Observations from Focus Advisors on the deal, the terms and the implications for the collision repair industry
Gerber’s Acquisition of Joe Hudson’s is a Big Deal!
The combination of Boyd Group’s Gerber Collision and Joe Hudson’s Collision Centers unites the second- and fifth-largest U.S. operators (by store count) into a single 1301-shop North American enterprise. The combined entity creates a U.S. footprint of geographic density that exceeds all but its largest rival, Caliber Collision.
Announced in November of 2025 and finalized last month, this acquisition is of the same significance as the Crash Champions/Service King merger in 2022 and Caliber Collision’s acquisition of ABRA in 2019, both of which materially reshaped competitive dynamics, insurer relationships, and acquisition benchmarks across the industry. Today, we now speak of the Top Four—the Whales of the industry on the Focus Advisors Fish Scale.
The four largest consolidators now collectively represent 13.3% of the U.S. MSO locations and more than 32% of total industry revenues.
Listing on the New York Stock Exchange Is Also a Big Deal!
What makes this event different is the listing of Gerber’s parent corporation, Boyd Group Services, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BGSI). While already listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BYD), Boyd Group Services was a relatively-thinly traded stock which made it difficult for larger institutions to invest. It was hardly visible to the general public.
A listing on the NYSE brings substantial benefits including:
- Greater access to significantly deeper pools of capital
- Enhanced liquidity for shareholders
- Potential valuation uplift typically afforded to companies listed on major public exchanges
- Increased brand visibility that may influence insureds’ repairer selection in favor of Gerber
- And, critically, the acquisition currency of publicly traded stock, enhancing attractiveness to future acquisition targets
Along with these advantages come some additional burdens. The Boyd Group already has the burden of extensive public filings, but the expected increase in the number of analysts following the company will draw greater scrutiny of its performance and disclosures. The burden of integrating a 30% increase in the number of shops will be a considerable challenge as the two entities combine.
Valuation of the Deal
While the EBITDA multiple reported in Boyd’s press release was 13.3x, a review of the disclosures by Boyd Group and the filing of its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, reveals that accounting adjustments reduced the “book multiple” (i.e., purchase price divided by the company’s stated EBITDA before adjustments) from something closer to 20x. Post integration savings (a.k.a. “synergies”) of an estimated $40 million brings the expected multiple down to around 9.3x.
Why did Gerber move when it did?
In its 2024 Annual Report, the Boyd Group set a five-year goal of reaching $5 billion in sales with 1400+ shops, an increase of more than 66% over its 2024 revenues of $3 billion. A rare opportunity to dramatically accelerate the attainment of this plan presented itself when TSG Consumer decided to put Joe Hudson’s and its 258 shops on the market.
For the past several years, Gerber had been growing by 75 to 90 shops annually, both through development and acquisitions. In its long history, major acquisitions were far and few between, with those of Collision Works in Oklahoma and John Harris in South Carolina standing out. See our comments from 2021.
Last year’s adoption of its ambitious growth goal and the promotion of Brian Kaner as its new CEO appear to have accelerated a more aggressive acquisition strategy. Kaner, originally hired as COO in 2022, is no stranger to running large organizations, having been the CEO of Pep Boys and Sears Auto Centers.
We speculate that Kaner recognized that improving Gerber‘s position as the second largest consolidator would require the development and acquisition of an ever-escalating number of single shops and small MSOs with an increased investment in development and acquisitions teams. The Joe Hudson‘s acquisition was an opportunity to acquire three years of future growth in one fell swoop. It also seems evident that Kaner and the Boyd Group saw the acquisition as an opportunity to move beyond its relatively small shareholder base by raising additional capital to fund the transaction through a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
It is of interest to note that the acquisition followed Caliber’s confidential S1 filing for a future public offering. Gerber certainly saw the opportunity to establish its position with institutional investors ahead of Caliber’s possible IPO.
During a year of very difficult conditions, with repair volumes down 6-15% across many regions, Gerber also found a way to improve its balance sheet in anticipation of additional opportunities following the integration of Joe Hudson‘s.
