The MSO Symposium, an annual one-day conference created by and for multi-shop owners and operators, was among the events kicking off SEMA week in Las Vegas today. About 400 people attended the event, the most in its 12-year history.
The day opened with Nasdaq chief economist Phil Mackintosh offering his take on “Where the Economy is Headed in 2025 and Beyond." Mackintosh sounded generally positive on the economic outlook. Inflation is down close to where the Fed wants to see it, he said, and while unemployment is rising a bit, that’s based primarily on people re-entering the workforce.
CCC Intelligent Solutions generally offers a look at the latest industry data at the MSO Symposium, and this year was no exception, with CCC’s Kyle Krumlauf providing context to trends to help collision repairers, insurers and vendors leverage data to improve efficiency and stay competitive.
With consolidation continuing in the industry, David Roberts of Focus Advisors provided a market update on the established MSOs, the private-equity-backed challengers and independent regional MSOs. Roberts said he sees no decline in private equity firms' involvement in the industry. “It’s clear there is really continued strong interest from private equity firms,” Roberts said. “There’s going to be money to help you grow or to exit when you feel it’s time. We don’t see any slowdown in this.”
In the afternoon, Dan Risley of CCC moderated a panel discussion focused on “facts, friction and the future,” related to ADAS calibrations.
Stay tuned to Autobody News for a deeper look at the 2024 MSO Symposium.
John Yoswick