The wave of mergers and acquisitions in Canada’s restoration industry isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s likely to accelerate.
That’s the view of Jim Mandeville (pictured), senior vice president, large loss North America at First Onsite Property Restoration, who says market forces, insurer expectations, and regulatory pressures will continue to push restoration firms toward larger, national scale.
“I definitely think that the continued merger and acquisition activity in Canada… is just going to continue,” Mandeville said.
“There’s a real desire from the market, from the underwriters, from the consumer at large, to have a consistent product across the country. That’s really hard to do when you’re a small, family-owned business,” he told Insurance Business.
The demand for consistency isn’t just about branding – it’s tied to insurers’ increasingly complex requirements. From data reporting to ESG compliance, Mandeville said the expectations placed on restoration vendors are growing.
“To deliver quality ESG programs [and] employee experience programs on a big scale, you have to be a bigger company,” he noted. “It’s really hard for a small business with 20, 30, or 50 employees to manage programs like this, because it is a lot of work.”
For insurers, large national players bring the advantage of coast-to-coast coverage, standardized service, and the ability to provide the detailed data now demanded by regulators and corporate governance standards.
Mandeville explained that the turning point came about a decade ago, when insurers began demanding more visibility into the claims process.
“Twenty years ago, most of us were small, family-owned businesses,” he said. “We’d get a call, do the work, send a bill – and that was the extent of it.”
About 10 years ago, he said, the industry underwent a data revolution as insurers began demanding far greater visibility into claims, focusing on metrics such as claim spend, cycle times, and response times.
This shift brought insurers and restoration firms onto shared software platforms, creating a much more integrated relationship. Initially, the goal was to improve the claims experience for insureds. But as vendor programs became more advanced, insurers began asking for even deeper data points – especially around ESG.
Some of these are mandated by the federal government, where insurers have to start reporting their carbon footprint all the way through the claim cycle. Others, Mandeville said, are about being good corporate citizens, which in Canada extends through the banks and insurers and down their supply chains.
So now, the restoration companies are being asked not just about greenhouse gas reductions, but also what they’re doing for sustainability and for the communities they operate in.
While consolidation benefits insurers, it reshapes the landscape for brokers and policyholders. Small, family-owned businesses aren’t disappearing, but Mandeville believes they will increasingly serve niche markets or lean on consultants to help them meet insurer demands.
“There will always be a place for small, family-owned business,” he said. “They do great work. They’re very successful. It’s just that they become more of a niche business, the same way there’s still a great family-owned coffee shop in your neighborhood – even if there are also bigger chain stores down the street.”
Looking ahead, Mandeville believes technology will be just as influential as M&A in reshaping the restoration landscape. Tools such as 3D scanning, AI-driven assessments, and real-time data sharing are already compressing claims cycles from weeks or months into days. In the near future, he sees a world where insureds could see claims resolved within hours rather than days.
That speed matters for both insurers and policyholders. Faster turnaround reduces disruption for clients, improves satisfaction, and lowers administrative costs for insurers. But it also reinforces the need for scale: deploying AI platforms and advanced imaging technology requires investment, training, and integration that smaller firms will struggle to match, he said.
“I see a time in the not-too-distant future where that’s happening in hours, with the use of 3D scanning technology and AI,” Mandeville said.
