Belron

Belron
Industry Vehicle glass repair
Founded Cape Town, South Africa (1897)
Founders Jacobs & Dandor
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Gary Lubner
Owner D'Ieteren
Number of employees
 27,000
Website Belron.com

Belron is a vehicle glass repair and replacement group operating worldwide across 34 countries[1] and employing over 25,000 people. Belron's brands include Autoglass and Autoglass bodyrepair in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Carglass in most of Europe, Safelite in the United States, O'Brien in Australia, Smith & Smith in New Zealand, and Lebeau and Speedy Glass in Canada.

Operations

Belron brands repair and replace damaged vehicle glass. In many countries, Belron brands are able to repair and replace a customer’s windscreen 24 hours a day through branch based and mobile services.

History

Belron was first founded as a family business in 1897 as Jacobs & Dandor in Cape Town, South Africa. The company was purchased and renamed Plate Glass Bevelling and Silvering in 1899. In 1917, City Glass Bevelling & Silvering Works bought Plate Glass; the companies were merged in 1919 and went ahead to gain success in the windscreen industry by securing the business rights to the curved windscreen production technology in 1953 and introducing laminated rear windows in 1958.

The company began its international expansion in 1971, starting with the acquisition of O’Brien in Australia. In 1990, international acquisitions were grouped together under the name Belron. Gary Lubner was named CEO of Belron in 2000;[2] both his father and grandfather had also led the business.[3][4]

In 2015 Belron (94.85% owned by D'Ieteren) had some 2,400 branches and 10,000 mobile vans, trading under 10 major brands including Carglass and Safelite, serving customers in 33 countries. Revenues in 2015 were €3.1 billion[5]

References

  1. ↑ "OUR FRANCHISEES", Belron. Retrieved 10 feb 2017
  2. ↑ , Candice Krieger, May 12, 2011, TheJC.com
  3. ↑ "Bertie Lubner Passes Away", April 18, 2016, Jenna Reed, GlassBytes.com
  4. ↑ "Power 100 2013: Gary Lubner", Jeremy Kuper, June 4, 2013, "The South African"
  5. ↑ "Financial Information". D'Ieteren. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
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