You’ve seen the trucks. Those white box trucks with the hand-drawn stick figures—one tall, one short—weaving through suburban traffic. It’s a logo so simple it looks like a kid drew it on a napkin. Well, that’s because a kid basically did. But if you’re wondering who owns Two Men and a Truck today, the answer isn’t just a couple of guys with a van anymore. It's a massive corporate entity, though the family that built it from a side hustle into a global franchise still has their fingerprints all over the culture.
The short answer? Since 2021, Two Men and a Truck is owned by ServiceMaster Brands. ServiceMaster is a huge conglomerate backed by the private equity firm Roark Capital. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Roark is the same powerhouse that owns everything from Dunkin' and Buffalo Wild Wings to Inspire Brands. They are the heavy hitters of the franchise world. But to understand how a local moving company ended up in the hands of global investors, you have to look at the family that refused to sell for nearly forty years.
The Lansing Roots: It Actually Started With a 1966 Chevy
Most people assume the name is just clever marketing. It wasn't. In the early 1980s, Mary Ellen Sheets was a single mom in Lansing, Michigan, trying to make ends meet. Her two sons, Brig Sorber and Jon Sorber, wanted to earn some extra cash during their summer break. They bought an old 1966 Chevy brush truck for $350.
They were literally two men and a truck.
They hauled junk. They moved furniture for neighbors. Mary Ellen, who worked a full-time job at the state, did the books and drew that now-iconic logo on a shopping bag. It was the definition of a "garage startup," except it was more of a "driveway startup." When the boys went off to college, the phones kept ringing. People in Lansing didn't want "a moving company." They wanted the two men and the truck. Mary Ellen realized she had a business on her hands. She bought a second truck, hired a couple of guys, and the rest is history.
The Franchise Explosion
Mary Ellen Sheets wasn't a corporate shark. She was a mother who saw an opportunity to scale. In 1989, she awarded the first franchise to her daughter, Melanie Bergeron, in Atlanta. This kept the business tightly knit. For decades, the ownership of Two Men and a Truck remained strictly "in the family."
The growth was explosive. We aren't just talking about a few trucks in Michigan. By the time the 2000s rolled around, they were the largest franchised moving company in the United States. They expanded into Canada, Ireland, and the UK. The "Two Men" weren't just Brig and Jon anymore; they were thousands of employees operating hundreds of locations.
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The Big Shift: Why ServiceMaster Bought In
By 2021, the moving industry was changing. Logistics were getting more expensive. Technology—the kind that tracks trucks in real-time and optimizes routes—requires massive capital. The family had taken it as far as a family-owned business usually goes.
ServiceMaster Brands stepped in with a checkbook.
ServiceMaster isn't a new player. They’ve been around since 1929. They own brands you probably use without thinking about it, like Merry Maids, AmeriSpec, and Furniture Medic. Adding a moving company to that portfolio made perfect sense. If you’re moving into a new house, you probably need a cleaning service (Merry Maids) and a home inspection (AmeriSpec). It’s a "closed-loop" ecosystem of home services.
When the acquisition happened in August 2021, Roark Capital was the engine behind it. Roark specializes in taking successful franchise models and pumping them with the resources they need to dominate. This changed who owns Two Men and a Truck from a private family board to a portfolio piece in a multi-billion dollar investment strategy.
Is the Family Still Involved?
Sorta. While they don't hold the keys to the kingdom anymore, the transition wasn't a "take the money and run" situation. The company's headquarters remained in Lansing. The culture, which they call the "Grandma Rule" (treat everyone like you’d treat your own grandmother), is still a core part of their training.
You see this a lot in big acquisitions. The buyer wants the systems and the brand, but they don't want to kill the "secret sauce" that made it valuable in the first place. For Two Men and a Truck, that sauce was the family-oriented, slightly quirky brand identity.
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What This Ownership Means for You
Honestly, if you're hiring them to move your couch, who owns the company might feel like trivia. But it matters for things like insurance, reliability, and price.
