Regional consolidation is certainly a theme in the dealership buy-sell world, but dealers are also making acquisitions far outside of their home markets.
Running the new stores themselves, or even visiting them frequently, is difficult for these absentee owners. It’s where management talent enters the equation, and it’s a key factor in making such ownership possible.
Take the acquisition of 12 dealerships in Maryland by Kansas-based Brandon Steven Motors. Absorbing such a large acquisition would have been nearly impossible had Steven followed the frequent practice of replacing the top management at the various stores.
But he kept all of the stores’ management, Steven told WardsAuto on a Zoom call.
“I’m just elated with the team,” Steven said. “The team is awesome. It’s just incredible.”
Steven also owns eight dealerships in Southern California, spread between Long Beach and Ventura County, including a Honda store in downtown Los Angeles. A buyer would have no problem finding qualified managers to run such stores because of their location, Jesse Stopnitzky, co-owner of Performance Brokerage Services, a California-based buy-sell firm, told WardsAuto on a phone call.
Such metropolitan markets allow for higher dealership earnings, meaning the buyer can afford “a highly paid, experienced general manager, therefore the dealer can be an absentee owner,” he said. Good brands such as Honda and Hyundai are also a management draw, Stopnitzky added.
Performance represented the sellers when Brandon Steven acquired a Hyundai dealership in the Los Angeles Metroplex in 2022.
Regional consolidation helps with talent retention
To be sure, regional consolidation is occurring. Kerrigan Advisors’ The Blue Sky Report, for 2025, said 60% of acquisitions in 2025 were located within buyers’ existing markets, “demonstrating buyers’ preferences for geographic density and/or regional market share growth.”
And sticking to the same region is helpful where talent retention is concerned, Stopnitzky said.
“If you can offer growth in a regional area, you can keep your good management without the need for them to relocate their families,” he said.
By expanding within the same region, dealership groups can give good employees more job growth opportunities, Talon Fee, a managing director at buy-sell advisory firm the Dave Cantin Group, told WardsAuto in a Zoom call.
DCG represented the Sylvester family in the sale of its Chevrolet dealership in Peckville, Pennsylvania, to Matthews Auto Group, a growing automotive group in the same area.
Creating career opportunities for the Matthews Group employees “was a big conversation” in the transaction, Fee said.
Adding more stores in the same region allows employees “to make a career in Matthews Auto Group,” Fee said.
Taking good care of its employees is a benefit of acquiring more stores in the same area, Rob Matthews, CEO of Matthews Auto Group, told WardsAuto on a Zoom call.
“I think there’s a lot more career paths when you have 16 stores versus one,” he said, “so I think that makes us a lot more attractive in recruiting and retention” of talent.
Management talent enhances value
In any acquisition, having a good management team in place can boost a dealership’s value, according to The Presidio Group, an investment bank engaged in dealership mergers and acquisitions with offices in Denver and Atlanta.
“A stable team fosters stronger customer relationships, boosts service volume and drives sales. This, in turn, contributes to a more profitable and sustainable business, making it a more desirable acquisition,” said George Karolis, president of The Presidio Group, in the Q4 2024 Presidio Perspectives report.
That was certainly the case for Brandon Steven Motors’ acquisition of the 12 stores in Maryland.
“I would have paid more, now that I know how good the team is,” Steven said. “I know it sounds crazy, but that is a big deal. Like, it’s worth more than the locations to me.”