The Acquisition Continues the Long-Term Consolidation
Our Founder, David Roberts, and EVP, John Walcher, have together spent more than thirty years deeply involved in analyzing, representing and investing in consolidating service industries – from physical therapists to dialysis clinics to HMOs to veterinary hospitals. Confidence in long-term consolidation led David to found Caliber Collision along with Matthew Ornstein, in the late 1990s when there were more than 50,000 body shops. Today, there are fewer than 30,000!
Ever-increasing repair costs, capital requirements, insurer demands, vehicle complexity, and shortages of repair technicians have relentlessly driven consolidation – and created opportunities for entrepreneurs and private equity investors to drive that consolidation. Today, all four of the large consolidators and a plethora of well-capitalized followers now control more than 36% of industry revenues. We expect consolidation to continue with more new entrants, more large acquisitions and more public companies.
Industry Implications
There have been very few opportunities to acquire large collision repair enterprises in the last five years – especially ones with a significant number of shops, revenues and cash flow. Only the acquisition of Service King by Crash Champions exceeded the acquisition of Joe Hudson’s in size. Recent recaps of other private-equity-backed consolidators were substantially smaller than Joe Hudson’s, with the exception of Classic Collision’s $2 billion recap.
To refresh one’s memory about how Joe Hudson came to market, recall that it was originally sold to Carousel Capital in 2013 when it had just 23 shops. Subsequently, when it had reached 110 shops in 2019, it was sold to TSG Consumer Partners reportedly for an EBITDA multiple north of 13x which seemed very rich at the time. Over the next six years, TSG Consumer invested millions in expanding Joe Hudson‘s to 258 locations primarily in the Southeast and Texas.
Most private equity firms plan to hold their investments between 5 to 7 years depending upon the size and length of the fund out of which they make their investments. Having witnessed the recapitalization of Classic Collision, Crash Champions, CollisionRight and VIVE over the past several years, we speculate that TSG Consumer was ready to exit and saw the most likely event was the sale to another private equity firm. But a strategic acquirer stepped forward – the Boyd Group.
Geographic Fit
The geographic fit and the attractiveness of the Southeast region, where Gerber was a distant number two player to Caliber, was another compelling reason for the transaction. Demographics are driving growth in the SE market – more people, more cars, more miles driven, more opportunities to repair – and more demand from insurers for market-wide solutions. Post acquisition, Gerber is now the dominant provider in the fastest growing repair market.
What are the implications for other private equity-sponsored consolidators and independent MSOs?
A well-capitalized Boyd Group, with its ambitious growth objectives, can be expected to consider additional large transactions. If Caliber is successful in going public, it may find itself in competition with Boyd Group for large transactions that will move the needle for them as well. We expect this will provide attractive exit opportunities for other PE-backed consolidators.
Going forward, we expect Gerber to use its improved access to capital to continue acquiring independent MSOs and, selectively, individual shops. The company already has dozens of brownfield and greenfield opportunities at various stages of development. Platforms of this scale cannot efficiently grow by acquiring only small single-shop operators or relying solely on new builds; larger, multi-location acquisitions are required. For well-run MSOs, this reinforces that scale, operational discipline, and geographic relevance will increasingly determine buyer interest and valuation—making the next 12–24 months a particularly important window for owners considering an exit in 2026.
About Focus Advisors
Focus Advisors, which recently merged with Veritas Advisors, is one of the automotive service industry’s leading M&A advisory firms, partnering with high-performance independent shops and MSOs with $10M to $100M in annual revenue, helping owners achieve maximum value through strategic growth and exits. The Focus Advisors team has advised on more than 120 automotive M&A transactions, including the sale of some of the largest MSOs and franchisors in the collision repair industry.
Banking Services and Securities offered through Independent Investment Bankers Corp, a broker-dealer, member FINRA, SIPC. Focus Advisors Automotive M&A is not affiliated with Independent Investment Bankers Corp.
