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

The flurry of acquisitions this yr follows McGovern Automotive very last Oct acquiring a rare Ferrari-Maserati dealership, obtaining Ferrari-Maserati Extensive Island in Plainview, N.Y., from Experience Car Group.

With all its progress, McGovern said his team is on observe to produce $1.8 billion in once-a-year income for 2022 and to market more than 27,000 new and utilized vehicles combined this 12 months.
McGovern, 52, stated that right after graduating college, he labored for an accounting firm that specialized in automobile dealership function. He stated he finally went to operate for a dealership customer that was marketed to Group 1 Automotive Inc. in 2000. With Group 1, McGovern stated he worked as the Northeast region CFO. He remaining Group 1 and in 2007 co-launched Primary Motor with David Rosenberg and David Abrams of Abrams Capital.

McGovern claimed he remaining Key Motor in early 2016, before Prime in 2017 merged with GPB Cash Holdings’ Capstone Automotive Team to make Primary Automotive Group.

On his own, McGovern stated he bought his first store in September 2016, a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram shop in Newton, Mass., with some fiscal aid from his sister.

“It was a enjoyment to shuffle throughout the road and get rolling on my individual with a good, good administration team,” McGovern reported. “So we immediately acquired four dealerships in quarter four of 2016: yet another Hyundai retail outlet, a Honda retailer, and I was ready to get our Toyota retail store in December of 2016. And that mix of merchants has fueled my advancement in terms of intense profitability correct from the get-go.”

In mid-2018, McGovern stated he additional his to start with luxury dealerships, purchasing Audi and BMW in Shrewsbury, Mass., and in June 2020 he extra his first Porsche dealership, also on Very long Island.

“It was March of 2020, and I place it beneath arrangement,” he recalled. “I was sending out the $500,000 deposit and my CFO claimed, ‘What? Are you mad? You will find a pandemic heading on.’ And I was like, I am not insane. And I consider on the other side of this, it is really likely to be definitely, definitely good.”

The Lundgren retail outlet aids McGovern have some efficiencies in western Massachusetts, he reported, and follows the strategic acquisition this year of Dillon Chevrolet to assistance with the group’s new municipal division. McGovern stated he aims to sell municipal automobiles these types of as police and maintenance automobiles “to metropolitan areas and cities all in excess of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and as nicely as quite possibly the condition police in Massachusetts.”

With the Invoice Dube Hyundai acquisition, Scott Dube joined McGovern Automotive as vice president of governing administration and business relations. Dube, who also will keep on to serve on the board of directors for the Nationwide Vehicle Sellers Affiliation, stated he retained a minority fascination in the dealership, but he did not disclose it.

Dube told Automotive News that he did not want to market his keep, but uncovered that “timing’s every thing.”

“Curiosity costs are fast increasing, gas selling prices are promptly expanding, inflation is promptly raising,” he said, including that these modifications set pressure on the family small business.

He explained it also was a excellent time for his family members to lower risk publicity specified that “there continues to be uncertainty all around stock.”

He explained that whilst very low stock for new autos has helped dealers’ profitability, it is really unclear how prolonged that will very last.

But McGovern sees at least a few very good a long time in advance for vehicle retailers.

“We are heading to stay fairly intense,” he reported of deals that “make feeling. I imagine there is a stable a single to two decades at least of seriously very good automotive periods. So I think it makes feeling to be bullish however.”

Woody Woodward and Brian Brown of DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Team business, dealt with the McGovern-Lundgren transaction.