- Standardization: Because they are owned by a major corporation, the training is rigorous. You aren't getting two random guys from a Craigslist ad. You're getting employees who have gone through a standardized "Stick Men University" program.
- Deep Pockets: Moving is a high-liability business. When a family-owned company breaks a $10,000 TV, it hurts. When a ServiceMaster-owned company breaks it, they have the infrastructure to handle the claim without going bust.
- The Franchise Factor: It's important to remember that while ServiceMaster owns the brand, many individual locations are still owned by local franchisees. These are small business owners in your community who pay a royalty to the "mothership" but manage their own crews.
The Private Equity Reality
We have to talk about Roark Capital for a second. Private equity gets a bad rap sometimes for "gutting" companies to turn a profit. But in the franchise world, Roark is generally seen as a builder. They like brands that have "legs."
Two Men and a Truck fits their mold perfectly. It’s a recurring need. People are always moving. Even when the housing market is down, people are downsizing or relocating for jobs. By folding this company into the ServiceMaster family, Roark created a one-stop-shop for the "moving lifecycle."
Think about it.
You buy a house. You call Two Men and a Truck. They move you. Then, you realize the previous owners were smokers, so you call ServiceMaster Restore for smoke remediation. The carpets are gross? Merry Maids. A table leg snapped in the move? Furniture Medic.
It's brilliant business. It’s also a long way from a $350 Chevy brush truck.
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Misconceptions About the Brand
A lot of people think the "Two Men" refers to a specific partnership like Ben & Jerry. It did, once. But today, the company employs over 8,000 people. Another common myth is that it’s a "budget" moving service because of the simple logo. It's actually a premium-service provider. They aren't the cheapest guys in town, mostly because the corporate overhead and insurance requirements of a ServiceMaster brand aren't cheap.
How to Verify Ownership Yourself
If you ever want to check the status of a major brand like this, don't just look at the trucks. Companies of this size have to file significant paperwork, especially when they are part of a portfolio like ServiceMaster.
- Check the ServiceMaster Brands corporate website. They list Two Men and a Truck as one of their primary residential service pillars.
- Look at Roark Capital’s portfolio. You’ll see the brand listed alongside Jimmy John’s and Arby’s.
- The International Franchise Association (IFA) keeps records on the parent companies of major franchises.
Practical Steps If You're Hiring Them
Knowing that a corporate giant owns the name should change how you interact with your local branch. Here is how to handle a move with a large-scale franchised entity.
Verify the Franchisee
Ask the manager who owns that specific location. Is it a corporate-owned branch or a local franchise? Local owners often have more skin in the game when it comes to customer reviews, whereas corporate branches are strictly by-the-book.
Understand the Insurance (The Valuation)
Since they are backed by ServiceMaster, they offer different levels of "valuation" (which is like moving insurance). Don't settle for the basic $0.60 per pound coverage if you have expensive items. They have the corporate backing to offer "Full Value Protection." Use it.
Check Local, Not National, Reviews
A Two Men and a Truck in Phoenix might be amazing, while one in Boston might be struggling. Don't look at the national rating. Look at the specific Google Business Profile for the office handling your zip code.
Ask About the "Grandma Rule"
It sounds cheesy, but it’s a real metric they use. If the movers aren't acting like they’d be helping their own grandmother, you have every right to call the office. Corporate ownership hasn't phased out that specific training mandate yet.
Two Men and a Truck started with a mom and her sons, but it grew into a pillar of the American service economy. Today, it’s a small piece of a much larger puzzle owned by ServiceMaster and Roark Capital. It’s a classic American success story: from a hand-drawn logo to a multi-billion dollar exit. Whether that’s "good" or "bad" depends on whether you prefer the charm of a local mom-and-pop or the reliability of a global conglomerate. Usually, when you're moving your life's belongings, you'll take the reliability every time.