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-   -   Large Texas Dealer Group Closes Down (http://www.dealershipforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=791)

XDCX 02-04-2009 05:07 PM

Large Texas Dealer Group Closes Down
 
While the details are still sketchy at this point, news reports indicate that the Lawrence Walker Dealer Group is closing all of their Texas dealerships.

The Dealer Group employs over 1,000 people.

Here's a link to a news report: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pa...Y&pageId=3.2.1

XDCX 02-04-2009 05:19 PM

I'm not familiar with the area, so frankly I'm not sure how large of a dealer group this is.

The first report cited 1,000 employees where the report in this post indicates that there are only 200 employees.

The owner and CEO of the dealership is a former NFL Football Player for the Houston Oilers - Ray Childless. Reports indicate that the Dealer Group had a multitude of franchise with seven different locations.

Here's the latest news report that I've found: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...cal&id=6641577

Perhaps the most disturbing item from the above news report was the comment from a dealership employee that trade liens have not been paid off since December.

SHACOS 02-04-2009 05:47 PM

In Texas of all places too. Crazy.

XDCX 02-04-2009 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHACOS (Post 4425)
In Texas of all places too. Crazy.

That's what I thought when I first saw the news report - Texas has been a strong market.

When the story first broke I thought it was going to be something on the scale of another Bill Heard or Denny Hecker. It doesn't appear that the dealer group is as large as the first story reported.

XDCX 02-06-2009 10:28 AM

Dealership employed about 240 people
 
The latest news report indicates that the dealership had about 240 employees.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the original owner's son runs a used car dealership across the street. I wonder why the original owner didn't keep the store in the family?

Here's a link to the news report: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/6249220.html

XDCX 02-09-2009 03:29 PM

Lawrence Marshall was a Top 100 Dealer for 2008
 
Although the Lawrence Marshall Auto Group was not as large as I thought it was based on the first news report, I did notice they finished 2008 as one of Chrysler's Top 100 Dealers:
  • Lawrence Marshall: 1,124 Units = #96 in the Nation
It appears that their business model was to be located outside of a major metro market, carry a huge inventory and sell vehicles for $100 over Invoice.

It will be interesting to see if other dealers who have followed this business model will have similar problems?


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