Lee Schreiber grew up working in dealerships. But he had never owned his own until this month, when he acquired Sterling Chevrolet in Illinois. Schreiber is hitting the ground running.
Owner Lee Schreiber
One of his first moves will be to get as much inventory as possible.
“I’m going to focus on the pickup market,” he told Automotive Buy Sell Report. “That’s what Chevy does best.”
Sterling, in northern Illinois, is predominantly a farming community. It has a population of around 18,000, but is adjacent to Rock Falls, Ill. – the two are separated by the Rock River – and the metroplex includes around 28,000 people.
Schreiber closed a deal to acquire Sterling Chevrolet in early September from Rick Steenbock and Jason Hachmeister.
They didn’t carry a lot inventory, so Schreiber sees a lot of opportunity to grow new car sales. As soon as he gets more units in stock, said Schreiber, he will “advertise, advertise, advertise.”
He see Sterling as more of a traditional advertising market – meaning radio, TV, and newspapers. But digital advertising, “will definitely play a part,” said Schreiber, who is 36. He plans to keep all the current employees and add staff as sales grow.
The store’s fixed operations are already strong. A somewhat unique feature of Schreiber’s acquisition is the Abra Auto Body & Glass franchise that he purchased along with the dealership franchise. It is located just down the block from the dealership. “It is definitely a center of growth as well,” he said.
A Ford franchise family
Schreiber’s father was a metro-Chicago area Ford dealer for 25 years, and his grandfather was general manager of a Ford dealership. He grew up working in dealerships. “I have done everything from washing cars to [working in] the F&I department,” said Schreiber.
He had been looking for a dealership to buy for 18 months when he saw an advertisement in Automotive News for the Sterling Chevrolet dealership. “I looked at a lot of deals [and] this was the best one by far,” said Schreiber.
It was basically a turn-key opportunity. The facility had been upgraded to the current Ford image program a year and a half ago. And, it was only 80 miles from Schreiber’s home in Geneva, Ill., he says.
Schreiber cold-called one of the former owners, Rick Steenbock, in March. He briefly met with Steenbock and the other owner, Jason Hachmeister, in the store. “Things snowballed” after that meeting, said Schreiber. No lawyers were involved but they did use Performance Brokerage to help smooth out some details.
General Motors approved the acquisition quickly and the deal closed in September. GM “saw some traits in me they liked,” Schreiber said. “They ran off my track record and my family’s track record.”
Sterling Chevrolet sold 215 new and 719 used cars in 2014. A year from now, Schreiber sees the store selling a lot more new vehicles than currently, and maintaining its current used car sales.
He is married, with two daughters and a son, all young. “There is no succession plan just yet,” jokes Schreiber.
