Nov. 2, LAS VEGAS—Consolidation within the collision repair industry is expected to increase at an “aggressive rate”, Vincent Romans, managing partner at The Romans Group, said during a session Monday at the 2021 MSO Symposium at Mandalay Bay.
Romans, speaking on consolidation and private equity trends, revealed he’s seen independent repairers considering sale “more than I ever have” during the last 18 months.
As such, his company forecasts that multi-location operators with over $10 million in annual revenue will represent at least 48 percent of the revenue market share by 2025 and it could get as high as 61 percent. Currently those businesses represent 43 percent of the market share.
Romans expects the top three consolidators—Caliber, Gerber and Driven Brands—will expand its current revenue market from 18 percent to between 21-26 percent and will be “most aggressive” in continued expansion.
Romans also expects growing consolidators Crash Champions and Classic Collision will continue to expand aggressively.
“I would expect we will continue to see it based on their strategy and backing they have from their private equity firms,” Romans said of Crash and Classic.
“It’s not going to stop,” Romans later added.
And it is expected to continue not only with single-store acquisitions but also with other MSOs.
According to Romans Group data, there were 106 MSOs that generated more than $20 million in revenue in 2019. In 2020, that number dropped to 86, Romans said. Most of that decrease occurred because of acquisitions along with a small number of closures.
Thus far in 2021, 38 MSOs have been acquired, Romans said. Those acquisitions represent 254 locations that generate a combined $700 million.
