I’ve been hiding from Deb Levy all week, because she has been calling and e-mailing me about this blog. She’s trying to tell me what I already know: it’s a little late, a tad delayed, perhaps? No, she is going to tell me it’s way overdue. I want her—and you—to know why it’s delayed, though. It’s because I hadn’t quite figured out how to say what I want to say about the Belron-Diamond deal.
For the first few days, I knew there was something that bothered me about the whole thing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It wasn’t the usual reasons you might expect. Yeah, the new “Belmond” (Belron mated with Diamond) is going to be gargantuan, but there is no crime in size.
And there’s so much talk about steering and anti-steering that it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s myth. To me, the definition of steering is almost the same as the one the Supreme Court used to defined pornography many years ago. They said “we don’t know how to define it, but we sure know it when we see it.” So every time one of my customers gets steered away from me, I see it and know what it is.
I wasn’t particularly unhappy to see Tom Feeney put in charge because he tends to tell you where he stands, even if it’s unpopular, and I can respect that.
So after a week of deep thought—and you know how hard it is for us guys to get in touch with our feelings—I can now articulate the two main things that are bothering me about the deal.
First, I feel sad for a bunch of people. I feel bad for companies that have to compete against Belmond in major markets. They’ve just consolidated and strengthened their presence even more. I feel bad for the quality suppliers that supplied Diamond but will now be cast adrift a replaced with Belron suppliers in their stead. I feel bad for the Diamond employees who have their jobs in limbo as of today. I even feel sorry for the insurers because they are too stupid to realize their role in reducing competition. The fewer competitors out there, the more adroitly Belron will be able to get the prices it wants from the insurance companies. We just saw this happen with repair rates. Just give them a year or two to clear out the market of a lot of competitors, then see what you’ll be paying for replacement glass. Go ask anyone in Canada.
But most of all, I feel cheated. Most industries have one, two, three companies that are market leaders. They set the agenda for their industry and they help develop best practices on an industry-wide basis. They define and participate in industry debate. They are part of the industry team.
But not in the auto glass industry. Belron seeks to differentiate itself by not playing on the same team. Its stance on AGRSS—our industry’s best hope for a sustainable future—is unbelievable. The company doesn’t even understand what AGRSS registration is and attempts to frame it as a certification program before their insurance customers. Belron says its Saftech program is better than AGRSS registration. They are two entirely different things. Belron has its own self-certification, its own auto glass competiton and its own programs. It’s one thing to be a market leader and help raise a whole industry up. By doing so you fulfill a role as an accomplished leader—and you can still leave everyone in the dust.
