Vegas group enters Bakersfield market with purchase of Hyundai dealership
| Wednesday, Sep 08 2010 07:51 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Sep 08 2010 10:12 PM
A Las Vegas company active in the South has bought out Jose Arredondo's Hyundai dealership on the Auto Mall as part of larger plans to build a significant presence in Bakersfield and elsewhere in California.
WaltersBayer Automotive Group, which owns five dealerships representing seven brands in three states, closed on the purchase of Family Motors Hyundai in mid-August. The dealership is now called Bakersfield Hyundai.
Arredondo, who opened the Hyundai lot in 1998, retained ownership of his Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen dealership in Bakersfield, as well as his three-brand General Motors dealership in Delano. He said he recently turned over his Bakersfield Suzuki dealership to the manufacturer, and plans to sell used vehicles on the property.
The transaction allows Arredondo to focus more squarely on his other operations.
"I'm getting smarter," he said, adding that the sale was contingent on WaltersBayer offering jobs to all employees at the Hyundai lot.
The new general manager, Patrick Beck, said all but three former Family Motors employees accepted jobs with the new company, and that with half a dozen new hires, the dealership now employs about 35 people.
Bill Walters, co-owner of WaltersBayer, said the company plans to acquire or build additional dealerships in Bakersfield.
"Once we made that decision, it means we are committed to Bakersfield for the long term," he said.
Kyle Northway, marketing and advertising manager at Jim Burke Ford, said the move sharpens Arredondo's focus but that otherwise it will have little effect on the local market.
"Does it change the landscape? No," he said.
WaltersBayer sells new vehicles outside of Atlanta and in Kentucky. Earlier this year it purchased a dealership in Temecula. Walters said the company expects to close the sale of three more California dealerships within 60 days, none of them in Bakersfield.
Family Motors Hyundai sold 35 cars and trucks in July, more than twice as many as it did a year before, according to data from Cross-Sell Reports.
