Toyota of Newnan in Ga. sold
After planning to sell a majority of his dealership to a publicly traded auto retailer, dealer Walt Gutierrez has sold his Toyota of Newnan store in Georgia.
Gutierrez in July 2020 signed an agreement in which publicly traded LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. was to buy a 75 percent stake in the dealership for $27 million.
At the time, LMP said the dealership generated about $100 million in annual revenue and $5.6 million in pretax income. But by December 2020, LMP had said it and Gutierrez had agreed to terminate the July purchase agreement. LMP CEO Samer Tawfik declined to disclose why the deal didn’t move forward.
The dealership, outside of Atlanta, sold on Dec. 1 to Danny Braden and Rob Gallik, Gutierrez confirmed to Automotive News.
Braden is dealer principal, Gallik said. The two also are partners in three Alabama dealerships: Tameron Honda Hoover and Tameron Hyundai in Birmingham and Tameron Honda Gadsden, Gallik said in an email.
Bob Morris of the Tim Lamb Group, a buy-sell firm in Columbus, Ohio, represented the seller in the transaction.
Quirk Auto adds domestic store in Maine
Quirk Auto Group has purchased Fuller Chevrolet-GMC in Rockland, Maine, adding another domestic brand to its portfolio and giving it a presence in Rockland.
The group bought the store from the Kolmosky family, who had operated the dealership for 40 years, according to a Dec. 17 article in the Courier-Gazette newspaper. The deal closed on Dec. 15, General Motors confirmed.
The store was renamed Quirk Chevrolet-GMC of Rockland.
Quirk has nine other franchised rooftops in Maine, plus used-vehicle centers, according to its website.
First-time dealer buys Subaru store
First-time dealer Dennis Wilson bought a Subaru dealership last month in Concord, N.H., from Sheila Reilly, whose family had owned the store for more than 27 years.
Wilson on Dec. 14 bought Ed Reilly Subaru, according to Nancy Phillips Associates, a buy-sell firm in Exeter, N.H., which handled the transaction.
The store was renamed Capital City Subaru.
A Dec. 20 Facebook post on the Ed Reilly Subaru page announced the ownership transition.
“We are confident that our long-standing values of extraordinary customer service and making every experience a positive one will continue,” said the post by the Reilly family. “Our amazing employees will also still be there, so you will see the same friendly faces you have come to know and love.”
Ed Reilly, Sheila Reilly’s late husband, died in 2018 at age 61, according to his obituary.
Wilson previously was market COO with Prime Motor Group and a general manager for Ira Motor Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
While at Prime, Wilson said he ran a Subaru store in Manchester, N.H., and said consumers’ “loyalty for the brand” stood out to him.
Wilson said he inquired about buying the Ed Reilly store a year and a half ago — before it was for sale. He later learned it was on the market and met with Sheila Reilly in September.
“The place was very, very clean [and] well kept,” he said, adding that after a roughly two-hour meeting, he and Reilly realized their philosophies “lined up.”
He said he plans within four years to bring the dealership up to image compliance standards with Subaru by either building a new dealership or rehabbing the current store.
Wilson said buying his own dealership had been a longtime goal.
“Anybody who’s been in the car business for a long time at the levels of a GM or beyond thinks it’d be nice to own my own store someday,” he said.
