The volume of transactions concluded by the Big Four consolidators in 2014 far exceeded any expectations we might have had even as late as NACE in July. Only the consolidators themselves knew the extent of their acquisition possibilities when the year started. When the dust settled, the total number of acquired and new shops for the Big 4 exceeded 374 - on a beginning base of 614 shops. Fifty percent growth in a single year!
Spurred by dramatic growth of large consolidators, as well as many regional and local MSOs, consolidation continues to evolve and impact the collision repair industry. Let's take a look at the numbers on acquisitions, valuations and markets.
Read any "how to" manual on mergers and acquisitions and you'll find checklist after checklist about how to prepare to buy a business, how to sell a business, how to value a business, how to do due diligence, how to get the best price, how to reduce the price, how to find fraud, how to put lipstick on a pig. Many intermediaries not only know the checklists cold but can recite them from memory, and probably have written three books full of checklists. But the most important checklist that every successful intermediary should know is the shortest.
