The Boyd Group (Gerber Collision & Glass) announced that it has effectively acquired a majority ownership and controlling interest in the retail auto glass business of Glass America Inc., which operates 61 retail auto glass locations across 23 U.S. states under the trade names of Glass America and Auto Glass Services.
"This acquisition is very attractive from both a strategic and a financial point of view," said Brock Bulbuck, president and CEO of the Boyd Group. "The automotive glass restoration business is a natural and complementary extension of our industry-leading collision repair business. This acquisition will increase our U.S. glass business size, both in terms of footprint and annual sales, to become the second largest retail auto glass business in the U.S., servicing 28 states covering approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population. This retail expansion, in combination with our already established nationwide auto glass network, Gerber National Glass Services, significantly improves our positioning with U.S. insurance company customers. Financially, we expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to our earnings and cash flow, with significant synergy opportunities available over time as the Glass America operations are integrated into Gerber Glass’s operating model. It will also better position our glass business for growth alongside our growing collision business.
"We are also pleased with our continuing partnership with our operating partner, Eddie Cheskis, CEO of Gerber Glass, who will co-invest with us and will continue as CEO of our much larger U.S. glass business. While complementary to our collision business, we also recognize that the auto glass business is somewhat unique and therefore having a recognized industry leader as an operating partner is of great value."
Added John Teeger, chairman of Glass America Inc., "Glass America and its investors will benefit from the transaction by ownership in the second largest windshield repair and replacement entity in the United States and participating in the considerable expected revenue and cost synergy benefits arising from joining with Gerber Glass. Our customers and employees will benefit from the combined regional spread of operations covering a majority of the states of the U.S., coupled with utilization of the Gerber Glass call center and the financial strength of the combined entity."
Glass America operates 61 auto glass centers in 23 states and had 2012 revenues of $43 million. Gerber Glass operates exclusively under a fully mobile retail glass service model in 12 states and, in combination with its Gerber National Glass Services network, had revenues of $19 million in 2012. The Boyd Group believes that, in addition to operational synergies, there are opportunities to grow sales through a combination of same-store sales growth, acquisition growth and market expansion, concurrent with the Boyd Group’s U.S. collision growth.
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