Growing Morrie’s Auto Group, which entered a new state late last year, made its first acquisition of 2022 and bolstered its Minneapolis presence with the purchase of a trio of domestic dealerships this month.
Morrie’s Auto on July 1 bought Forest Lake Chevrolet and Forest Lake Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep & Ram in Minnesota from dealer Randy Wilcox of Forest Lake Auto Group.
The Stellantis dealership has a separate facility for the Jeep franchise, which recently was built, but Morrie’s considers it one dealership. The stores were renamed Morrie’s Forest Lake Chevrolet and Morrie’s Forest Lake Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram.
Morrie’s Auto CEO Lance Iserman said the group was aggressive in trying to acquire the stores, which lie in the group’s backyard.
Forest Lake is northeast of Minneapolis. Morrie’s is based in Minnetonka, Minn., just west of Minneapolis.
“You don’t get these opportunities to buy two really high-performing stores and in the metro where the bulk of our stores are,” Iserman told Automotive News. “This gives us 14 stores now in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area and two brands that we didn’t have in this area.”
