The Boyd Group Income Fund is changing the name of all of its U.S. operations to Gerber Collision & Glass.

That is the name of a 16-location chain of auto glass and collision shops in Chicago that Boyd bought earlier this year. The Winnipeg-based company said it was switching names because of the solid reputation and relationship the Gerber chain has with automobile insurance companies in the United States.

"To put it one way, Gerber has had a reputation among the insurance industry in the U.S. of being best-in-class," said Boyd president and CEO Terry Smith. "We had been considering a broad strategy and we think this makes good sense. We are going to leverage the strategic value of the Gerber name across our U.S. operations."

The company had already decided several weeks ago to rebrand the chain's five Atlanta-area stores, so they'll be the first to get the name change. After Atlanta, the chain's five stores in the Seattle area will become Gerber locations, followed by two locations each in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nevada and Arizona. Boyd previously owned two other Chicago-area stores that have already changed to the Gerber banner.

Although final design details have not yet been finalized, Smith said a decision has been made to incorporate the red, white and blue colour scheme familiar to the Boyd Autobody & Glass customers into the new Gerber signage.

Boyd has no plans to extend the Gerber name to its Canadian operations and will continue to operate under the "Boyd Autobody & Glass" name in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and under the "Service Collision Repair Centre" name in Alberta.

Brock Bulbuck, executive vice-president at Boyd, said the company has been considering some sort of branding exercise for some time and insurance companies also had been urging it to establish brand name recognition.

The Boyd Group has been buying up independent collision repair shops in Canada and the United States for about 10 years. In the United States in particular, there is no obvious recognition that the Boyd-owned stores in various markets are associated with each other.

Smith said the branding effort is targeted at the insurance companies, who exert a lot of influence on the market by recommending repair shops to their clientele. "There is top-of-mind recognition of the Gerber name (among the insurance companies) and there is a perception, supported by reality, that Gerber's operations are well-aligned with the insurance companies," Smith added.