UBreakiFix

Last updated
UBreakiFix
Company type Subsidiary
Founded2009;15 years ago (2009) in Orlando, Florida
FounderDavid Reiff
Eddie Trujillo
Justin Wetherill  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Headquarters
Orlando   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
,
United States  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Area served
North America
Parent Asurion, LLC

uBreakiFix is an American chain of electronic repair shops, founded in 2009 with over 832 locations in 2016 across the United States and the Caribbean. [1] [2] [3] They are most commonly known for repairing all kinds of household electronics. [4] In August 2019, uBreakiFix was acquired by Asurion, LLC, an insurance company. [5] Its Canadian division was sold to Mobile Klinik in January 2023, and all franchises there were rebranded.

Contents

History

Location in Spring Mall Square, Springfield, Virginia UBREAKIFIX, Spring Mall Square.jpg
Location in Spring Mall Square, Springfield, Virginia

uBreakiFix was established in Orlando, Florida as a single shop. [6] [7] It then quickly expanded by offering franchise opportunities. [8] [9] Their business model centers around servicing equipment such as smartphones, game consoles, tablets, and computers. In 2016, Google made them the only authorized walk-in repair provider for the Pixel and Pixel XL, providing the company with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) parts for replacements. [10] Industry reports speculated that this choice was made in order for Google to compete with the Apple Genius Bar, which offers in-person iPhone repairs. [11] [12] [13] [14] Samsung formed a similar partnership with uBreakiFix in 2018, naming them as an authorized in-warranty Samsung repair center and providing stores with access to OEM components. [15]

The uBreakiFix franchise was listed eighteenth on Entrepreneur's 2018 Franchise 500 list. [16] [17] The company was also mentioned in the Orlando Business Journal as one of 2019's “Fast 50,” a list of the top 50 fastest growing private companies in Orlando. Growth for this list is measured by marking percentage growth over a two-year time frame, and companies must show consistent growth over a three-year period. [18] [19]

Rebranding

Asurion announced that uBreakiFix will be rebranding as Asurion Tech Repair & Solutions, but has since retracted the plan. The company reverted to using uBreakiFix by Asurion for all locations by 2024. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Inc.</span> Apple Inc.-related worker organizations and unions

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Apple's product lineup includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Apple TV; as well as software like iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS; and services like Apple Card, Apple Pay, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple TV+.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blockbuster (retailer)</span> American video rental corporation

Blockbuster is an American multimedia brand and former rental store chain. The business was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a single home video rental shop, but later became a public store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. The logo was designed by Lee Dean at the Rominger Agency. The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide and operated 9,094 stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Roma's</span> American casual dining chain restaurant

Romacorp Inc., which does business as Tony Roma's, is an American casual dining chain restaurant specializing in baby back ribs. The first location was established by the founder, Tony Roma, in 1972 in North Miami, Florida. Clint Murchison Jr. purchased a majority stake in the restaurant in 1976, and he and Roma established the jointly owned Roma Corporation. The first international location opened in 1979 in Tokyo, followed by an international expansion with both company-owned stores and franchises. As of 2020, there are over 115 locations on six continents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advance Auto Parts</span> American auto parts retailer

Advance Auto Parts, Inc. is an American automotive aftermarket parts provider. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, it serves both professional installer and do it yourself (DIY) customers. As of December 2023, Advance operated 4,935 stores and 321 Worldpac branches in the United States and Canada. The company also serves 1,245 independently owned Carquest-branded stores in the U.S., Mexico, The Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and British Virgin Islands.

Play N Trade is an American franchisor operating in the video game and consumer electronics space, with an emphasis on video gaming lifestyle. The company, whose headquarters are in San Clemente, California, United States currently operates stores throughout the United States, Canada, Panama and Egypt. Play N Trade has been referred to as "the fastest-growing video game retail franchise" in the United States, and is the “second-largest specialty video game retail in the United States”. As of January 10, 2013, Play N Trade operates 116 franchised locations globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marco's Pizza</span> American pizza restaurant chain

Marco's Pizza, operated by Marco's Franchising, LLC, is an American restaurant chain and interstate franchise based in Toledo, Ohio, that specializes in Italian-American cuisine. The first store was opened in Oregon, Ohio, on Starr Avenue. It was founded by Italian immigrant Pasquale "Pat" Giammarco on February 18, 1978.

