The last four full weeks of the year are upon us. Only 33 days full working days left this year (or less depending on your holiday schedule). I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you have not already started to set your business plans in place for 2016 you are behind Read more about 2015 Acquisition Trends Update: The Floodgates Open[…]
I’m excited to present a slightly different style of article this week that I present at the end of this post. I’ll be doing more of these articles in the future and hope they prove to be a useful way to exchange information.
There has never been a greater need to develop a business strategy to determine the best path forward than now in the collision repair industry. The entrance of Wall Street money in the industry is causing rapid structural change. No longer is the collision industry just about fixing cars and minding your KPI’s.
The industry is maturing. As a result, business models are changing too. […]
I am going to start off with a bold statement: There has never been a better time to own a collision repair business.
I’ll follow that up with another statement that may catch many readers off guard: There has never been a more profitable time to own a collision repair business.
The industry is changing rapidly due to the influx of massive amounts of Wall Street investment in the industry. There is no doubt that consolidation in the industry has put substantial pressures on margins, increased the administrative workload repair facilities are expected to administer, and generally increased competition across the board.
Now I’m not one to get up here and blithely parrot the oft repeated phrase “competition is good”. Competition is painful and difficult. It creates some winners and often many losers and is not always fair. For the unprepared increased competition can be disastrous.
Yet the result of this increasing level of competition is that there has never been a more profitable time to be in the collision repair industry. […]
Last week we spoke about the conundrum that collision repair operators currently face. Because of the influx of Wall Street money and rapid consolidation, owners have essentially three choices when looking towards the future. They can:
Each of these three strategies carries inherent risk, as well as potential rewards. This article will break down each of these three key strategies to help better explain the specific risks and rewards implicit in each. […]
Long time readers of my posts notice two main themes running through my writings. The first is a focus on corporate finance and how to apply those topics to a collision repair business to better manage a business. The second is a focus on M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) and how to be prepared to buy or sell a business.
Many readers inherently see the logic of the first topic. Understanding the tools mid to large sized business use to manage their business allows the reader to better manage their business, and be more successful as a result.
The second topic is sometimes met with less clarity. It often begs the question: why so much talk about buying and selling a business? […]
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years here’s a news flash – the industry is rapidly consolidating. Wall Street has arrived and they’re taking no prisoners. But what does that mean?
First it means that there are the “Big 4” – Caliber, ABRA, Service King, and Boyd/Gerber. You’ve probably heard of at least one of these guys, if not all of them.
They have hundreds of locations. They do hundreds of millions of dollars in sales a year. They are tied in with major insurance companies in a way you or I never will be. They’re financially backed by some of the largest most powerful financial institutions in the U.S. and Canada. […]