Christian Brothers Automotive Expands Into Two New States

Christian Brothers Automotive awarded 14 new franchise territories in the first half of 2026, pushing its open location count to 339 with another 96 in the pipeline. The awards spanned markets from Boerne, Texas to Charleston, South Carolina, and the brand also secured its first location in Wyoming along with a Las Vegas site that will make Nevada its 32nd state.

Training Center Targets the Technician Shortage

CBA broke ground in May on a $12 million, nearly 14,000-square-foot training center in Katy, Texas, named for founder Mark Carr. The facility will run apprenticeship programs through advanced coursework in electric vehicles, hybrids and driver-assistance systems when it opens in early 2027, addressing a labor gap that limits how fast automotive repair franchises can grow and giving CBA an in-house answer to a shortage most competitors still outsource to community colleges.

Homegrown Franchisees Are Earning Their Own Shops

Two graduates of CBA's Future Franchise Leadership Academy earned locations this cycle, in Loveland, Ohio and Lenexa, Kansas. The academy trains employees and managers inside the system to become owners, giving CBA a pipeline of vetted operators instead of relying only on outside capital to fund growth, a structural advantage when franchise financing gets tighter.

Why Multi-Unit Operators Should Pay Attention

With 96 locations already in development and demand rising for EV and hybrid repair work, CBA's bet on in-house technical training signals it sees workforce capacity, not just real estate, as the constraint on growth. Operators evaluating the brand get an early read on how seriously it treats service quality as it scales past 400 locations, and on whether that training investment shows up in franchisee retention over the next few years.