In addition to acquiring their five original shops, the Van Cleve's purchased a new Craig's location in Bedford and three B & B Body and Paint locations in the Austin/San Marcus area. The shops have a combined business volume of $30 million and 200 employees. 

Right price, wrong reasons

"When we sold the business three years ago, people told us we sold for the right price but the wrong reason. Well, they were right," explained Craig Van Cleve, 43.

When the brothers sold to CTA, "We were afraid that consolidation would make it impossible to be competitive. We now know this not to be the case," said Craig. Having spent several years as consultants to CTA, Craig says he is now "a firm believer that any independent can complete with a consolidator anywhere. You simply need to emphasize quality work. That's your advantage."

Craig and Kyle Van Cleve now have a business three times the size of what they sold to CTA.

In fact, the Van Cleves had become so convinced of that advantage that they purchased land with the intent to open a shop under a new name when their non-compete agreement expired, but Ford's decision to divest itself of all businesses except auto manufacturing made it easier for them to reenter collision repair.

The six Craig's Collision Centers, located in Arlington, Bedford, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Fort Worth and Grapevine, the two Austin B & B locations and the San Marcus B & B, will provide the Van Cleves the opportunity to make a major impact in both marketplaces, according to Craig., who feels that size and multiple locations are important advantages in building DRP insurance relationships.

CTA deal happened fast

 

"The old saying about how you never know how much you miss something until it's gone, sure applied to Kyle and I the past three years, said Craig Van Cleve. After being in the collision repair business for 20 years, it just becomes a part of your life."

So when Larry Robinette, the CEO of CTA, called and said the shops were available but he had to have a deal in 48 hours, "we were ready to go," recalls Craig. It wasn't quite that simple, however, and making it happen required tremendous effort, particularly on the part of Dan Hall, owner of Church Brothers in Indiana, another multiple-shop owner who had sold to CTA. "Dan gets the credit," said Craig. "He put the financing together, bought all the shops from CTA, and then within the hour we all bought our shops back from Dan." Most of the shop owners who sold to CTA, including the Van Cleves, had retained their land and buildings, leasing them to CTA, which made making this latest deal somewhat easier.

Plan to grow the business

"Being away from it was difficult, but we're glad to be back Having the six Craig's locations, plus the three B & B Body and Paint locations, is the ideal situation," said Kyle.

The business that the Van Cleves are buying from CTA is three times larger than the one they sold, "but Kyle and I are not ones to rest on our laurels, so you'll see new and exciting things for both the Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin markets in the near future," promised Craig.

Dallas native Craig Van Cleve opened the first Craig's Collision Center, at the corner of Main and Oakland in Dallas' Deep Ellum, in 1979. With his brother Kyle, now age 41, joining him in 1980, Van Cleve then opened a second location in Farmers Branch. From the beginning, Craig handled the administration while Kyle looked after production, and it still works that way today.

In 1986, the two brothers decided to close the original location, but opened another location in the rapidly growing Duncanville area. Three additional Craig's locations followed: Arlington in 1991, Grapevine in 1995 and Fort Worth in 1999.

B & B Body and Paint is one of the Austin area's largest and oldest collision repair groups. Rex Womble opened the first B&B location on North Lamar in Austin in 1974. A second facility, located on Shelby Lane, was added in 1995, followed by the San Marcus location in 1996. Like the Van Cleve brothers, Womble sold the three locations in 1999 to CTA and, being of retirement age, had no interest in buying them back, according to Craig. "We knew the B & B business well from the work we did with CTA, so we were excited to be able to acquire it."

Kyle Van Cleve added, "The car repair business is a great industry, with super people to work with. That's probably what Craig and I missed the most, the people. From all our employees, to the customers and the agents - you name it, they were all missed. I feel like a kid with a new bicycle being back. Craig and I left once, but plan on being around for the long haul this time around."