Machens expands again with Estes buyout
“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, figuring out what we’ll put where,” Drewing said.
Joe Machens Hyundai will be the sixth store and 12th franchise within Machens Dealerships, a company that now employs about 600 people, Drewing said.
The Ford and Lincoln Mercury store, the company’s flagship, is on West Worley, Toyota-Scion is around the corner on Bernadette Drive, and BMW is nearby on I-70 Drive S.W. The Nissan franchise purchased from Justin Perry last year is on Providence Road. Joe Machens Automotive Group, which was Legend Automotive Group until Drewing bought it in 2008, is on Vandiver Drive a few hundred yards west of Range Line Street.
A Ramada Inn once stood on the property Drewing recently purchased on the southeast corner of Range Line and Vandiver. Drewing said he’s uncertain what he will build on the cleared lot, which is adjacent to what is now Joe Machens Hyundai.
Machens Dealerships are on track to sell about 20,000 new and used vehicles this year. Reports to the Missouri Department of Revenue through September showed that the Machens Dealerships had sold about 73 percent of the vehicles purchased from franchised dealerships in Columbia, which is about the same as the 2009 market share. Estes Hyundai had sold about 3 percent, which indicates that Drewing will control three quarters of the Columbia car market.
As with his previous acquisitions, Drewing said he will expand the staff at Hyundai by as much as 40 percent, increase the inventory and launch an “aggressive” marketing campaign.
Hyundai’s sales nationally increased 40 percent last month and “is an outstanding franchise,” Drewing said. “I think Hyundai is your next Toyota type of franchise.”
Drewing said he intends for his Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac franchises, now part of Machens Automotive Group, to have their own stores and has said in the past that he expected to move the Toyota dealership to his land in the Crosscreek Center at Stadium Boulevard and U.S. Highway 63.
Sales at the Machens dealerships this year are “substantially” above 2009 sales, he said. “Hyundai’s sales are fairly low; obviously our plans are to change that.”
Estes, who lost the Dodge franchise last year, said Drewing first approached him about buying the dealership eight or nine months ago. “We started talking again, got together on a price that was satisfactory to me and satisfactory to him.”
Estes also said he’s 66 years old and believed it was simply time to retire after 40 years in the business.
Since Arkansas-based mega-dealer Frank Fletcher bought the Honda dealership from Don Albert last year, the latest Machens expansion leaves three local deadlerships that are not part of large automotive groups: Head Motor Co., which sells Kia, and University Chrysler on Vandiver Drive, a company that also sells Subaru, Jeep and Dodge vehicles and Bob McCosh Chevrolet.
“You have to be pretty good sized to compete anymore,” Estes said, particularly with the growing percentage of sales over the Internet. “I think car manufacturers are pushing it toward (consolidation.)”