AutoNation Inc. sold two of its Ford stores in August, one in Georgia and one in Minnesota.
An AutoNation spokesman confirmed Aug. 27 that the auto retail giant sold two Ford dealerships, in White Bear Lake, Minn., and Union City, Ga., but did not provide details or respond to other questions about the divestitures.
And it looks like AutoNation may have plans to sell more stores.
AutoNation, in an August regulatory filing, said it had $195.1 million in assets for sale as of June 30. That compares with $21.3 million in assets for sale as of Dec. 31, 2023.
The publicly traded auto retailer on Aug. 22 sold AutoNation Ford Union City in Georgia to Atlanta-based Stivers Automotive Group. The group renamed the store, located southwest of Atlanta, Stivers Ford South.
Stivers Automotive, owned by brothers Eddie and Johnny Stivers, third-generation dealers, now has eight stores in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina. The group sells Hyundai, Genesis, Subaru, Ford, Lincoln and Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles. Chairman Eddie Stivers is also vice chairman of the Ford National Dealer Council.
Dave Cantin, Joe Beaver and Mike Lacey of New York dealership consulting firm Dave Cantin Group advised Stivers Automotive on the transaction.
“It worked from a geographic standpoint,” Eddie Stivers said of Ford’s Union City store. “We excel at fixed operations, and it’s a great fixed operations opportunity, and it’s worked out really well for us.”
Stivers said his group plans to replace the Union City Ford dealership with a “next-generation” facility within the next three years.
“We agree with this [with Ford] depending on the purchase,” Stivers said.
On Aug. 7, AutoNation sold its Minneapolis-St. Paul-area store, AutoNation Ford White Bear Lake, to Apple Autos. Apple Autos of Apple Valley, Minn., renamed the store Apple Ford White Bear Lake. Buy-sell advisory firm Haig Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., represented AutoNation in the transaction.
Apple Autos President Chris Gulbrandson said the AutoNation store gives the group a presence on the north side of the Twin Cities, complementing two other Ford stores his group owns on the south side of the area.
“It’s not in our territory and there really is a lot of stuff potential to grow,” Gulbrandson said. “This gives us a lot of synergy in the market, and we can cover a lot more area.”
Including this purchase, Apple Autos has three Ford dealerships, one Lincoln store, one Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership and one Chevrolet dealership, all in Minnesota.
AutoNation’s White Bear Lake Ford was its only dealership in Minnesota, said Gulbrandson, who added that his group is looking to grow in the Twin Cities market.
Gulbrandson said White Bear Lake Ford has been a high-volume store, like Apple Auto’s Apple Valley Ford store.
AutoNation of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, ranks No. 2 on Automotive News’ list of the 150 largest U.S. dealership groups, selling 244,546 new vehicles in 2023.
Rival Asbury Automotive Group also sold a Chevrolet dealership in Union City in August.
As of June 30, Asbury had $206.6 million in assets held for sale, according to a regulatory filing. The group said the portfolio included eight franchised dealerships, along with unused real estate.
Mark Hollmer contributed to this report.