Business Brokerage CBI+Team Sheds Sunbelt Franchise

A Springdale-based business brokerage cut ties with its national franchisor and is now on its own.

Due to differences over how to grow market share, CBI+Team, formerly CBI-Sunbelt, shed the national Sunbelt network on June 1. CBI, which sells Main Street businesses as well as those with annual revenue between $5 and $50 million, has offices in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota.

“We outgrew them and the support mechanisms they had and our growth plans became inconsistent with the direction of Sunbelt,” said Michael Auten, CEO of CBI.

The company, originally named Grimes Business Brokerage, was founded in 1994 by Carl Grimes, chairman of CBI. Grimes said that under the Sunbelt network, his office was restricted from expanding into two key markets — Tulsa and Little Rock. Now that Sunbelt is no longer in the picture, Tulsa and Little Rock are viable for CBI.

Auten said business brokerage is going well as baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are selling to a younger generation. Business ownership is also a great way for immigrants to enter the country, so foreign buyers oftentimes submit bids when companies go up for sale, Auten said.