1-800-RADIATOR & A/C Franchise Costs, Fees & FDD

Year Business Began: 1985

Franchising Since: 2001

Headquarters: Benicia, California

Estimated Number of Units: 195

Franchise Description: 1-800-Radiator Franchisor SPV LLC is the franchisor. The franchisor is a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Driven Systems LLC. The franchise is for the operation of a distribution warehouse(s) using the name “1-800-RADIATOR & A/C” and other trademarks, which sells radiators, condensers, air conditioning compressors, fan assemblies, fuel pumps, hoses, exhaust-related products and services, heavy duty hard parts and services and other automotive parts and related services to automobile repair shops and parts stores, fleets, chain accounts and retail consumers.


Training Overview: The training program consists of one week of training at company headquarters in Benicia, California and/or Sacramento, California. The franchisor requires that franchisees and all administrative and sales personnel personally attend refresher training courses covering operations and new product or procedure introductions. The franchisor may hold periodic national or regional conferences, including an annual conference, to discuss various business issues and operational and general business concerns affecting 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C warehouses. Attendance at these conferences is mandatory for franchisees and other employees that the franchisor designates.

Territory Granted: The franchisor will designate a geographic area as the exclusive territory, which will be mutually approved by the franchisee and the franchisor and specified in the Franchise Agreement (the territory). Franchisees will not receive an exclusive territory. During the term of the Franchise Agreement, the franchisor will not establish, or authorize any other person to establish, a 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C warehouse in the territory or solicit customers or accept orders within the territory, or authorize any other person to solicit customers or accept orders within the territory, as a 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C warehouse, except for referrals of potential 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C customers and sales in the territory through chain accounts, or as may be required by law. Each territory generally includes a present or anticipated customer base between 500 and 3,000 shops, but is sometimes lower or higher.

Obligations and Restrictions: Unless franchisees obtain the franchisor’s prior written consent, the franchisor requires that franchisees personally attend its training courses and supervise the warehouse on a full-time basis. If franchisees are a legal entity such as a corporation, partnership or limited liability company, one of the owners must be approved by the franchisor to be the full-time representative. Franchisees or their field sales representative must personally make at least four sales visits per each metro customer or potential metro customer (as defined in the manual) in their territory each year, or such other minimum number of sales visits as the franchisor may specify in the manual periodically. Franchisees must also make at least two sales visits to each non-metro or potential non-metro customer (as defined in the manual) in the territory each year, which may be in-person or via approved mailers (or other approved methods that the franchisor authorizes in the manual periodically). Franchisees may offer and sell only those products and services that the franchisor has approved. Franchisees must offer all products and services that the franchisor designates as required for all franchisees. The franchisor has the right, to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law, to establish maximum, minimum or other pricing requirements with respect to the prices franchisees may charge for products or services from their warehouse and require them to participate in system-wide discount programs.

Term of Agreement and Renewal: The length of the initial franchise term is 20 years. Franchisees may renew the franchise for an additional 20-year term, if certain conditions are met.

Financial Assistance: Although the franchisor does not offer any financing, its affiliates, in their sole discretion, may finance a portion of the initial costs and fees related to the purchase of the 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C franchise if franchisees meet certain credit requirements. This financing is provided in conjunction with or in lieu of SBA financing or other conventional financing that franchisees obtain in connection with their 1-800-RADIATOR & A/C franchise purchase. Except as described, neither the franchisor nor any affiliate offers direct or indirect financing to franchisees, guarantees any note, lease or other obligation of theirs, has any practice or intent to sell, assign or discount to a third party all or any part of any financing arrangement of theirs, or receives any direct or indirect payments or other consideration from any person for the placement of any financing with the lender.

Estimated Initial Investment

Name of Fee	Low	High
Initial Franchise Fee	$45,000	$45,000
Start-Up Warehouse Equipment and Supplies	$42,000	$65,000
Opening Marketing Package	$30,000	$30,000
Travel and Living Expenses While Training	$2,500	$5,000
Lease Deposit	$2,000	$15,000
Delivery Vehicle	$5,000	$35,000
Miscellaneous Opening Costs	$25,000	$75,000
Opening Inventory	$250,000	$800,000
Rent for first 3 months	$6,000	$49,000
Additional Funds (3 months)	$50,000	$150,000
ESTIMATED TOTAL (for new warehouse, excluding real estate purchase costs)	$457,500	$1,269,000

 
Other Fees

Type of Fee	Amount
Ongoing Franchise Fee	8% of gross sales.
Local Marketing Fee	0.5% of gross sales.
System Marketing Fee	1.5% of gross sales.
Monthly Mailers	$0.65 per mailer, but could increase if the franchisor’s costs increase.
Inventory Purchases	Varies, depending on the franchisee’s inventory orders.
Call Center Fees	As determined by the franchisor (currently $2 to $4 per call, depending on whether the calls are received during regular business hours, after regular business hours or during peak volume times).
Billing and Collections Services Fee	Currently 3% of amount collected on the franchisee’s behalf for chain accounts.
Credit Card Processing Services Fee	Currently, 3% of the amount of all credit card transactions processed by the franchisor or its designee.
Referral Fee for Chain Accounts	Not currently charged.
Inventory (Private Label Products)	The current pricing as ordered by franchisees (if franchisees qualify for participation in the program).
Additional Training	Tuition-free.
Conferences	$325 per day.
Network Support Fees	Currently the network support fees cover software and e-mail access (currently these fees are $145 - $165 per year per user account for software, plus $4 per month per e-mail address). The franchisor may increase these fees upon notice to franchisees.
Personal Sales Visit Reimbursement	The franchisor’s actual expenses.
Administrative Fee	For each late payment in any 12-month period, $150 for the first late payment, and $300 for the second and each subsequent late payment.
Late Payment Penalty	$500
Audit	Reasonable accounting and legal fees.
Renewal Fee	$20,000
Transfer Fee	$20,000
Acquisition Costs	Based on inventory and additional sales.
Attorneys’ Fees	Reasonable amount.
Default Costs	Will vary.
Insurance Premiums	Amount of premium, plus 10% processing fee.
Container Program Fee	$300 per container.
Delivery Logistics Platform	The delivery logistics platform monthly subscription fee depends on the size of the franchisee’s warehouse.
Delivery Services Fee	Currently, $9.79 - $46.35 per delivery, which fees are subject to change.
Electronic Procurement Fee	Currently, the electronic procurement fee for an applicable order is generally 3% of the order amount.

The above information has been compiled from the FDD of 1-800-Radiator & A/C. Year of FDD: 2024.

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