Kahala Brands is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada-based MTY Food Group Inc. of Montreal, Quebec. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kahala is one of North America's largest holding company of franchise fast food restaurant companies. In May 2016, the publicly traded Canadian MTY Food Group announced a friendly takeover deal with the Kahala Brands. MTY agreed to pay about US$300 million to acquire Kahala. The two companies generated nearly $2 billion in revenues in the previous year. Jeff Smit was chosen to lead the US operations of MTY.

iFixit is an American e-commerce and how-to website that sells repair parts and publishes free wiki-like online repair guides for consumer electronics and gadgets. The company also performs product tear-downs of consumer devices. It is a private company in San Luis Obispo, California founded in 2003, spurred by Kyle Wiens not being able to locate an Apple iBook G3 repair manual while the company's founders were attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Google Nexus is a discontinued line of consumer electronic mobile devices that ran a stock version of the Android operating system. Google managed the design, development, marketing, and support of these devices, but some development and all manufacturing were carried out by partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Alongside the main smartphone products, the line also included tablet computers and streaming media players; the Nexus started out in January 2010 and reached its end in October 2016, replaced by Google Pixel family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nexus 10</span> 2012 Android tablet by Google and Samsung

The Nexus 10 is a tablet computer co-developed by Google and Samsung Electronics that runs the Android operating system. It is the second tablet in the Google Nexus series, a family of Android consumer devices marketed by Google and built by an OEM partner. Following the success of the 7-inch Nexus 7, the first Google Nexus tablet, the Nexus 10 was released with a 10.1-inch, 2560×1600 pixel display, which was the world's highest resolution tablet display at the time of its release. The Nexus 10 was announced on October 29, 2012, and became available on November 13, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweet Frog</span> Chain of frozen yogurt retail stores

Sweet Frog is a chain of frozen yogurt retail restaurants owned and operated by Sweet Frog Enterprises, LLC. Sweet Frog customers create their own soft-serve frozen yogurt with numerous flavors and toppings from which to choose. Derek Cha, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea at the age of 12, is the founder of sweetFrog. He opened the first sweetFrog shop in Richmond, Virginia in 2009, at a time when the United States economy was in a recession. Cha founded sweetFrog on Christian principles. The "FROG" part of the name, according to Cha, is actually an acronym for "Fully Rely on God".

Christopher Hurn is an American writer, entrepreneur, and business executive who works primarily in the field of small business lending. He is the founder and CEO of Fountainhead, a company that provides commercial real estate financing and growth capital for small business owners. He previously founded Mercantile Capital Corporation, a financier of owner-occupied commercial real estate and an Inc. 500 company. He served as CEO of that company prior to leaving in late 2014 to launch Fountainhead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samsung Electronics</span> South Korean multinational electronics corporation

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is currently the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, accounting for 70% of the group's revenue in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Daydream</span> Discontinued virtual reality platform by Google

Daydream is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform which was developed by Google, primarily for use with a headset into which a smartphone is inserted. It is available for select phones running the Android mobile operating system that meet the platform's software and hardware requirements. Daydream was announced at the Google I/O developer conference in May 2016, and the first headset, the Daydream View, was released on November 10, 2016. To use the platform, users place their phone into the back of a headset, run Daydream-compatible mobile apps, and view content through the viewer's lenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CopperheadOS</span> Mobile operating system focused on privacy and security

CopperheadOS is a mobile operating system for smartphones, based on the Android mobile platform. It adds privacy and security features to the official releases of the Android Open Source Project by Google. CopperheadOS is developed by Copperhead, a Canadian information security company. It is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, although its source code is not available for public download.

