Thirty years at Take 5: David Warren’s drive-thru legacy
To celebrate his 30-year anniversary at Take 5 Oil Change, we look back at David Warren's impact on the brand and how he helped shape it to what it is today.
For David Warren, July 4, 2025, is more than a holiday. It also marks a monumental milestone: 30 years with Take 5 Oil Change.
David joined Take 5 as a full-time employee on July 4, 1995, but his connection to the company goes back even further.
“My dad and uncle owned and operated the first-ever Take 5 shop," said David. “Starting as a teen, I spent my summers there working part-time, doing everything from vacuuming cars to changing oil.”
Back then, the company was called Rapid Oil Change, offering quick oil changes, minor repairs, and other maintenance services. Over the years, both the brand and the business evolved, and David was there for every step of the journey.
Here is a look back at some of the most significant highlights from David’s remarkable career with Take 5 Oil Change.
Pioneering a new business model
One of the most impactful moments in David’s career came right at the start. He was fresh out of Louisiana State University when his uncle, the president of what would become Take 5, hired him full-time with a specific mission in mind: to design and launch the company’s first drive-thru style oil change shop.
“We wanted to try something new and create a drive-thru experience where customers never had to leave their car,” he explained.
It was a bold leap into uncharted territory. David and his team investigated the handful of drive-thru models in the country. They traveled from West Virginia to Ohio to study various shop set-ups and gather insights from customers and employees. David also computerized the point-of-sale (POS) system, which varied from the traditional cash registers the shops had been using.
“I knew we had to figure out a way to keep customers in the car,” David said. “Using technology like a computerized POS system was key to achieving that.”
The first drive-thru Take 5 Oil Change opened in 1996 in Metairie, LA, setting the stage for everything that would follow.
Expanding into new markets
For the next 10 years, he worked on developing and expanding this new Take 5 model in its core market of the Gulf Coast.
“I was heavily involved with the construction of those first 26 locations. When it came time to spread out beyond our regional market, I wanted to be there, too,” David said.
In 2009, David helped his cousin open Take 5’s first location outside of the core market, in Rock Hill, SC. Then, the next year, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to build and operate Shop #27.
This was an exciting opportunity for the company, and for David: “I had been on the construction and operations side of the business for several years by that point, so I had to re-learn how to do things like change the oil. It was like getting back to my roots from high school, working part-time at my uncle’s shop.”
He would go on to help many shops develop up and down the East Coast as Regional Director of Operations from 2010 to 2016.
Building a risk department from the ground up
As the drive-thru model took off, the company began to rapidly expand. With growth, new challenges emerged, but David was ready. In the early 2000s, for example, he petitioned leadership to create a dedicated risk management position.
“We started to have claims come in saying things like a filter fell off or a drain plug was missing,” David explained. “We needed a way to organize it and a process for dealing with them.”
Leadership approved, and David went to work. He created a risk management department to keep track of all claims. He also took on the role of representing Take 5 in discussions with the insurance and legal departments.
Today, what began as a one-man team is a vital department protecting Take 5’s reputation and assets as it continues to grow.
Standardizing new shop process
In 2016, Driven Brands acquired Take 5 Oil Change. This allowed David to transition out of the risk management space and into mergers and acquisitions.
“I spent several years traveling all over doing mergers and acquisitions, and it gave me a chance to give a lot of thought to how we should be doing things in terms of setting up a new shop,” said David.
An employee from the development and real estate team approached David with a vision: “I have this dream for a new unit growth team, and you’re basically already doing it.”
That vision became a reality. They decided to standardize David’s shop set up processes, and the new unit growth (NUG) team was born. The NUG team continuously improves the shop set up process, bringing structure and efficiency to new shop set ups.
“We have everything put together that a new shop owner needs, including office supplies and computer systems,” said David.’
Aside from reducing operation complexities, this approach also helps ensure that Take 5 customers receive the same rapid, high-quality service, regardless of which franchise they visit.
Empowering franchisee success
Currently, David serves as the Senior Franchise Construction Manager for Take 5. In this role, he guides franchisees from site inception to operational handover, spanning territories from Canada to Puerto Rico. He’s helped perfect a business model that is predictable, reliable, and profitable, and now, he’s helping franchisees across North America bring that business model to life.
“I enjoy working one-on-one with franchisees,” David said. “Helping someone open their first shop and then their second and third, seeing them grow is incredibly rewarding.”
Take 5 Oil Change has seen impressive growth in the past five years. In 2024 alone, the brand added more than 100 new franchise locations, nearly doubling its franchise footprint in just two years. What started as a couple of shops in Louisiana is now more than 1,000 company-owned and franchised service centers across North America.
This has all been possible because David helped bring an idea to life 30 years ago and because he stuck around and kept showing up every day to give it his all. As David celebrates his 30th anniversary, one thing is clear: his unwavering commitment to Take 5 Oil Change has shaped the company legacy and its future.
“It took a team to build what we’ve built with Take 5,” he said. “And I’m honored to have been part of it.”