Hitchcock Automotive partners Ted Hitchcock, Fritz’s son, Howard Hakes and Beth Hakes, sold their third dealership, Puente Hills Toyota in City of Industry, Calif., on Jan. 31 to Kaminsky Automotive, according to Kerrigan Advisors. That’s a sell-side firm in Irvine, Calif., that represented Hitchcock Automotive in the Toyota dealerships transactions.
Kaminsky Automotive also has Honda of El Cajon Superstore and Toyota of El Cajon in California in its portfolio and is owned by brothers Greg and Gary Kaminsky.
“It was very important to the family that we found the right new owners with the vision to continue our dealerships’ record of excellence, success and service in their communities,” Howard Hakes, president of Hitchcock Automotive, said in a statement.
While Toyota is a familiar brand to Van Tuyl, the two Ferrari dealerships are the first of the exotic brand for the entrepreneur.
“He’s definitely excited to have them in the family,” said Bill Scrivner, CEO of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a Frisco, Texas, buy-sell firm that represented Van Tuyl in the Ferrari transactions.
Like Hitchcock, Risi is a well-known dealer. He opened Ferrari of Houston in 1980 after receiving authorization from Enzo Ferrari, according to the dealership’s website. Risi also is founder and manager of Ferrari racing team Risi Competizione.
Van Tuyl said he and Risi “really hit it off.” He said he also liked that the dealerships were in Texas and were from a brand with a rich history.
“[Ferrari is] building some great, creative dynamic products and so I’m enthused about it,” he said.
Van Tuyl said he expects to employ 600 to 700 people at the dealerships by the end of the 2022.
“We’re certainly not there now because a lot of the dealerships, like the ones we just bought, because of COVID-19, etc., had reduced the amount of people that they had,” he said. “But we expect to see that turning pretty quickly.”
