Lithia continues expansion with Calif., Texas dealership acquisitions

Lithia Motors Inc. is continuing its expansion and has extra a massive-quantity Honda retail outlet in Southern California and two import dealerships close to Dallas.

The second-most significant dealership group in the U.S. on Monday acquired Rock Honda in Fontana, Calif., from Invoice Piercey and Tom Chadwell. Piercey and Chadwell continue to possess five dealerships across Arizona, California and Colorado.

The retail outlet, which Lithia explained was Honda’s 16th most significant in the nation based on new-vehicle quantity in 2020, will include an expected $a hundred and seventy million in once-a-year earnings. The dealership has been renamed Honda of Fontana.
Lithia observed that the dealership is licensed to “offer shoppers with individual insurance plan.”

“We are enthusiastic to access more people in the Southwest region and welcome the Rock Honda crew to the Lithia & Driveway household,” explained Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer in a statement. “This high-carrying out, customer-centered retail outlet expands our omnichannel community and introduces a new adjacency with individual insurance plan items, further complementing our capacity to offer people transportation remedies where ever, whenever and nonetheless they want.”

Omnichannel is electronic purchasing engineering that presents a seamless shopping for expertise for people no matter of unit or no matter if they store on the internet, in-retail outlet or equally.

Invoice Scrivner of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions in Frisco, Texas, represented Lithia in the Rock Honda transaction.

Texas deals
Lithia on Aug. 9 acquired Kia of Frisco from Zohreh Malek. The retail outlet had a short while ago opened, Lithia explained. A spokeswoman for Lithia explained it did not use a broker in that transaction.

In June, Lithia bought five Southwest Car Group Kia outlets.
Lithia also teamed up with former NFL linebacker Jessie Armstead to open Grapevine Honda in Texas. The open-issue dealership had been below building considering that May 2020 and opened July 16, Lithia explained. An “open issue” refers to a spot an automaker has determined for opening a retail outlet.

Lithia explained it now has 32 outlets in Texas.

“Our monitor file of high efficiency underpins our interactions with our maker partners, and we respect their continued belief in our capacity to satisfy customer demands and increase market share,” DeBoer explained in a statement asserting the Kia of Frisco transaction.

Armstead, a former New York Giants star, owns 51 p.c of Grapevine Honda, while Lithia owns forty nine p.c, a Lithia spokeswoman explained. Armstead in the beginning had partnered for the retail outlet with Michael Saporito — a associate of his in other dealerships at the time. It wasn’t obvious what transpired to that arrangement.

Armstead declined to comment through a spokeswoman.

Lithia presently had a partnership with Armstead and an ailing auto group he was related with, as it in 2019 acquired Hamilton Honda in New Jersey and Hazleton Honda in Hazle Township, Pa., nevertheless in May it offered the Pennsylvania retail outlet.

The Grapevine Honda retail outlet, which was slated to be a 100,000-square-foot-moreover dealership, was the topic of protests with the condition of Texas by four other dealerships in 2017. The dealerships argued that the market place was sufficiently represented.

Lithia, of Medford, Ore., rated No. 3 on Automotive News‘ most latest list of the top rated a hundred and fifty dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 171,168 new vehicles in 2020. But its April acquisition of Michigan’s Suburban Collection would make Lithia the second-most significant group going forward.