Insurance Provider for AAA Texas Invests in Caliber Collision Centers

    HOUSTON--Oct. 25, 2001--The Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, which provides insurance to members of AAA Texas, today announced a minority investment in Caliber Collision Centers of Irvine, Calif. Caliber, which has collision repair facilities in Texas and California, has been part of the Exchange's Immediate Repair Program (IRP) in Texas since 1998. The company is known throughout the collision repair industry as a high-quality business focused on customer service.
    "Caliber represents a strategic investment for the Exchange," said Jim Gilmartin, senior vice-president for insurance operations. "It helps ensure that as the collision repair industry changes, our insureds will continue to have access to a high quality provider of collision repair services."
    "We are extremely pleased to have the Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club join our primary investors, Keystone Inc., an affiliate of Oak Hill Capital Management Inc. and an affiliate of Zurich Financial Services Group, in our latest equity investment round which totals $40 million," said Matthew Ohrnstein, Caliber's CEO. "The Exchange's investment validates our operating model as one that consistently provides the consumer and our insurance clients with repair quality, customer service and pricing that exceeds the industry norm."
    The Exchange's investment provides a minority interest in Caliber which has 62 collision repair centers in California and Texas, 28 of which are located in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. As a minority investor, the Exchange will not participate on Caliber's board of directors, will have no control over day-to-day operations of the company and will not have access to non-Exchange information.
    Caliber Collision Centers has been part of the Exchange's Immediate Repair Program (IRP) since it began in 1998. Policyholders and claimants, who choose to participate in this customer service program, are sent to pre-approved shops where repairs can begin immediately rather than waiting for an adjuster. Policyholders receive lifetime warranties for repairs, often have their vehicles returned quicker than at non-IRP shops and are assured that the repair shops meet the Exchange's high repair standards which include use of Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) collision parts. However, customers are not required to use the IRP program and may select a repair shop of their choice.
    "The trend toward consolidation within the collision repair industry was a critical factor in our investment decision," said Gilmartin. "The continued success of our IRP depends upon having the capacity to offer high quality collision repair services to policyholders and claimants who choose to use our program."
    The Exchange currently has 37 collision repair shops in its Texas IRP network.