
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 9
- Terminated
- 4
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 2
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 2.0%
- Company-owned
- 0
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 100%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- -0.2%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- +0.2%
- Compounded over last 3 years
3-year detail · Item 20
- Opened (3yr)
- 8
- Closed (3yr)
- 3
- Terminated (3yr)
- 4
- Non-renewed (3yr)
- 2
- Transfers (3yr)
- 19
- Reacquired (3yr)
- 0
- Franchisor bought back
- Transfer rate
- 0.2%
- Owners selling to other franchisees
- Ceased ops
- 0.2%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 13 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator. Not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee contact records (FDD Item 20). Shows states with at least one current operator on file. Full state registration data (Item 12) will appear on a future FDD refresh.
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
- Total loans
- 352
- Loan volume
- $222.9M
- Median loan
- $378K
- 50th percentile
- Charge-off rate
- 14.5%
- rates vary by category · see methodology
Historical SBA 7(a) lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
- Repayment rate (PIF)
- 85.5%
- 5-yr charge-off
- 0.0%
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 72
- Defaults
- 42
- Typical loan rate
- 6.3%
- avg rate to borrowers
- Franchised industry avg
- 14.0%
- brand above franchise avg ↑
- Jobs supported
- 3,038
- 1.4 per loan
- Lender concentration
- 30%
- top lender's share
Borrower mix: 27% went to startups / new businesses, 73% to established operators
Franchise vs independent — in tire dealers, franchised businesses charge off at 14.0% vs 16.4% for independents — franchising is associated with 15% lower SBA default risk in this category.
Vintage analysis
Big O Tires charge-off rate by loan vintage
Top lenders financing Big O Tires franchisees
Showing 3 of 72 lenders. The full breakdown — every lender, state distribution, interest rates & risk ratings — is in the SBA Lending Report below.
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
Premium insight
SBA Lending Report
Deep-dive into Big O Tires's SBA lending history: lender network, geographic footprint, interest rates, and more.
SBA Lending Report
- Principal loss rate and NAICS industry benchmark
- 10 lenders with concentration factor
- Per-state charge-off rates across 15 states
- Startup risk premium and job creation velocity
- 34-year lending trend
- SBA 504 real estate/equipment data
Instant access. No subscription.
What could kill this investment?
SBA loans here charge off near the 16.0% national average.
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Big O Tires presents high risk due to active litigation alleging franchisor misrepresentation, declining unit count, thin profit margins, and high capital requirements that compress ROI.
Litigation (Item 3)
3 prior actions disclosed: (1) Fratilla v. Big O Tires class action re tire protection program; settled $2.05M. (2) TBC Retail Group Wage and Hour Cases JCCP 4701; settled $1.84M. (3) Black Donuts et al. franchisee fraud/breach claims; settled with nominal payment. Also 1 administrative action (People of CA v. Big O Tires re advertising, $25K penalty, permanent injunction).
Largest disclosed settlement: $2,050,000
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
ⓘ These are the parent company's consolidated financials (the parent guarantees the franchisor), not this brand's standalone results — the figure reflects the whole corporate group, not this brand alone.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
Score breakdown · what drove the 64 / 100 verdict
- 01HIGHActive multi-front litigation including franchisee misrepresentation claims that directly undermine trust in franchisor disclosures
- 02MINORUnit count declining (-0.2% YoY) despite 461-unit system size, indicating market saturation or franchisee attrition
- 03MINORNet profit margin of only 9.2% ($258,878 on $2.8M avg revenue) leaves minimal buffer for royalty payments (3.5-5%), labor costs, and unexpected expenses
- 04MINORThree separate class action lawsuits (tire protection program, wage/hour violations at company stores, and franchisee false representations) suggest systemic operational or disclosure issues
- 05MINORHigh initial investment range ($511.5K-$1.88M) combined with thin margins creates extended payback period and capital recovery risk
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 4.4% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 1 |
| Territory type | protected |
| Protected territory | No |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | No |
| Territory radius | 2 mi |
| Territory population | 50,000 |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Optional |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 10 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 6 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Denver, Colorado |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | CO |
| Litigation count | 3 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
3 prior actions disclosed: (1) Fratilla v. Big O Tires class action re tire protection program; settled $2.05M. (2) TBC Retail Group Wage and Hour Cases JCCP 4701; settled $1.84M. (3) Black Donuts et al. franchisee fraud/breach claims; settled with nominal payment. Also 1 administrative action (People of CA v. Big O Tires re advertising, $25K penalty, permanent injunction).
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 73 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 200 hrs
- Training location
- Palm Beach Gardens, Florida or online virtual classroom; field training at a Big O Store
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 3 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- Franchisee with franchisor approval
- Franchisor financing
- Offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- BOT POS System (Navex / transitioning to Tekmetric)
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: BOT POS System (Navex / transitioning to Tekmetric)
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
486 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
FDD download
Big O Tires · FDD (2025) PDF
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Big O Tires franchise?
The total investment to open a Big O Tires franchise ranges from $512K – $1.9M, with an initial franchise fee of $18K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Big O Tires franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Big O Tires FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $2.8M. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
What is Item 19 in the Big O Tires FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Big O Tires FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Big O Tires's franchise failure rate?
Based on SBA 7(a) loan data, Big O Tires has a charge-off rate of 14.5% across 352 loans, meaning 14.5% of franchise loans were charged off. Charge-off rates are one proxy for franchise risk, though they do not capture all closures. This data comes from FOIA-sourced SBA lending records.
How many Big O Tires franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Big O Tires has 461 total units in the United States, including 461 franchised units and 0 company-owned units. 8 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Big O Tires a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Big O Tires as a A-grade franchise with a verdict score of 64 out of 100 (higher is better), based on our analysis of investment costs, revenue data, SBA loan performance, and growth trends. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.