In June, Sunrise Auto Group sold two of its dealerships — Sunrise Buick GMC Wolfchase and Sunrise Buick GMC Collierville to Medford, Oregon-based, public company Lithia Motors. Now, it's sold its remaining dealership, Sunrise Buick GMC Covington Pike, to Memphis-based, family-owned Jim Keras Automotive Group, which is one of the largest private companies in the Memphis area.
The deals were overseen by Kerrigan Advisors, which specializes in the sale of car dealerships.
According to Jay Keras, president of Jim Keras Automotive, it was the owner of Sunrise, Bob Berkheimer, who approached them about the Buick GMC dealership. Interestingly, this is not the first time this exchange has happened with this particular dealership. "We've had Buick since 1949 and we had sold Buick to Sunrise back in 2006," Keras said. "It was part of GM's channel strategy back then to have Buick and GMC together."
This will be the seventh Keras dealership in the region. The Keras brand also includes dealerships for the Subaru, Nissan, and Chevrolet auto brands.
The Sunrise dealership is on a 10-acre lot and has some 85 employees. Keras estimated the deal represents an additional $90 million per year in revenue.
"We're taking over the physical dealership, the real estate, the assets, the brand, and everything," Keras said. "Then, we're changing the name to Jim Keras Buick GMC." Keras said they were confident in buying the dealership, noting that, "The previous owner is a great, great guy with a great company and lots of great employees." Keras projected they'll sell between 250 to 300 cars a month out of that dealership.
So, what's the secret to selling a car?
"Good people," Keras said.
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Kerrigan Advisors is the leading sell-side advisor and thought partner to auto dealers nationwide. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has led the industry with the sale of over 280 dealerships representing $9 billion in client proceeds, including the third largest transaction in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group. The firm advises the industry’s leading dealership groups, enhancing value through the lifecycle of growing, operating and, when the time is right, selling their businesses. Led by a team of veteran industry experts with backgrounds in investment banking, private equity, accounting, finance and real estate, Kerrigan Advisors does not take listings, rather they develop a customized sales approach for each client to achieve their personal and financial goals. In addition to the firm’s sell-side advisory services, Kerrigan Advisors also provides a suite of consulting and investor services including growth strategy, market valuation assessments, capital allocation, transactional due diligence, open point proposals, operational improvement and real estate due diligence.
Kerrigan Advisors monitors conditions in the buy/sell market and publishes an in-depth analysis each quarter in The Blue Sky Report®, which includes Kerrigan Advisors’ signature blue sky charts, multiples, and analysis for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments. To download a preview of the report, click here. The firm also releases monthly The Kerrigan Index™ composed of the seven publicly traded auto retail companies with operations focused on the US market. The Kerrigan Auto Retail Index is designed to track dealership valuation trends, while also providing key insights into factors influencing auto retail. To access The Kerrigan Index™, click here. To read the 2023 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2024 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors also is the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership.
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