I heard that Safelite and Belron might be reuniting. Anyone else hear the same? The last thing we need is for Safelite to become an even bigger power house.

i hope they do, that way i can raz DL over it

the auto glass specialists crew will be thrilled for sure

This could be interesting. Safelite just "re-opened" in my area. They have been mobile only for about five years after closing their shop.

I highly doubt this.Where is this coming from?

I know a few of the DM's @ Safelite and they say this is b.s. but they are still phasing out shops in some slow areas and bringing some back in areas that have picked up but from what they tell me they are still looking at 85-90 % mobile by the end of 08. Then again who really cares.

Do you really think the DMs would know anything? They will be close to the bottom of the list of people to find out. Once they know, everyone knows.

This business (at least in my market) is already 80-90% mobile. I can foresee a lot of shops around here going that route. Ditching the big real estate / shop expenses and just rolling mobile out of a small warehouse.

Belron and safelite are a joke.If this is true,It will be the dumbest thing they have done since they were involved before.Lets hope this is true,it will help the little guy.I have a hard time beleiving this one.

atech,are you an ags employee?If you are I am looking for a ags tech that wants to take back what they lost when belron came in.Any ags employees reply please,lets here your thoughts.

Who the hell is AGS ? i only know AGC.

Larry,they are a midwestern based company not where you are thank god.Auto glass specialists.(ags)

Ah "The Little Red Truck People"

yeah i think there up a little bit from where i am..

Are they owned by bellron??

Larry

Larry,
I do believe Belron bought the "little red truck" company a little over a year ago. I am sure there is some interviews you could search for on glassbytes.
I doubt that Belron would merge again with SGC. They are more likely to merge with Pilkington and/or Speedy.

I think Belron will eventually pull a Diamond and start running around buying up 5 - 20 shop independent glass companies to slowly but surely expand their market. Diamond has bought five or six other companies over the lat few years.

They already have, look at back issues of AGRR magazine.

I worked for WA as a sales rep and a manager from 87 to 89. I didn't have a bad experience with them. As long as they stay out of the network business I do not have an issue with them. I pretty much had the same customer's before I worked for them as I had when I worked for them as I still have today. One of my favorite memories in the glass business was getting to witness the fight (it wasn't funny at the time) between the two new sales reps at one of the insurance golf tournaments.

Belron won't stay out of the network business!!! They want world domination. They needed to re-enter U.S. Market on their own if they wanted to survive here. Now they are spreading their wings and growing. They have had MANY growing pains!!!! The bigger companies are lining themselves up for the possibility of a merge with Belron. Belron wouldn't tell anyone what their true plans on anyway. They are lucky with the employee's that have stayed the course thus far!!! If they leak out their true agenda.... well we can only imagine the impact it would or could have!
i am really quite shocked that they haven't bought out anyone in the past 6 months! Then maybe they just have a tad bit too much to deal with!
My money is on Belron lining up with Speedy. Speedy has closed down numerous locations in Washington state alone. Not sure about the rest of the country.

Well looking at todays GlassBytes, I might just have to eat my words on my last post! It still sounds like rumor's to me but who knows.

I thought speedy was tied to Trans Canada? And aren't most of these shops franchises? I know Ziebart bought into this at one time.

This may help you. From what I recall, Pilkington bought Autostock in the USA (not sure about the B.C. locations). Autostock and Speedy are or were tied together in B.C.. Then Belron bought Speedy in Canada. SO I am a bit confused on just who owns whom these days!! But here is a link that you may want to read:

http://www.glassbytes.com/newsbelron20050901.htm

And this would be why I have thought Belron/PIlkington/Speedy would eventually end up in bed together in the USA!!!

It is not a Safelite issue. It's a Belron issue. Belron is huge, Safelite in this case is not the player, Belron is. Look at the other threads.

Webmaster

Is there any way you can combine the Belron threads. They are redundant and the treads are the same issues.

The only thing I can do is to delete one of them. I could copy and paste the other posts into one but that would take forever and I'm busier than Larry Jr. at Mardi Gras this week.

Larry - you know I'm just messin' with you.

Former AGS employee, now an independant owner... Exciting times in which we live!

congrats atech! Wise move. Life without corporate people dictating what the other out of staters want is much nicer!! Everyone became over worked and over used. Lot's of unkept promises. Typical corporate way.

It wasn't so sweet when the original little owners built up a business for the bigger owners to just sell behind the little owners backs. Those who remained after the buyout are now making money for an overseas company. The american way---send you profits out of the country.

Hope those who remain fair well with the next big merger!