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Annie’s Collision Center in Florida ���������������
Crash Champions, LLC, announced it acquired three Florida auto body shops—Sunbeam Autobody, consisting of two Jacksonville locations, and Annie’s Collision Center in Fort Myers.
Sunbeam Autobody has a 56,000-square foot facility at 5200 Sunbeam Road and a 15,000-square foot facility at 7135 Atlantic Blvd. in Jacksonville, while Annie’s Collision Center is a premier family-owned auto body shop located at 2293 Bruner Lane in Fort Myers.
With the additions, Crash now has 15 locations across the state of Florida.
“Sunbeam represents a very exciting addition to our growing footprint in Florida, having established itself as the largest privately owned auto body repair shop serving Jacksonville since its founding in 1983,” said Matt Ebert, founder and CEO of Crash Champions. “Their talented professionals have the certifications, training and technology needed to guarantee superior quality repair work and service to its customers, and I look forward to welcoming our new teammates into the Crash Champions family.
“Annie’s represents a key addition to our expanding presence in Florida,” Ebert continued. “Greg and his team have done a tremendous job in establishing a high-quality facility with talented employees that care about their craft and their customers, and we are proud to welcome them into the Crash Champions family. We look forward to using our resources to further enhance the offerings available to residents of the Ft. Myers community under the Crash banner.”
“For over 40 years, we have worked hard to provide the members of our community with high quality repairs and peace of mind while treating them with the respect and compassion they deserve,” said Greg Snyder, owner of Annie’s Collision Center. “Crash Champions shares our dedication to operational excellence and the customer experience, which is why I am confident that they will continue to build on the success that we have achieved to date. Joining the Crash family is
a significant milestone for our company, and I am excited about the new opportunities this will allow our customers and employees.”
“While evaluating the opportunity to join the Crash Champions platform, what stood out most was the company’s dedication and commitment to its people—customers, partners and employees alike,” said Bobby Andrews, owner of Sunbeam Autobody. “Despite having a national platform, Crash continues to operate by the same principles as a family-run business, making it the right cultural fit for our organization. They are laser focused on delivering exceptional repair work and top-tier service, a mindset that has been critical to our success at Sunbeam.
“Becoming a part of Crash Champions will allow us to further elevate the services that we provide, and everyone is excited about the new avenues of growth that will be created as a result.”
For more information about Crash Champions, visit crashchampions.com.
For those collision repair companies interested in selling their business, Crash has made it easy. Visit crashchampions.com/sell-your-shop to learn more.
Source: Crash Champions, LLC
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sist systems (ADAS) center that encompasses two 40-by-60-foot rooms dedicated to ADAS and calibration.
While setting up the ADAS center, the team reached out to industry experts for their insight on what would be helpful to include. As a result, they purchased a wide variety of tooling for those who use the facility.
Lighting and wall colors were also considered due to the specifications of vehicles with advanced camera and vision technology.
“Floors must also be flat and level to achieve accurate calibration results,” Kaminsky said.
Kaminsky encourages collision repair specialists to think about how they will handle repairing future vehicles in their shops with ADAS features.
“The amount of ADASequipped cars on the road in the U.S. is estimated to triple in the next five years,” he said. “If you don’t have a plan, I encourage you to think about it… It’s going to be really important for you going forward and your success in repairing vehicles in the future.”
Todd Korpi, 3M global key accounts director, talked about the importance of always following OEM procedures.
“There’s a lot of information and training and it’s up to us to get that information to the technicians on the floor to make sure these vehicles are repaired the right way every time,” said Korpi.
He acknowledged OEM repair procedures are not always easy to find and navigate; however, there are industry resources available, such as OEM1Stop and the I-CAR Repairability Technical Support (RTS) portal, to help provide information.
Over his 25-year career, Korpi has found vehicle technology continues to change, and there’s more coming.
“The documentation helps you get paid and it also ensures the vehicle is going to go back to pre-accident condition,” he said.
When making a material decision or selection, he cautioned auto body shops to be aware of generic claims such as “OEM approved” and “equivalence.”
From his experience at 3M working with auto manufacturers over the years, Korpi said if a certain product is not included in the OEM documentation/repair procedure bulletin, he would question if it’s the right product to be used.
Korpi said the 3M team works for years on test specification development and testing products.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into making sure they meet the OEM repair procedures, guidelines and material specifications,” he explained.
The bottom line, according to Korpi, is OEMs are the authority on repair procedures and recommended products required for a safe and quality repair. “It’s a high-stakes industry,” he said. “The OEM way is the only way.” An overview of data security was provided by Brandon Laur, vice president, business development and client experience at CCi Global Technologies.
With hacking becoming a huge problem over the last several years, Laur noted collision repairers need to have systems to prevent data breaches.
He encouraged facilities to have customers sign repair authorizations before the car is fixed.
“If everybody is not getting those authorization agreements completed, we’re in trouble,” he said.
He also recommended working with trusted vendors and find out where they are storing data, what it is being moved, how accessible it is and how quickly it can be removed.
“Just because you delete it from your management system or estimating system doesn’t mean that it is deleted from all of the tables there,” he said. “We as an industry need to protect ourselves.”
He shared information about a new solution available, extended detection and response (XDR), which allows businesses to monitor and mitigate cybersecurity threats.
When looking at the business environment, Laur suggested taking
a “zero trust” approach. “This means that nobody within your collision center has access to all of the data,” he explained. “If somebody has access to all of the data, that means they are the vulnerability point where you can be hacked.” The No. 1 area where people are finding their way into a business’s system is through technicians’ phones, according to Laur. He advised shop owners and managers to check if their phones are encrypted before connecting to WiFi. He also recommended looking into cyber insurance. If a breach does occur, Laur said a business can survive; however, it must be transparent in what is communicated. “We need to start to hold this industry accountable to being able to take data security a lot more seriously than what we have,” said Laur. “It’s up to everybody to hold each other accountable and continue to Todd Korpi, global look for ways to move this industry key accounts forward.” director, 3M Jake Rodenroth, a diagnostic Choose Original MINI Parts. MINI of Charleston 1518 Savannah Hwy Charleston, SC 29407 855-831-0254 Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30-6 Sat 8-5 rhminiparts@hendrickauto.com ©2022 MINI USA, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks. See IDEAS Collide Showcase, Page 43
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