Two Sacramento-area auto body shop chains have joined forces.
Golden State Collision Centers and Bodycraft Collision Centers formally merged their operations over the weekend.
The combined company has 13 Sacramento-area shops employing about 275 people. Statewide, the enterprise has 19 shops.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Officials said the merged companies will now operate under the name "Golden State Collision Repair Centers, A Bodycraft Company."
In the region, the company has shops in Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Lincoln, Orangevale, Rancho Cordova, Rocklin, Roseville, Antelope, Shingle Springs and Yuba City.
Ron Crane, managing director of Roseville-based DCA Partners, represented Golden State in the deal, which he called "a joining of two great companies."
Crane characterized the merged company's local presence as formidable.
"Obviously, it gives them an advantage in being able to cover a larger geographic area," he said. "They cover the greater Sacramento area very, very well now.
"And being a larger firm, it allows for better negotiation terms with their vendors. Those are the two biggest things."
Bodycraft, with Granite Bay corporate offices, has been doing business in the Sacramento area for more than 25 years.
Golden State was founded in 1993 by Dave Finkelstein, who started his long career in the industry as a shop helper. The first Golden State store was a 2,400-square-foot outlet on Roseville Road. It had one phone line and a single employee.
Finkelstein said the merger has "opened up some great opportunities for both companies."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Mark Glover
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.