Sonic to bring Mini to BMW stores

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sonic Automotive Inc. is moving its Long Beach Mini store in California into its nearby Long Beach BMW dealership and plans to fold a second Mini franchise inside a new BMW store it expects to open late next year in Houston.

The nation's fifth-largest dealership group is believed to be among the first companies to integrate Mini sales into a BMW dealership after BMW of North America last year gave its Mini retailers who also had BMW stores that option. That significant move by BMW, which put a number of conditions on how retailers go about consolidating the Mini business into BMW stores, comes amid Mini's declining sales and a high number of unprofitable dealerships. Dealers representing 29 outlets have expressed interest in consolidating their Mini store into their BMW location or have begun the process, a Mini spokesman told Automotive News last month.

Mini spokesman Andrew Cutler confirmed that Mini reviewed and approved Sonic's plans. While Cutler said he was not able to say how many other dealerships are integrating Mini stores into BMW stores, he said the option is still open to Mini dealers. Mini has 122 dealerships in the U.S.

Sonic executives said they remain committed to the Mini brand. Sonic has eight Mini stores and 15 BMW dealerships nationally.

Sonic President Jeff Dyke told Automotive News that the Long Beach Mini integration is set to occur in July. BMW last year came out with parameters for the moves including requiring separate Mini- branded showrooms and dedicated sales and service employees, plus dedicated service lanes and bays. For the Long Beach store, some walls had to move to make the transition happen, Dyke said.

"When we're building a new store, in Houston, for example, it's easy to build in Mini," he said.

Sonic will integrate its Momentum Mini store in Houston into a new Momentum BMW store set to be built next year on the site of a former Sears store in that market. The new dealership is expected to open by the end of 2020, Dyke said.

Dyke said some of Sonic's Mini stores already are located on the same lots as its BMW stores, so there is no need to combine them. And others, such as Sonic's Atlanta-area Mini standalone store and Mini of Fort Myers in Florida are performing well and don't need to be combined, Dyke said.

Dyke and Sonic CEO David Smith said they appreciate BMW's flexibility to allow retailers to move Mini operations inside BMW stores.

"It's huge," Smith said, adding that "the traffic at a BMW store is just going to help the Mini store."

Sonic hasn't decided what to do with its Long Beach Mini location in Signal Hill, Calif.

Sonic, of Charlotte, N.C., is No. 5 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 122,717 new vehicles in 2018.