Open Road also makes minority investments into dealerships, which was the case with Pritchard Cos., a family-run, 108-year-old business now into its fifth generation.
CEO Joe Pritchard said his company had been talking with Open Road since late 2019 following a family meeting about the future of its business and the industry. “We looked out on the horizon to see the changes that we were going to embrace in our industry and decided to search for a capital partner to help us fund that growth,” Pritchard said. “But we just didn’t want to include capital, as we would put it. There’s plenty of capital on the streets right now and back then, but we were looking for a strategic partner that had the same vision that we did.”
He said they found that in Open Road.
Pritchard said the company has seven franchised dealerships in Iowa that focus on commercial and fleet sales.
More than 85 percent of its revenue is generated from the commercial side, and it also operates a fleet management finance company.
Pritchard said the minority position with a partner also was attractive.
“We don’t want to give control up of the family business,” he said.
To Open Road, the commercial-focused business was appealing, Batchelor said, adding that its partnership has helped to provide lower financing rates to Pritchard Cos.
“All the money we put in went onto the balance sheet and it gives them the floorplan credit line that allows them to, I think, to eventually quadruple sales,” Batchelor said.
Pritchard Cos. COO Angela Pritchard Spiteri, part of the fifth generation working in the family business along with two siblings, said the Open Road partnership not only gives them “third-party eyes on the business,” but will help them as they transition over time from a single-generational owner to multiple owners.
“Our goal out of this is how to learn a lot about what we want the company to become, to put a growth path in place that allows us to get there and gives us, again, options at the end of that pathway,” she said.
