McGovern Automotive Group buys Stellantis dealership, its fifth acquisition of 2022

The flurry of acquisitions this yr follows McGovern Automotive final Oct buying a exceptional Ferrari-Maserati dealership, shopping for Ferrari-Maserati Extensive Island in Plainview, N.Y., from Practical experience Auto Team.

With all its progress, McGovern stated his group is on track to deliver $1.8 billion in once-a-year earnings for 2022 and to promote far more than 27,000 new and applied vehicles merged this yr.
McGovern, 52, mentioned that soon after graduating faculty, he labored for an accounting organization that specialised in car dealership perform. He stated he inevitably went to operate for a dealership shopper that was sold to Team 1 Automotive Inc. in 2000. With Team 1, McGovern mentioned he worked as the Northeast location CFO. He left Team 1 and in 2007 co-established Primary Motor with David Rosenberg and David Abrams of Abrams Capital.

McGovern mentioned he left Primary Motor in early 2016, prior to Prime in 2017 combined with GPB Cash Holdings’ Capstone Automotive Team to create Primary Automotive Team.

On his own, McGovern mentioned he purchased his very first shop in September 2016, a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram retailer in Newton, Mass., with some money aid from his sister.

“It was a enjoyment to shuffle across the avenue and get rolling on my have with a good, good management staff,” McGovern stated. “So we swiftly acquired 4 dealerships in quarter 4 of 2016: yet another Hyundai shop, a Honda retail outlet, and I was capable to buy our Toyota store in December of 2016. And that combination of outlets has fueled my development in phrases of intense profitability suitable from the get-go.”

In mid-2018, McGovern reported he additional his to start with luxury dealerships, buying Audi and BMW in Shrewsbury, Mass., and in June 2020 he added his to start with Porsche dealership, also on Extended Island.

“It was March of 2020, and I place it below agreement,” he recalled. “I was sending out the $500,000 deposit and my CFO said, ‘What? Are you outrageous? There’s a pandemic likely on.’ And I was like, I’m not ridiculous. And I believe on the other side of this, it really is heading to be definitely, seriously excellent.”

The Lundgren retail store can help McGovern have some efficiencies in western Massachusetts, he mentioned, and follows the strategic acquisition this yr of Dillon Chevrolet to assistance with the group’s new municipal division. McGovern reported he aims to offer municipal vehicles this kind of as police and upkeep automobiles “to towns and cities all around Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and as very well as maybe the condition police in Massachusetts.”

With the Bill Dube Hyundai acquisition, Scott Dube joined McGovern Automotive as vice president of government and industry relations. Dube, who also will continue to serve on the board of administrators for the Nationwide Car Sellers Association, mentioned he retained a minority desire in the dealership, but he did not disclose it.

Dube told Automotive Information that he failed to want to offer his shop, but observed that “timing’s all the things.”

“Desire fees are quickly increasing, gasoline costs are quickly escalating, inflation is quickly expanding,” he explained, incorporating that those people adjustments put stress on the household business enterprise.

He said it also was a excellent time for his relatives to minimize chance publicity given that “there proceeds to be uncertainty close to inventory.”

He stated that when lower stock for new cars has served dealers’ profitability, it’s unclear how extended that will final.

But McGovern sees at the very least a handful of superior yrs in advance for automobile merchants.

“We’re likely to keep fairly intense,” he explained of deals that “make sense. I assume you will find a sound 1 to two yrs at minimum of definitely fantastic automotive occasions. So I assume it tends to make perception to be bullish nevertheless.”

Woody Woodward and Brian Brown of DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Team firm, managed the McGovern-Lundgren transaction.