Dutch Miller Auto Group expands into Kansas
Dutch Miller Auto Group of Huntington, W.Va., entered a fourth state with the July 18 purchase of Cody Foster Buick-GMC in El Dorado, Kan., from Cody Foster, according to Performance Brokerage Services, an Irvine, Calif., buy-sell firm that handled the transaction.
The store was renamed Dutch Miller Buick-GMC of El Dorado. El Dorado is northeast of Wichita.
Foster had owned the El Dorado store since 2020. He started in the automotive industry at 18 and had a 10-year stint at Blake Fulenwider Automotive, where he worked as general manager, partner and COO.
Dutch Miller Auto is a third-generation, family-owned business that was established in Huntington in 1961 by Dutch Miller. Miller’s son, Matt, and grandsons Chris and Sam, now own and operate the company, according to its website.
Dutch Miller entered Tennessee this year with its Jan. 31 purchase of a Nissan store in Bristol, now named Dutch Miller Nissan of Bristol. The auto retailer now has dealerships offering more than 10 brands in West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kansas.
Paul Kechnie and Mark Shackelford of Performance Brokerage Services represented Foster in the transaction.
Putnam Automotive expands across San Francisco Bay
Growing Putnam Automotive Dealer Group of Burlingame, Calif., acquired its first Volkswagen dealership with a second-quarter purchase.
Putnam Automotive on June 1 bought Volkswagen of Oakland in California from retiring dealer Mike Murphy. The dealership’s name remains.
Murphy’s sons Mike Murphy Jr., the dealership’s used car manager, and Chris Murphy, the store’s general manager, both stayed on with Putnam as partners and have a minority interest in Volkswagen of Oakland, Andrey Kamenetsky, Putnam’s group operations manager, said in an email to Automotive News. Kamenetsky didn’t disclose the brothers’ ownership percentages.
“Oakland is a great location for both VW’s market demographics and quickly expanding EV business,” Kamenetsky wrote. “The Putnam organization looks forward to applying some economies of scale from the larger group to assist VW of Oakland in optimizing its operations and will work with VW of America on implementing some VW brand image updates to the facility.”
The store is the group’s first location in Oakland, Kamenetsky said. The rest of Putnam’s dealerships are spread across the San Francisco peninsula cities of Burlingame, San Mateo, Redwood City and San Carlos.
In 2020, the Volkswagen of Oakland store was one of more than 30 franchised dealerships across the U.S. that was damaged, had vehicles stolen, or were forced to close amid protests against police brutality that spread after the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
In late 2014, Murphy, along with Volkswagen of America, unveiled plans to tear down the Volkswagen dealership and replace it with a 500-unit apartment complex, with a Volkswagen store on the ground level.
However, Kamenetsky confirmed that the apartment development plans “never materialized for Murphy and were not under consideration for our purchase.”
The Putnam group has been growing through acquisitions and manufacturer-awarded open-point dealerships.
Last August, Putnam bought a Honda dealership in San Carlos. The store moved less than mile from its original location and is operating out of modular buildings while a new showroom is under construction, Kamenetsky said.
In addition to acquisitions, Putnam was awarded a Ford open point in San Mateo that opened in March 2021 and a Kia open point store in Burlingame that opened in October 2021, Kamenetsky noted.
Jason Stopnitzky, co-founder of Performance Brokerage Services, represented Murphy in the sale to Putnam Automotive.
Friendship Family of Dealerships expands into West Virginia
Mitch Walters, president of Friendship Family of Dealerships, said he was looking to buy another Hyundai dealership — he already had two, in Johnson City and Bristol, Tenn. — when he found what he wanted in the former Pantili Hyundai in Princeton, W.Va.
“The good thing about it is great product,” Walters said of Hyundai. He added that Hyundai’s strategy is to have fewer and stronger dealers, so Hyundai dealers compete against Honda and Toyota, rather than each other.
“They’re innovative and they’re not over-dealered,” he said. “You run a good store in your respective market and you do well instead of competing against four or five other dealers with the same brand when you’re a Chevy dealer.”
Friendship of Bristol, Tenn., bought the dealership on April 20 from local dealer William Pantili, who plans to retire from auto retail, Walters said. Pantili also in March sold his Mitsubishi dealership in Princeton, W.Va., to Stephens Automotive Group.
Walters said the dealership, which it renamed Friendship Hyundai of Princeton, marks its first store in West Virginia, though the region is familiar, he said.
Friendship Automotive’s 11 other dealerships are in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, where those states converge with Virginia and West Virginia.