The acquisition spree at the Boyd Group continues with a twist.

The Winnipeg-based operator of collision repair centres and the main operating division of the Boyd Group Income Fund has purchased the auto glass repair and replacement division of Globe-Amerada Glass Company in Chicago.

Terry Smith, president and CEO of Boyd, said this acquisition was atypical for the company. Usually, Boyd purchases stand-alone or chains of autobody repair shops. By contrast, he said Globe is a glass network business that calls on its clients, principally insurance companies and large fleet leasing firms, and offers to handle their auto glass claims.

It includes taking the notice of loss from customers, referring them to one of 6,000 independent repair shops across the U.S. and billing the insurance company or fleet lease operator upon completion of the work.

"In this business, we are not the entity providing the repair service, which is a departure for us. We are the entity making contact with the client," he said in an interview yesterday.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but Smith said its new addition will be funded with a combination of cash, fund units, supplier loans and a five-year note held by Globe-Amerada.

He described Globe on a stand-alone basis as a "very nice, medium-sized profitable business" that today has less than one per cent of its market. He said by leveraging its existing insurance company relationships through its Gerber Collision & Glass division in the U.S., Boyd has a "very good" opportunity to add significant value.

"We have the additional benefit, as repair providers in the U.S., of being able to direct several million dollars of repair volume to our existing stores," he said.

94 facilities

Boyd has 94 collision repair facilities in North America, including 40-corporate-owned shops and seven franchise outlets in Canada and 47 outlets in the U.S.

Senior members of Globe's management team, including John Kellman, president, and Michael Kellman, senior vice-president, have been retained by Boyd to manage Globe's activities. Neither was available yesterday for comment.

Smith said Boyd continues to explore expansion opportunities primarily in Western Canada and states where it already has a presence, such as Illinois, Georgia, Washington, Nevada and Arizona.

"We recognize the value of having scale in a particular market. There are efficiencies that come with that, which ultimately leads to enhanced profitability," he said. "We have a number of very attractive deals in our pipeline. It's our expectation we will complete a number of them over the year."

Smith said he expected the addition of Globe to have an immediate positive contribution to the fund's distributable cash. He said the deal is also "not insignificant" from a revenue point of view as Globe's $12.5 million in annualized revenues would provide a more than six per cent boost to Boyd's $200 million.

The Globe acquisition is the second for Boyd this month.

Less than three weeks ago, it acquired Automation Paint & Body in Calgary and Abbotsford Auto Body in Abbotsford, B.C.

At the same time, it also announced the opening of four new outlets in the Chicago area. A fifth is expected to open before the end of March.

Boyd units (BYD.UN/TSX) closed down eight cents yesterday to $8.37 on volume of 35,800.