FinishMaster has also announced the appointment of Wes Dearbaugh to the positions of president and chief operating officer of the company effective June 14, 1999. Dearbaugh succeeds Tom Young who, readers of this column will remember, came to FinishMaster after retiring as head of DuPont s Automotive Refinish operations. Young will continue to serve as vice chairman. See the article on page 9 of this issue. On the CCC front, we have found it a bit difficult to unravel the twisted web of investment in other companies that created a profit write-off based on the losses of that operation coupled with increased sales revenue in insurance related businesses and apparently unexpectedly high costs for systems and customer support.
Bottom line is that most recently reported net is down from the previous year s numbers.
CCC s new CEO, Githesh Ramamurthy, has led the company s product development and research in the past. This month we add Insurance Auto Auctions to our list, based on a combination of several requests and the fact that they are Copart s major national competitor. The salvage related auto auction business has been a growth area, and IAAI as well as Copart have shown growth in sales and profits that have far exceeded the industry averages. Both companies have moved to utilize the Internet in their operations, with IAAI for example providing digital images of selected high line and specialty vehicles coming up for auction. We visualize its next step may be true Internet auctions that could significantly expand their customer base from a geographical standpoint.