Sogessur and Thélem Assurances buy into Assercar alongside Pacifica

French insurers Sogessur and Thélem Assurances have taken a stake in the auto repair network Assercar, alongside Pacifica, the property/casualty insurance arm of Crédit Agricole Assurances.

At the same time, Assercar has signed a partnership agreement with Cora, an Autodistribution subsidiary specialised in the distribution of auto body parts.

Sogessur and Thélem have each taken a 5 per cent interest in Assercar, in line with that company’s strategy of fostering collaboration between insurers that want to control auto repair costs through joint sourcing. The aim is to unite market players that share the same vision and procedures:

• optimising claims management;
• relying on BCA Expertise, France’s leading automobile claims assessor, whose seal of approval is one of the selection criteria for Assercar repairers;
• making greater use of remote claims assessment, one of the commitments of the Assercar network;
• offering lifetime guarantees on repairs.

Cora is France’s largest independent distributor of body parts for all automotive brands. Its agreement with Assercar will allow repair networks to source components at lower cost. The partnership also has three objectives:

• prepare for the deregulation of the auto body part market by forging partnership agreements with experienced firms;
• help to maintain an independent auto repair capability alongside carmakers’ own facilities;
• deliver a high quality customer service, especially in terms of traceability of spare parts.