The Douglass family has been in the car business for nearly three decades, but until very recently they were a single-point family, owning and operating a Nissan dealership in Texas. That just changed. On April 1 the family became the proud owners of a second Nissan dealership, also in Texas. It likely won’t be their last acquisition.
“We would love to grow with Nissan,” Levi Douglass tells Automotive Buy Sell Report. “We think it is a great brand.”
Nissan has a history of creating clusters of stores in the same area under the same owner. But in this case the manufacturer wasn’t behind the change in ownership.
Waco of Nissan’s previous owner was the Flanagan family. The two families had known each other for years, and recently the two Flanagan sons mentioned they were interested in selling, says Douglass.
The Flanagans were pleased the store would remain family-owned, albeit with another family, says Douglass.
“They cared about their employees deeply,” he says. “They wanted to make sure they were taken care of.”
Levi Douglass
The newly-renamed Douglass Nissan of Waco is a perfect fit, says Douglass. His family has owned Douglass Nissan in Bryan/College Station since 1988. It was a Datsun franchise when his father and grandfather acquired it.
They had been looking for an opportunity to acquire another store for a long time, but “It is hard to find the right opportunity that fits your organization,” says Douglass.
The store in Waco does about the same sales volume as the Bryan/College Station location, there are no other competing Nissan dealerships in Waco, and the new dealership is a mere 78 miles away, all on the highway.
There are already some big changes at the new Nissan store. The dealership now has nine sales people. Before were just three. Two of those original salespeople are still working there.
A change in ownership also meant a change in sales process. The Douglass dealership motto is “Home of the Nice Guys,” and the sales process must reflect that, says Douglass.
That means treating customers in very respectful way, with a very transparent and friendly sales process. The sales people at the Douglass store in Bryan/College Station use electronic tablets to show customers all the options; they are moving to use them in Waco, says Douglass.
There is much more to sell now. The inventory has been expanded 100 percent, says Douglass.
On the service side, they kept all the employees and haven’t added any, yet. The biggest change has been adjusting for the increased order volume, says Douglass. That isn’t just on the new car side.
The dealership’s pre-owned business has also expanded, and will keep growing. It barely existed under the former owners. “We bought two used cars from the previous owner,” says Douglass.
Now, the Waco stores shares new and used inventory with the Bryan/College Station store. Customers have over 500 new vehicles to choose from and over 100 used, says Douglass. The two stores are combining platforms to more easily share information.
The Waco facility is already image compliant. And, it has an additional 7.8 acres of expansion space. The store is located at the intersection of two major highways, but doesn’t have an entrance accessible from those thoroughfares, says Douglass. They plan to add a front entrance.
A different way of selling cars
The biggest change at the store in Waco has been an attitude of accepting Nissan’s volume goals, says Douglass. Under its previous owners, the store was under-performing.
Nissan sets very volume-oriented goals, and “you have to sell cars in a different way” to meet them, he says. That means less focus on the traditional model of doing x amount of business on the front end and x amount on the backend.
When a dealer hits the sales target, he or she receives incentive money from the manufacturer. The sales targets are adjusted based on the market. They were able to hit Nissan’s target for Waco in their first month of ownership, says Douglass.
“We have had a lot of success,” he says.
He sees much opportunity in the area. College Station, home to Texas A&M University, is “growing tremendously,” says Douglass. As for Waco, it has a growing industrial base.
Douglass says his family has been identified as a growth partner by Nissan, and would love to grow more with the brand.
“We are also looking for other opportunities,” he adds.
