Crash Champions Acquires Lakewood Auto Collision in Florida

Autobody News is dusting off the shelves and giving our print publication and website a fresh new look.

For the last few months, we have been hard at work revisiting our core values, discussing what makes us stand apart and what you, our readers, have come to expect delivered monthly to your doorstep and daily to your inbox.

We heard from you. We listened. We took to heart what brings you back to Autobody News and incorporated many of the suggestions we have received over the years. We thank you for your feedback.

Today, we are thrilled to announce Autobody News’ “refreshed” print magazine design, along with the complete redesign of our website, autobodynews.com.

“We’re proud of our 40+ year history as the leading national and regional news source for the collision repair industry,” said Barbara Davies, general manager of Autobody News.

“When we sat down to start the discussion of a print magazine refresh, we knew what we wanted,” Davies said. “We knew what our readers wanted. We didn’t want to lose our essence of ‘news’ magazine, but we wanted a more contemporary look.”

The print magazine features improved readability thanks to updated fonts for better readability, more white

space and more prominently promotes our columnists’ exclusive content.

“In addition to the print magazine refresh, we also just launched a complete redesign of our website,” Davies said. “It was time for a complete redesign to deliver a better user experience for our loyal 28,000 monthly website visitors.”

The website boasts a more intuitive, inviting layout, with easier navigation and more graphic

elements. With this website redesign, we wanted to improve the overall user experience and allow our visitors to have easy access to the news that is important to them and their collision repair shops.

A key feature of the new site is a new digital magazine section, which will allow visitors to read the latest monthly edition in a digital format. In this section, visitors will also be able to access past monthly editions of Autobody News. The website has also been fully optimized to be mobile responsive to accommodate people’s on-the-go news consumption.

“With this new website refresh we wanted to improve the way our visitors consume our content, and to give them easier access to the national and regional news that is important to them,” said Bryan Malinski, digital marketing manager of Autobody News.

Both redesigns are works in progress. As the industry continues to evolve, Autobody News will too.

“We’re committed to bringing industry news to our readers in the most user-friendly print and digital formats,” Davies said. “We hope you like the changes we’ve made and look forward to your feedback.”

Let the team know what you think by emailing bdavies@autobodynews. com.

Crash Champions, LLC, on Sept. 27 announced it acquired Lakewood Auto Collision, a highquality Florida-based operator.

Lakewood operates a single repair center serving customers and business partners at 3520 81st Ct E in Bradenton, FL.

The acquisition continues Crash Champions’ strategic national growth strategy, as the company now offers customers 50 Florida repair centers, and about 570 locations nationwide. The Lakewood acquisition follows recent announcements that include acquisitions of Daya’s Collision Center, Auto Collision Technologies, PaintN-Motion, Salemi’s Body Shop and the groundbreaking strategic transaction of Service King Collision.

“Lakewood’s advanced facilities and commitment to ongoing professional training makes its skilled technicians some of the best in the business,” said Matt Ebert, founder and CEO of Crash Champions. “The Lakewood team will be in good company at Crash Champions, and I am happy to welcome them to the family.”

“Over the years, we have established a reputation at Lakewood for providing high-quality repairs and an enhanced customer experience for members of our community looking to get their car back on the road after an accident,” said Paul Carpenter, owner of Lakewood Auto Collision. “Given Crash Champions’ culture and commitment to excellence, I am confident that they will maintain that reputation going forward.”

For more information about Crash Champions, visit crashchampions.com. Collision repair companies interested in selling their business are encouraged to visit crashchampions.com/sell-yourshop to learn more.

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