Suburban CEO David Fischer Jr. will stay on to run the Michigan dealerships and become a Lithia vice president, according to a statement.
“I am honored to continue to lead the Suburban Collection team, backed by the enhanced technology, selection and financing options Lithia brings with its ownership,” Fischer said in a statement.
Fischer’s ongoing role will be an advantage for Lithia, according to George Karolis, president of the Presidio Group, a buy-sell advisory firm in San Francisco and Atlanta, which represented the Suburban Collection in the transaction — the third time it represented sellers to Lithia over the past eight months.
“This is a plug-and-play transaction for Lithia,” Karolis said. “It’s hard to build a group of that size and scale from scratch in any new market.”
Lithia was not represented by a broker in the Suburban deal.
The Suburban Collection acquisition is at least Lithia’s biggest since the 2014 purchase of the DCH Auto Group, which had 27 stores and $2.3 billion in revenue.
Lithia acquired 34 Suburban dealerships representing 33 brands. In total, the deal covers 56 franchises in Michigan and excludes Suburban Collection’s Buick-GMC and Cadillac stores in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Suburban Collection of Troy, Mich., ranked 21st in the nation for new-vehicle sales in 2020, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. The group sold 29,314 new vehicles last year. Founded by the Fischer family in 1948, the Suburban Collection said it sells 1 out of every 10 vehicles purchased in southeastern Michigan.
