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Letter to the Editor

Spring Forward

The little mantra we recite to ourselves before beginning the daunting task of setting all our clocks correctly for Daylight Savings Time is “Spring forward; fall back.” You know the drill.

Our Collision Repair Industry stocks seem to be doing a bit of springing forward this month, too, to coincide with the time change. I see no other logical reason for our Supplier Index to post an almost ten percent gain over its January position. For the first time in recent memory, in fact, our Supplier Index has out-performed our INSIGHT Insurer Index, by over 12 percentage points YTD.

Insurers Progressive, Safeco, and St. Paul Travelers posted per share stock prices less this month than at the start of 2006, and Allstate’s per share price squeaked upward less than one percent YTD.

Aftermarket parts players Keystone Automotive Industries and LKQ Corporation are the big Springtime bloomers in INSIGHT’s stock chart in March. Keystone’s current per share stock price of $44.56 is nearly 40 percent above its beginning of the year figure. LKQ’s per share price stands at just under $22, over 25 percent above its place on January 1st.

Our automobile dealer stocks have had a good month on Wall Street, too. AutoNation is down just a hair, but CarMax, Sonic Automotive, and the United Auto Group (UAG) are all posting per share stock prices of around 25 percent higher than beginning of the year prices.

The picture for our refinish paint and materials players, BASF and DuPont per share stock prices were slightly lower YTD. Individual share prices for Sherwin-Williams, PPG, and Valspar moved upward nicely, in the five to ten percent range over January prices. Sherwin-Williams seems to have recovered nicely at the Stock Exchange from February’s little dip brought on by the lead paint court ruling in Rhode Island.

The Boyd Group continues to struggle with poor showings for its Income Fund at the Canadian Stock Exchange. The North American body shop consolidator reported 2005 Year End results this month. Sales for the year were up for the Boyd Group in its operations in both the U.S. and Canada. However, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell off to 6.5 percent of sales compared to an EBITDA of 7.6 percent of sales in 2004.

Perhaps this month’s feature should be read with extreme care at the Boyd Group Winnipeg headquarters.

-Charles Baker-

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