“People are fuel for the engine”: Brand President Tim Austin on Take 5's growth
EVP and Take 5 President Tim Austin has built teams at billion-dollar companies and scrappy startups. His secret to success? Invest in your people.
Tim Austin’s experience expands from operating businesses as large as $12 billion in revenue to leading a startup with just a few employees. He's led teams of thousands and sat across the table from a single franchisee trying to figure out its next move.
Through all of it, one thing has remained the same about how he leads.
"People and talent, that's the fuel for the engine," Tim said. "Our responsibility is to be prepared with that fuel to maximize the growth opportunity."
That belief is exactly what Take 5 Oil Change needed when they handed Tim the keys to the brand's top role in 2025. That year, Take 5 opened more than 160 locations and is on pace to match or exceed that this year. And Tim has had incredible success making sure the people inside the company have that same fiery ambition.
Strong teams make a strong brand
Tim Austin is the son of two educators. His mother taught first grade for over 40 years. His father, a middle school teacher, and football coach for over 30 years. Growing up, Tim planned to follow their lead and go into education.
“I wanted to be a biology teacher and a football coach,” he recalled. “There are actually people out there who love biology, and I was one of them.”
But then he took a part-time job in college stocking shelves—and his plans changed.
“I caught the operations and retail bug, so I decided to take my career in that direction,” he said.
Tim spent the next 20 years at Walmart, rising from assistant store manager to corporate officer by 32 before transitioning to another major retailer, Sears, to manage operations. From there, he made a sharp pivot and joined a hearing healthcare startup where he spent nine years helping grow it into a 400+ location company across five countries.
Driven Brands brought him in to lead U.S. Car Wash in 2024. He ended up stabilizing the business and eventually saw it through a successful sale. When that chapter closed, Driven asked him to lead Take 5.
"I felt very comfortable with the Take 5 people and culture," Tim said. "It was a great fit.”
Throughout Tim’s career and across his various roles, his focus has been the same: build a solid team and developing the next generation of leaders.
At Take 5, the team implemented and launched Driver, a leadership development program that identifies strong site managers and prepares them for district manager roles. It aligns with the Pit Tech to President belief that any employee can walk through the door and build a meaningful career.
"We get people ready before we need them, so we can fuel the growth as it happens," Tim said.
Growth doesn't change the standard
Ask Tim what pride in performance looks like at Take 5, and he'll point you straight to Houston, Texas.
Regional Director of Operations Eddie Salinas and his team leaned into analytics tools and turned the Houston market comp car positive by the first quarter of this year. The team has kept building ever since.
"It’s exciting to see someone with tenure take a little bit of direction, some resources, and do something magical with it," Tim said.
He expects every team to own their market and hold themselves to a high standard. Protecting that standard means keeping things simple.
"Take 5 has gotten to this point by being different from our competitors and focusing on fast, friendly, simple," Tim says. "If it doesn't align with that, we rethink the strategy."
That filter also applies to how the brand shows up for customers. Take 5 recently relaunched its customer service model through a new training initiative called Smart Friend. It teaches every team member how to guide customers through their visit in a way that’s educational and consultative.
"You become the smart friend of that customer," Tim says. "Educate them, let them make their own decisions based on what they need and what they can afford."
Be great where you are
No matter the industry or the role, Tim has always been asked the same question: what's next?
"My answer to that question has never changed,” Tim said.
“What’s next is that I’m going to stay extremely focused on being great at what I do today because without taking care of today, there is no tomorrow."
That's the advice he gives every young leader he meets. He encourages them to stay planted, deliver in their current role, and support their team.
For Tim, the proof is in the pattern. Driven Brands trusted him with the car wash business. When that chapter closed, they handed him the biggest brand in the portfolio, and that isn’t a responsibility he handles lightly.
"I'm going to be the best president I can be for Take 5 Oil Change," Tim said. "And then the results will decide the rest."