PIRTEK USA went from 52 locations to 200-plus in a decade under a CEO who came from accounting. Here is how the Australian hydraulic hose franchise is expanding into Northwest Arkansas and what their digital presence reveals.
When a hydraulic hose fails on a construction excavator at 2 a.m., the clock starts ticking in dollars. Every minute of downtime is lost labor, missed deadlines, and revenue bleeding out. Most equipment operators have two options: wait for a dealer to source the part, or drive the broken hose to a repair shop and hope they can match it. PIRTEK USA built an entire franchise around a third option. A mobile service vehicle shows up at your job site within an hour, fabricates a replacement hose on the spot, and gets you running again. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
It is a business most people have never heard of. But if you work in construction, manufacturing, agriculture, or logistics, you probably already know the name. PIRTEK USA surpassed 200 U.S. locations in early 2026 and shows no signs of slowing down (Franchising.com).
The story starts in Australia. Peter Duncan and Wally Davey founded PIRTEK in Sydney in 1980. The name comes from "Pirelli Technology," a nod to Pirelli, one of their earliest major suppliers. Duncan started the business from his garage, initially running it as a network of distributors before switching to a franchise model in 1985 (Wikipedia).
The concept was simple but nobody else was doing it at scale. A fleet of mobile service vehicles, each stocked with hose, fittings, and crimping equipment, dispatched to job sites to replace failed hoses on the spot. The franchise model let PIRTEK expand fast. They moved into the United Kingdom in 1988 and crossed the Pacific to the United States in 1996 (Wikipedia).
The U.S. expansion did not go smoothly at first. In the late 1990s, the parent company sold off 80 percent of the U.S. franchise business. That stake sat outside the family for nearly two decades. In 2015, the Duncan family bought it back. Glenn Duncan, Peter's son, led the repurchase and took direct control of the U.S. operation (Wikipedia, Franchise Times). At that point, the U.S. business had 52 locations.
The person tasked with turning those 52 locations into something much bigger was not a salesperson or a marketing executive. She was an accountant.
Kim Gubera joined PIRTEK in February 2016 as corporate controller. She had spent the previous 26 years at U.S. Lawns and its parent company, working her way up to director of finance. She earned her MBA at night over nine years and became a CPA at 40. "I didn't do it the short way," she told Franchise Times. "I did it the long way" (Franchise Times).
Gubera was promoted to CFO and vice president in 2018, then to president and CEO in January 2019. She told Franchise Times that a finance background is unusual for a franchising CEO. Most come from sales or marketing. But she brought 16 years of franchise experience and a financial discipline that translated directly into helping franchisees build profitable storefronts.
Her first move as CEO was a listening tour. She visited every single PIRTEK location in the country in 2019. "It was the smartest thing that I ever did," she said. When COVID hit, she called every franchise owner every day for eight weeks. That was 2,200 phone calls. PIRTEK had no permanent closures during the pandemic (Franchise Times).
Under Gubera's leadership, PIRTEK USA increased its unit count by 92.3 percent in five years (PIRTEK USA). That is a self-reported number, so take it with the usual grain of salt. But the trajectory is visible in the press releases. 52 locations when the family bought back the business in 2014. Around 100 by the end of 2020. 200 by March 2026.
2025 was the strongest year in PIRTEK USA's history. The brand awarded 61 franchise units and opened 41 new locations, both company records. Q4 alone saw 16 locations launch (PIRTEK USA).
The momentum carried straight into 2026. PIRTEK opened its 200th U.S. location on March 5. In Q1, they opened 12 locations and awarded 12 new territories across 35 states plus Puerto Rico. Three of the new franchise owners were military veterans (PIRTEK USA). Q2 kept the pace with 10 new locations and 11 additional territories awarded, including PIRTEK's first location in Nebraska. Three of the Q2 openings were existing franchisees expanding into additional territories (PR Newswire).
The franchise model is straightforward. Each franchisee gets a territory, a Mobile Service Vehicle, and a retail Service and Supply Center. The initial investment ranges from $235,137 to $666,638 (PIRTEK USA). PIRTEK describes itself as the only industrial franchise brand of its kind in the United States, a claim I cannot independently verify.
On September 23, 2025, PIRTEK announced plans to expand into Northwest Arkansas. The announcement came out of Fayetteville and named Bentonville, Fayetteville, and Rogers as target cities. The company is recruiting franchisees with a goal of getting locations open as soon as possible (PIRTEK USA).
