Up to 20 more shops for AMA Group - Australasian Paint & Panel

Bears Group is the latest AMA acquistion with the sale finalising last week. The group's six locations will be swapping Bears orange for Gemini green over the coming weeks.

"The Bears group has decided to move away from the smash space," head of Bears Group, Steve Lozenkovski (pictured below) told Paint & Panel. " We felt with a rapidly evolving industry we could focus our attention on other areas of interest. With the strong branding and culture that Gemini delivers we felt them to be a suitable candidate to further the service to clients we have provided in smash repairs for over 30 years.

"Bears will now focus on the hail space nationally, a section of the industry that is still quite young and will give our small enthusiastic team an opportunity to explore some exiting prospects that would simply not be possible in smash.

"Personally I am going to take a little break and recharge the batteries. I am still passionate about the industry and after a break I will direct my energy into consulting to the industry. In what capacity I'm not quite sure however I plan on building a business model where I can share my business experience with others," he said.

AMA group has been busy growing its automotive repair offering with around 100 sites currently. It will publish its half year financial report around the end of February and it looks as if the group has acquired or built at least 20 more repair facilities since its full year report in August 2017 when it listed 79 sites.

The industry is rife with rumours about AMA acquistions those confirmed are : Bears Group, NSW Gemini Bunbury, formerly Fix Auto Bunbury in WA, AutoCo in ACT which has four locations, Craig Hall Body Works in ACT which includes a mechanical shop, Stanley’s Bodyworks in Melbourne, Davidson’s Autobody in Tasmania, Alexander Bodyworks in Garbutt, Queensland and City Crash Repairs in Townsville.

US buyout giant Blackstone is reported to be running due diligence on AMA Group currently.