iSmash is a high-street technology repair service, specialising in fixing smartphones, tablets and computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puls (company)</span> American tech services company

Puls is a San Francisco–based startup founded by Eyal Ronen and Itai Hirsch in 2015. The company provides in-home services such as repairs to all household appliances. The user books an appointment for a technician to visit the user's location to fix said problem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixel 3</span> 2018 Android smartphone designed by Google

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are a pair of Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. They were officially announced on October 9, 2018 at the Made by Google event and released in the United States on October 18. On October 15, 2019, they were succeeded by the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Tensor</span> Series of system-on-chip processors

Google Tensor is a series of ARM64-based system-on-chip (SoC) processors designed by Google for its Pixel devices. It was originally conceptualized in 2016, following the introduction of the first Pixel smartphone, though actual developmental work did not enter full swing until 2020. The first-generation Tensor chip debuted on the Pixel 6 smartphone series in 2021, and were succeeded by the Tensor G2 chip in 2022, G3 in 2023 and G4 in 2024. Tensor has been generally well received by critics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixel Watch</span> 2022 smartwatch developed by Google

The Pixel Watch is a Wear OS smartwatch designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. First previewed in May 2022 during the Google I/O keynote, it features a round dome-shaped display as well as deep integration with Fitbit, which Google acquired in 2021. Two Pixel-branded smartwatches had been in development at Google by July 2016, but were canceled ahead of their release due to hardware chief Rick Osterloh's concerns that they did not fit well with other Pixel devices. Development on a new Pixel-branded watch began shortly after Google's acquisition of Fitbit.

References

  1. Strauss, Karsten. "A Day In The Life Of A Franchisee: Drew Lessaris of uBreakiFix". Forbes.
  2. "Tech repair brand uBreakiFix doubling Canadian presence". BNN Bloomberg Canada.
  3. "uBreakiFix Hits Major Growth Milestone with 500 Stores Sold". finance.yahoo.com.
  4. Adams, Susan. "How A 21-Year-Old Took UBreakiFix From His Bedroom To 262 Stores And A Deal With Google". Forbes.
  5. "Asurion buys national repair chain". Nashville Business Journal . August 26, 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  6. Alsever, Jennifer. "These Inc. 500 CEOs Prove That Not All Entrepreneurs Work Alone". Inc.
  7. Caravalis, Dean (31 July 2018). "Justin Wetherill". Outrageously Remarkable.
  8. "uBreakiFix CEO Justin Wetherill: from UCF College of Business to Successful Tech Entrepreneur". UCF. 8 June 2018.
  9. "Tech retailer pursues 'broken' opportunity with more stores". Chain Store Age. March 14, 2016.
  10. Trends, Digital. "Google plans to offer walk-in repairs for its new Pixel phone". Business Insider.
  11. "uBreakiFix Becomes Exclusive Walk-In Repair Partner Across US and Canada for Recently Launched Google Pixel Phones". finance.yahoo.com.
  12. Arici, Alexandra (October 24, 2016). "Google and uBreakiFix partner up to offer same-day Pixel repairs in US and Canada".
  13. Wang, Jules (October 21, 2016). "uBreakiFix partners with Google for same-day Pixel screen repairs". PocketNow.
  14. Golightly, Daniel (8 May 2019). "uBreakiFix Will Unsurprisingly Provide The Fastest Pixel 3a Fixes". Android Headlines.
  15. Ravenscraft, Eric (September 16, 2019). "How to Make Your Smartphone Last Longer". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  16. "uBreakiFix CEO Justin Wetherill speaks about his Orlando-based business". Orlando Sentinel.
  17. "2018 Franchise 500 Ranking". Entrepreneur.
  18. "Inc 5000 Profile: uBreakiFix". Inc.
  19. Richardson, Matthew (January 12, 2018). "Orlando's uBreakiFix gets $20M Business Loan".
  20. "All Your Technology Repaired By Pros | Asurion Tech Repair". Asurion. Retrieved 2022-12-20.