If you visit this site often, you may have come across an article detailing how small car dealerships have merged into larger entities over the past few years. Like most other industries, this trend is accelerating, car news Just shared metrics showing the progress we’ve made over the past decadeConsolidation among the big dealers has reportedly made great strides recently and is expected to continue its mission of limitless growth, as they don’t want to be small after every pint-sized showroom has been bought. North. America.

“With all the major auto groups consolidating, we want to make sure we keep pace,” said Liza Borches, CEO of Charlottesville, Va.-based Carter Myers Automotive Group, at the exit after her company.Acquisition of Miller Automotive Group increases its visibility in the following areas car news‘ Top 150 dealer group currently operating in the US.

While 2021 may not be the biggest year for auto sales in absolute terms, the largest U.S. dealership group posted record profits and made broad acquisitions from financially weaker rivals.

from A sort of:

The top 10 and top 150 groups now have more industry dealers and a larger share of industry new car sales.

Alan Haig, president of Haig Partners, a buying and selling firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said dealers who want to stay competitive for the long term realize it’s time to “go big or get out.” For the first time in years, all six state-owned dealer groups are buying stores, he said.

“Integrators have capital,” Hague told Automotive News. “They have confidence, they have shareholder support. They will continue to do business.

As of the end of 2021, the top 150 U.S. group had 4,138 stores, including a small but undetermined number of non-U.S. stores that are only for use, according to Automotive News Research & Data Center, which compiled the list. This equates to 22.7% of the total number of Automotive News franchise dealers in the U.S., compared to 21.1% in 2020 and 13.9% in 2011. By the end of 2021, the top 10 groups had 1,565 stores, or an 8.6% share of the entire United States. Dealers, up from 7.1% in 2020 and 5.3% in 2011.

With so much progress in such a short period of time, everyone seems to believe that buybacks will continue until AutoNations and Penskes in the world take the lion’s share of the market. But it’s not even a comprehensive dataset, with several of the largest dealer groups choosing not to provide relevant information or subject to reporting timelines that contradict the research. A sort of This was confirmed by suggesting in its report that the numbers “actually underestimate the top 10 and 150 companies’ share of industry sales.”

“Dealer groups only report their sales during the year — not sales from acquisition targets before the deal closes,” the outlet explained. “This means that vehicle sales recorded by the acquired group prior to the closing date of the transaction will not appear on the list.”

In some cases, all of this just changes the position of the car group that happens to be the biggest dog in the yard. But it also helps obscure the size of some of these large dealerships. While we know exactly which stores will grow the fastest in 2021 – Asbury Motors reportedly took over 71 showrooms last year, followed by Lithia Motors with 69 new stores. Meanwhile, Sonic Automotive gained 56, Group 1 Automotive gained 35, Penske Motor Group 27 and AutoNation 21.

Even some mid-sized groups are scrambling to expand so as not to be destroyed by bigger rivals, a trend no one expects to cool down. Business consolidation has also accelerated in recent years, and while relief funds have been earmarked to ensure such things don’t happen, pandemic restrictions have made life harder for small dealers (and other businesses). not producing. Instead, the industry seems to expect an increase in dealer acquisitions by 2022.

“We’re going to see a continued acceleration in consolidation, followed by normal trading targets for atypical integrators,” suggested Mark Johnson, president of MD Johnson, a buying and selling firm in Enumclaw, Washington.

[Images: LM Photos/Shutterstock; Automotive News]

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