The logic is sound. Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest-growing economic corridors in the country, home to major logistics networks, poultry and agricultural businesses, and expanding infrastructure. Construction, logistics, agriculture, and manufacturing are all sectors where hydraulic hose failures happen regularly and downtime is expensive. "This region's blend of rapid growth and deeply rooted industry makes it a natural fit for PIRTEK," Gubera said (PIRTEK USA).
I spend my days looking at how multi-location businesses show up online. PIRTEK is an interesting case because they are a B2B franchise, not a consumer brand. Nobody searches for "hydraulic hose repair near me" for fun. They search it because something is broken and they are losing money.
PIRTEK's review data tells a different story than a consumer franchise. The review volumes are lower, which you would expect from a B2B business. But the ratings are consistently high. I pulled a sample using Birdeye review data:
The Houston location is the standout. 399 reviews at 4.9 stars for a hydraulic hose shop is remarkable. The reviews tell you why. Customers mention technicians by name. They talk about response times. "Gabriel arrived within an hour of calling for the breakdown," one review reads. The 1-Hour ETA promise is not just marketing copy. It shows up in the review text, and that is exactly what Google's algorithm and AI systems reward.
But notice the volume spread. Houston has 399 reviews. Orlando has 41. That is a 10x difference. For a B2B business, that is partly a function of market size and how long a location has been open. But it also tells you which locations are actively asking for reviews and which are not. A location with 41 reviews is more vulnerable to a single bad review moving the needle.
pirtekusa.com is a well-structured site. The homepage leads with the core promise: 1-Hour ETA, 24/7/365, 200+ locations, 450+ Mobile Service Vehicles. There is a separate franchise recruitment site at pirtekusafranchise.com, which is smart. You do not want franchise sales content competing with emergency service calls on the same pages. The location finder is prominently placed, which is critical when customers are in crisis mode.
When someone asks an AI engine "who can fix a hydraulic hose near me," the engine needs to find a specific business at a specific address with enough signals to be confident. PIRTEK's established locations with strong review profiles should show up. Their Houston location, with 399 reviews and consistent mentions of fast response times, is the kind of entity AI engines love to recommend.
The problem is new locations. When PIRTEK opens in Northwest Arkansas, those locations start with zero reviews, zero local authority, and zero presence in AI training data. The brand's national reputation helps, but AI engines do not recommend brands. They recommend specific businesses. A new PIRTEK in Rogers, Arkansas with no reviews will be invisible in AI search for months. And in B2B, once someone finds a reliable hose repair provider, they tend to stick with them.
PIRTEK's 1-Hour ETA promise is not just a service standard. It is their entire marketing proposition. It shows up in their reviews, their website copy, and their press releases. If you run a B2B service business, your response time is your brand whether you realize it or not.
There is a common assumption that B2B businesses do not need many reviews because their customers are not browsing Google Maps. That is wrong. The contractor whose excavator just blew a hydraulic line is absolutely searching on his phone, and he is calling the first result that looks reliable. PIRTEK's Houston location with 399 reviews is winning that search. Their Orlando location with 41 is more exposed.
PIRTEK is expanding into Northwest Arkansas, which means starting from zero. No reviews. No local citations. No AI presence. If you are opening in a new market, you need a 90-day plan: review generation, GBP optimization, local citations, location page content. Otherwise your new location is invisible for months.
PIRTEK USA is not a sexy business. Nobody writes trend pieces about hydraulic hose replacement. But that is what makes it interesting. It is an essential service that every construction site, factory, farm, and logistics operation needs. PIRTEK went from 52 locations to 200-plus in a little over a decade, under a CEO who came from accounting and visited every single location in her first year.
Their digital presence is solid in the places that matter. Google Business Profiles with strong ratings. A clean website with a functional location finder. The gaps are predictable. Review volume varies widely by location. New markets like Northwest Arkansas will take time to build local search presence. If you are running a multi-location B2B service business, the lessons are the same. Your Google Business Profile is your most important asset when a customer is in crisis. Your reviews are your credibility. Your response time is your brand. And the faster you grow, the more you need systems to keep all of it consistent.
Book a 20-minute call. We'll benchmark your local search visibility and show you exactly what we'd move.
Book a Strategy CallWe'll discuss your locations, your Google profiles, what AI engines say about you (and how we can fix it).
Book the sessionFree 20-min call · No obligation
