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Northeast Shops Still Recovering from Sandy by Chasidy Rae Sisk
When Hurricane Sandy charged into the East Coast in late October, she devastated many homes and businesses. Her most vicious attack was perpetrated in NY and NJ, leaving millions with flooded properties and no power. Sandy’s effects on the auto body industry were no different. Many collision repair facilities in the area were destroyed, and equipment and tools were demolished. Some still had not reopened as of the middle of December. Three shop owners took the time to share their stories.
Bobby Zigman, owner of Collision Depot in Oceanside, NY, suffered personal and business losses as a result of Sandy since his home is near his shop and both were flooded. Zigman notes that the storm left five or six feet of water in his shop and parking lot, completely wiping out all of his shop and office equipment. Though Collision Depot technically remained open after the storm, the flooding ruined equipment and lack of both phone connections and electricity prevented them from performing any actual repair work for about two weeks. Zigman’s dedicated See Still Recovering, Page 36
Brindle’s Auto Body Rebuild After Sandy Comes to a Halt Due to State Permit Problem
See Brindle’s Rebuild, Page 40
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
In last month’s issue of Autobody News, we featured the story “Brindle’s Auto Body in St. Thomas, PA, Gets Home and Shop Double-Hit by Sandy.” In an follow up with the owner, we’ve learned that the process to rebuild the shop has ground to a halt. “It was going good, but now it’s come to a standstill. The state wouldn’t give us a permit,” said Dave Brindle, owner of Brindle’s Auto Body located in St. Thomas in southcentral Pennsylvania. Superstorm Sandy struck a path right through the small town and the
damage to Brindle’s shop was catastrophic. “Even though we are only rebuilding what was there and we made the walls at least twice as strong as they were before, the state said that because we are repairing walls and that is the structure, we have to get an engineer in and design something to bring the walls up to code,” Brindle reported. “Then, after they inspect and approve it, then they will give us a permit. We were hoping to have a roof on and be on our way to being finished by now. But now, I have no clue when
Change Service Requested
by Melanie Anderson
VOL. 2 ISSUE 10 JANUARY 2013
Industry Year in Review—A Month-by-Month Look at the Most Interesting Collision News of 2012 by John Yoswick
A lot happens in the collision repair industry, so trying to compile it all into a single year-end review is a challenge. But here’s our look at what we saw as among the most important or just plain interesting and memorable news item, event or quote from each of the last 12 months.
January State Farm’s George Avery announced that his company is testing the electronic parts ordering system “PartsTrader” with two collision repair businesses. He declined to identify the shops, saying that it is too early in the testing “to put those folks under the microscope and ask, ‘What do you think of the new system?’”
Lots of shops have since voiced what they think of the system. By the end of the year, the program was being rolled out to a fifth market (Chicago) George Avery for a total of about 600 Select Service shops.
February John Borek of Autocraft Bodywerks in Austin, TX, wasn’t accepting the explanation from American National Property and Casualty Company (ANPAC) that an appraiser working on its behalf was just using “an outdated document” when denying the shop’s supplement for color sand and buff. See Year in Review, Page 40
2012 Adding Up to a Record Year for MSO’s Shop Consolidation, All Major MSO’s Add Shops The pace of acquisition of both smaller MSOs by larger ones and independent shops has substantially increased during 2012. The rate of acquisitions has been running at more than two shops per week for 2012.
CARSTAR CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts is North America’s largest Multi-Shop Operator (MSO) Network of independently owned collision repair facilities with more than 400 locations in 31 states and 10 Canadian provinces. CARSTAR recently expanded its business development team to accelerate the expansion of the MSO network into two of the fastest growing regions—the Western U.S. and the Southeast. Shops that join CARSTAR pay a one-time joining fee ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, and then pay a percentage of sales each month, according to former CARSTAR CEO Dan Bailey. Typical monthly royalty
fees are .75 percent to 2 percent of sales.
FIX Auto USA Fix Auto USA added a franchise model to network membership in January 2011, and currently has 50 franchise locations operating in four states: California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Fix Auto’s increased its presence in the Seattle market to six locations, while doubling locations in the Pacific Northwest from six to 12 stores in the last year. Fix Auto USA CEO Erick Bickett said, “Extinction [in the collision business] has already begun with the shift of market share at a time when there is a declining demand for the repair services that we provide. If you aren’t considering or making changes, you are being left behind. The big get bigger and the smaller will disappear, unless they are in a niche market. InSee Record Year, Page 27
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