Auto retail veteran Matt McGovern has quickly grown his McGovern Automotive Group from just one store in fall 2016 to 20 new- and used-vehicle dealerships today, spanning three states, 18 brands and more than 1,100 employees.
McGovern Automotive of Newton, Mass., on June 22 closed its fifth franchised dealership acquisition of the year, buying Lundgren Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Greenfield, Mass., from Barry Lundgren and Patrick Lundgren of Lundgren Automotive Group.
"So I often get the question, how many is enough, how many are you going to grow to?" McGovern, founder and CEO of the group, told Automotive News. "I really don't have the answer. I just feel like what we're doing, we're doing well.
"And every dealership we have bought over the last couple of years has been wildly successful. Some of it's a sign of the times, but honestly, some of it's what we do well. And we have an amazing team that helps me manage everything."
It appears that McGovern, who also co-founded New England's Prime Motor Group, is hungry for more. McGovern said his namesake group, which has 18 franchised stores, is close to putting two more dealership acquisition deals under contract "any day now."
"We're going to keep the foot on the gas," he said. "And I think we're going to have another five to 10 stores in one to two years from now."
The Lundgren dealership is the latest transaction this year for McGovern. In January, the group acquired Village Subaru in Acton, Mass., from Fred Santilli. A month later, brothers Jay Dillon and Tom Dillon sold their Chevrolet dealership, also in Greenfield, Mass., to McGovern Automotive.
In March, the group bought Route 2 Hyundai in Leominster, Mass., from Michael DiPlacido, and in May, McGovern Automotive picked up its second Hyundai dealership of the year, buying Bill Dube Hyundai in Wilmington, Mass., from Scott Dube.