Jim Butler Auto Group, Faulkner Automotive Group, Horne Auto Group and Coughlin Automotive Group each expanded their dealership portfolios with acquisitions in either late in the fourth quarter of 2021 or early in January 2022.
Here’s a look at the deals involving domestic-, import- and luxury-brand dealerships.
Missouri growth
Jim Butler Auto Group expanded its reach in Missouri with the acquisition of a Ford-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership.
Jim Butler Auto, through a subsidiary, bought Auffenberg Motor Co. of Mexico, Mo., on Thursday from Chris Auffenberg.
It marks the first Ford and second Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership for Jim Butler Auto of Fenton, Mo., a St. Louis suburb.
Jim Butler Auto is not keeping the dealership in its existing location, however.
The group moved the franchises into a single temporary facility next to Jim Butler Centralia Chevrolet in Centralia, Mo., around a 20-minute drive west of Mexico.
Jim Butler Auto President Brad Sowers said the group acquired that Chevrolet dealership in February and bought 12 acres surrounding the store.
The group plans to invest about $3 million to build a Ford dealership, a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership and an expanded service facility on that land. The dealerships will be named Jim Butler Centralia Ford and Jim Butler Centralia Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram.
The group is aiming to complete the construction project in 2024.
Don Day, a co-owner of subsidiary Linn Powerhouse Holdings, which bought the Ford-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store, also has an ownership stake in other stores. Those include Jim Butler Centralia Chevrolet, Jim Butler Chevrolet Linn and Jim Butler Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Linn, both in Linn, Mo., Sowers said.
“We’ve been very successful with CDJR in the Linn location and we wanted to expand our presence with Stellantis,” Sowers told Automotive News. “We enjoy the relationship and it’s been very successful for us. We do not have a Ford franchise, so it’s the first opportunity for us to expand there.”
In addition to the two upcoming dealerships, Jim Butler Auto has seven other rooftops, plus a used-only dealership, all in Missouri.
Sowers, a past co-chair of the Chevrolet Dealer Council, currently is a member of Maserati’s dealer council board and president of the St. Louis Auto Dealers Association, he said.
Sowers is one of the 47 dealers nominated for the 2022 Time Dealer of the Year award.
