Six dealerships sell in Kan., Nev. and Mo. transactions

Editor's note: Buy/sell firm Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions was hired to sell Carthage Ford and Carthage Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram. An earlier version of this story misstated which buy/sell firm was retained for that transaction.

Dealers Ed Bozarth and Bob Beine sold dealerships in multiple December transactions in Kansas, Nevada and Missouri.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic brand dealerships.

Bozarth sells three dealerships

Cable Dahmer Automotive Group, of Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 13 expanded into the Topeka, Kan., market with the purchase of two General Motors dealerships.

Cable Dahmer bought Ed Bozarth Chevrolet #1 Buick-GMC-Cadillac from father and son Ed Bozarth and Kent Bozarth, and Chris Spargo. Spargo stayed on as president of the Chevrolet-Cadillac and Buick-GMC dealerships, which now operate as Cable Dahmer of Topeka.

Cable Dahmer has six dealerships in the Kansas City metro area. Topeka is about an hour's drive west of Kansas City.

Elizabeth Ouellette, executive assistant to Cable Dahmer CEO Carlos Ledezma, said he and Ed Bozarth have known each other for a while and were in the same 20 Group together. A 20 Group typically comprises dealers and dealership executives of like brands who share best practices.

"He was honored that Ed asked him if he'd be interested in purchasing" the stores, Ouellette said.

Ouellette said the group is hiring for the dealerships and expects to grow their service business.

"We see a lot of potential," she said.

On Dec. 21, Bozarth sold Ed Bozarth Nevada #1 Chevrolet in Las Vegas to Steve Olliges. The store is now called Team Chevrolet Las Vegas.

Olliges has owned Team Ford-Lincoln since 2000 and is a partner in Friendly Ford. Both of those dealerships also are in Las Vegas.

Olliges said Bozarth "just called me and asked me if I was interested. All our dealerships are right next door to each other, and so it makes sense."

He said he is hoping to grow sales at the Chevy store, which has about 100 employees.

"Our plan is to keep everybody," Olliges said, adding that a new Lincoln store and showroom are set to open late this year across the street from the Team Ford store.

Bozarth has three Colorado dealerships remaining — Ed Bozarth Chevrolet in Aurora, Bozarth Chevrolet in Lone Tree and Ed Bozarth Chevrolet-Buick in Grand Junction, according to Ed Bozarth's dealerships website.

Corwin Automotive acquires store, Wood Motor buys 2 from same retiring seller

Corwin Automotive Group and operating partner Jeff McConville reached an agreement with retiring dealer Bob Beine to buy his three Missouri dealerships.

The group, however, wanted just one store — Republic Ford-Lincoln. Corwin, of Fargo, N.D., hired Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a buy-sell firm in Frisco, Texas. It was charged with helping find a buyer that Corwin could assign through its purchase agreement the other two dealerships, Carthage Ford and Carthage Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, said Mike Sims, president of hired Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions.

Wood Motor Co., of Harrison, Ark., was assigned as buyer of the Carthage stores. Corwin and McConville bought the Republic dealership Dec. 6; Susan Beine also was a seller, McConville said. Wood Motor bought the other stores Dec. 8. Sims and Wes Hamilton of Pinnacle were brokers in that transaction.

McConville, also operating partner with Corwin at Ford and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat dealerships in Springfield, Mo., said he had known Beine for about a decade, and the two had talked several times over 10 years about buying the Republic dealership.

"When he was finally ready, we were able to put together something," he said.

McConville said Republic, just west of Springfield, is growing. "We felt it was a good location for us," he said.

An 8,000-square-foot reconditioning and photo booth facility are being built at the dealership, now called Corwin Ford-Lincoln Republic, McConville said.

He said the Carthage stores — renamed Wood Ford Carthage and Wood Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Carthage — were smaller "than what we usually buy" and were outside of metro Springfield.

Corwin and operating partner Mario Wierzchowski in October bought Gus Johnson Ford in Spokane Valley, Wash. In addition to Missouri and Washington, the Corwin group has stores in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and North Dakota.

Wood Motor, which in August bought a Nissan dealership in Lee's Summit, Mo., found the Carthage opportunities attractive, said Chip Johnson, dealer principal and president.

The stores gave Wood "the opportunity to have stores in northwest Arkansas, in the Joplin-Carthage market ... and then the Kansas City market, which is kind of the three most populated areas in that north-south [Interstate] 49 corridor," he told Automotive News.

Johnson said his group now has five stores near I-49 in Missouri and Arkansas, plus two others.

"We have another Ford and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store about an hour away," Johnson said of his Carthage and Jane, Mo., dealerships. "And so with the inventory shortages, I think these two locations being an hour apart with the same brands gives us the ability to share inventory and kind of compete better against the bigger stores."