VIVE Collision
Overview
Founded in May 2021, VIVE Collision was created in partnership with founders Scott Leffler, Philip Taub, Vartan Jerian, Jr. and the GSP team as a “buy and build” platform in the highly fragmented and under-consolidated auto collision repair industry. Since its inception, VIVE Collision has grown from a single shop in New York, NY into a leading Northeast-focused collision repair platform with a rapidly growing footprint of approximately 40 units across 7 states.
Partnering with small, independent repair facilities in a “start small, scale fast” approach, VIVE maintains the existing local brands but augments the businesses by leveraging its signature 3P philosophy—People, Process, and Passion. This People-first strategy has helped create a reputation for VIVE as a partner of choice for sellers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), insurance companies, and employees in the Northeast market.
“One of the things I’ve appreciated most about the partnership with GSP is that Matt and Alex had experience being in our shoes. They understood the point in our careers where we were, they understood where we wanted to go, and could relate to that and communicate why they would be able to help us. They have executed and delivered on everything.”
The Journey
Evaluating the auto collision repair market, founders Scott Leffler, Philip Taub, Vartan Jerian, Jr., and the GSP team saw an extraordinary opportunity to create the VIVE Collision platform. The collision industry is stable and recession-resilient, but also remains highly fragmented, with large multi-site operators (MSOs) accounting for only ~25% of total U.S. collision shops. This fragmentation is even more dramatic in the Northeast market where the large MSOs account for ~10% of the market.
At the start of the partnership, GSP supported VIVE in building out a strong corporate infrastructure and assembled a board of directors composed of accomplished executives from across the automotive industry with expertise in operations, marketing, technology, business development, acquisition integration, and OEM relationships. The GSP team also leveraged real estate as a flywheel for growth and differentiator in deal negotiations and supported VIVE in its successful recapitalization to turbocharge growth.
The core strategy of the VIVE Collision platform centered on building a M&A engine. With assistance from the GSP team, VIVE made a series of 30+ acquisitions over ~2.5 years, adding approximately 40 small, independent collision repair facilities to the VIVE portfolio at attractive acquisition creation multiples. By focusing on high-volume, high-quality locations, and maintaining valuation discipline, VIVE was able to scale rapidly while supporting a strong financial footing with organic sales and facility-level EBITDA growth.
VIVE successfully layered strong relationships with insurance carriers and DRPs with powerful OEM certifications to drive shop volumes, as well as expand margins through economies of scale, including paint and parts purchasing. With every shop acquisition, VIVE invested in equipment and employee training for new OEM certifications and other facility upgrades. This helped drive leading unit economics and quality standards, enabling VIVE to provide best-in-class service.
Together, GSP and VIVE implemented an industry-standard software suite across the portfolio, including NetSuite, CCC, ADP and more. As additional collision repair shops were acquired, VIVE’s integration team worked to onboard them to the software suite quickly and seamlessly. These software programs helped to enable better data collection and analysis, providing real-time insights that directly informed operational improvement programs.
The Results
Despite the recession-resilient nature of the collision repair industry, the lingering effects of COVID still impacted shop performance. Technician availability was negatively impacted by the COVID strain which reduced the ability of shops to work through the backlog of repairs.
Due to new COVID strains, finding and retaining technicians was a significant challenge in late 2021. Following one of its founding principles of People-first, VIVE acted swiftly by allowing for sick technicians to get the rest and medical attention they needed, while also ramping up recruiting and HR management initiatives to combat the challenge. VIVE brought in a Direct of Talent Acquisition to drive recruitment and improved benefits through a People-first benefits package focused on talent retention. These programs have been extremely successful and VIVE stands today with a best-in-class employee recruiting and retention function and a reputation among technicians in the Northeast as a People-first organization. As a result, VIVE shops are now a desired workplace for technicians.
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, VIVE Collision remains well positioned to reach the next stage of growth.
From early 2021 to the end of 2023, VIVE acquired approximately 40 high-volume, high-quality locations, becoming the leading Northeast-focused collision repair platform. With a robust pipeline of deals, a leading M&A function, and strong integration and operations team, VIVE is primed to continue its growth trajectory in the coming years. In November 2023, GSP completed the sale of VIVE Collision to Greenbriar Equity Group. GSP and existing investors retained a small ownership stake and are looking forward to seeing additional upside as VIVE continues to scale.