September 20, 2010—The number of collision repair shops in the U.S. is shrinking, but the shops that stick around are more likely to be using management and estimating software, according to an article release_notesd by The Romans Group.
The poor economy has caused many shops to sell or merge in order to survive, according to the article by Vincent Romans, founding partner of The Romans Group.
Romans also found that:
• There are more than 39,500 shops in the United States, down from approximately 80,000 in 1980 and down from 41,500 in 2008;
• Approximately 2,000 dealership and independent shops are no longer in business compared to last year due to acquisition, mergers or dealership changes;
• Within the top 10 producing ($20 million or more annual revenue) repair shops, five are independently owned and five are dealership shops;
• In the past three years there has been a reduction of 2,231 dealership repair shops from 8,692;
• Approximately 30,000 shops use some sort of damage estimating software, an increase of more than 1,000 shops. Approximately 10,000 shops use management software;
• There are 54 shops or companies that make at least $20 million a year. Caliber Collision, AutoNation and ABRA are in the top three.
Romans continues to update his research. For more information, go to romans-group.com or email [email protected].
