Asbury buys Subaru store in Colorado expansion

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. last week bought its third dealership in Colorado and is believed to have made its first acquisition since buying eight luxury-brand Park Place Dealerships stores in Texas last August.

Asbury on Aug. 9 bought Greeley Subaru, northeast of Denver, from Warren Yoder. The dealership has been renamed Mike Shaw Subaru Greeley.

"Subaru is a highly desirable brand with a history of success in the market and nationwide," Asbury said in a statement to Automotive News. "This acquisition also strengthens our presence in the Colorado market."

The Greeley store is Asbury's second Subaru dealership. Asbury also owns Mike Shaw Subaru in Thornton, Colo., which it acquired in November 2019.

Fellow public auto retailer Sonic Automotive Inc. also acquired a Subaru dealership in Colorado last month.

Asbury in February 2020 bought a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store in Greeley, a dealership that also operates under the Mike Shaw brand, according to Asbury's website.

Asbury CEO David Hult told analysts and investors last month during its second-quarter earnings call that the company had signed letters of intent to buy dealerships which are expected to generate $400 million in annual revenue. He said the retailer also was reviewing deals for dealerships that could represent nearly $9 billion in annual revenue.
 

Asbury has said it wants to add dealerships representing $5 billion in revenue over five years.

Jody Henderson of Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions, a dealership buy-sell firm based in Markham, Ontario, and with a U.S. office in Jupiter, Fla., brokered the transaction.

Asbury, of Duluth, Ga., ranks No. 6 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 95,165 new vehicles in 2020.