Articles

David Roberts, Managing Director of FOCUS Advisors (focusadvisors.com), comments on the year just ended and expectations for 2020.

By 2030 there will be 15,000 shops in the US: 4,000 in third tier cities and rural areas 2,000 will be franchisees 9,000 in the top 150 MSAs Of the 15,000 total, only 6,000 shops will really matter 1,500 will be dealer shops 3,000 will be consolidator shops 1,500 will be regional, city MSOs Download … Read more

We often write about how consolidation is constantly creating new landscapes in the collision repair industry, one increasingly dominated by the largest MSOs. At the same time, many operators have grown their own organizations into strong super regional or regional MSOs with three to 75 shops. What is sometimes overlooked is the reach and sophistication … Read more

Rumors have circulated for years that Cook’s Collision “was putting itself on the market,” “was about to be sold,” “has been sold,” etc. Given the recent filing on a debt issue by ABRA that mentions Cook’s, we believe the rumors are finally being validated. In that summary reported on Bloomberg, ABRA is seeking to borrow $140 million+ … Read more

The pronounced shift in consolidator focus from platform acquisitions to brownfields, greenfields and single shops has opened the door for regional and multi-regional MSOs to grow more rapidly as acquisition values have somewhat cooled. The FOCUS Advisors team has been following the growth of these MSOs for nearly a decade. “As we’ve seen the Consolidators … Read more

The first six months of 2018 are now in the rearview mirror, NACE is rapidly approaching, so we at FOCUS are taking a few moments to look back and ahead. Consolidator Growth Continues Both Caliber and Gerber have continued their steady growth with both shop acquisitions and new brownfield and greenfield openings.  Gerber’s most notable acquisition … Read more

Amidst all the change and turmoil in the collision repair industry, the success of some of the fastest-growing MSOs is being driven by impressive young operators. This younger generation of leaders is navigating profound operating and technological changes and finding opportunity as industry consolidation continues to accelerate. FenderBender and David Roberts, Managing Director of Focus Investment Banking, explore … Read more

Twenty-two years ago, David Roberts was the Chairman of the Board for Caliber Collision Centers, Inc. when he wrote an article in Autobody News. The article, titled “Shop Consolidation, Is It Inevitable?”, makes him look like the Nostradamus of the collision repair industry. In his column, Roberts accurately predicted that consolidation was indeed unavoidable. He saw two factors driving this … Read more