PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Crash Champions
Auto Body / Collision Repair · Chicago, IL
- PE Firm
- Clearlake Capital
- Year Acquired
- 2022
Clearlake bankrolled a body-shop land grab from 200 locations to 650-plus. Your local collision repair place is probably already theirs.
What They Did
- Clearlake Capital invested in Crash Champions in 2022, fueling an acquisition spree that grew the chain from ~200 to 650+ locations.
- Acquired Service King's 330+ locations in 2022, plus dozens of regional collision repair brands, often keeping the local name temporarily before rebranding to Crash Champions.
- The collision repair industry was overwhelmingly independent shops a decade ago. Crash Champions, Caliber, and Gerber are now part of a consolidator pack that has rolled up roughly a third of the market.
- Insurance steering through 'direct repair programs' funnels claims to the PE-backed chains, squeezing the remaining independents on volume.
Since the Acquisition
- Your local body shop may already be corporate-owned — three chains now control thousands of locations that were independently operated just years ago.
- Insurance companies increasingly steer customers to large chains, limiting your real choice of where to get your car fixed.
- The owner who used to know your name has been replaced by a corporate management layer — independent repair options are disappearing market by market.
Sources
- Crash Champions Acquisition Spree Continues(2022-07)
- Clearlake Capital Partners with Crash Champions(2022-07)
- This car-repair chain's revenue skyrocketed 130x (Crash Champions CEO interview)(2025-07-13)
- Independents, Private Equity, and Consolidators: Collision Repair Players and their Playbooks(2024)
- CCC/Romans DRP data — Repairer Driven News(2019-12-19)