Collision industry analyst Brad Mewes calculates that two of the Big Four body shop consolidators, Caliber and Boyd, have aggressively added locations in the past three years. ABRA and ServiceKing have slowed acquisitions, Mewes says.
ABRA, whose majority owner is Hellman & Friedman, lists 351 locations in 27 states on its website. Mewes says that by his count, ABRA has closed a few locations, and had 346 at the end of the first quarter. The company did not respond to repeated requests for information.
Boyd, headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said it had 512 locations in the United States and Canada at the end of the first quarter; Mewes counts 516. Boyd operates 393 Gerber Collision & Glass centers in the U.S. and 119 locations under the names Boyd Autobody & Glass and Assured Automotive in Canada. It acquired the 68-unit Assured operation last year.
Caliber, whose majority owner is OMERS Private Equity, announced its 500th location in June 2017. The company did not respond to requests for an update, but Mewes calculates that Caliber had 559 locations at the end of the first quarter, the most of the Big Four.
ServiceKing, owned by Blackstone Group, said that as of April, it had 337 locations in the U.S. in 24 states.
