In a key complement to our Women in Remarketing and Women in Auto Finance franchises, Auto Remarketing is proud to celebrate our second annual Women in Retail awards, a program sponsored by CarGurus.
We spotlight these honorees in the Oct. 15 issue of Auto Remarketing, which includes Q&As with each recipient of the award.
Next up is Erin Kerrigan, founder & managing director of Kerrigan Advisors.
Auto Remarketing: What is a book you have read that has influenced or helped your career?
Erin Kerrigan: ‘Good to Great’ by James C. Collins. This book analyzes what makes companies great. It finds that companies that have created the most value for their shareholders are often led by humble leaders who live by the Golden Rule. At Kerrigan Advisors, we are humbled every day by the achievements of our firm and of our clients. We know that we are only as successful as our employees and clients. We also work hard to treat others the way we like to be treated.
AR: What do you enjoy most about working in the auto industry?
EK: I love dealers’ entrepreneurial spirit and sense of optimism. As an optimist myself, I appreciate dealers’ perennial positive attitude, even in the most challenging times, and their ingenuity when the going gets tough. I also value dealers’ appreciation for their customers and employees. It is heartwarming to see how much our clients care about others, particularly the people who make them successful.
AR: Describe a time when you have been challenged professionally and what you learned from it.
EK: When my family and I acquired a dealership together, I was named dealer operator, but I had minimal retail experience. Overseeing dealership operations, and learning the business in real time, was extremely challenging, but also very rewarding.
During this time, I studied all aspects of dealership operations and gained a tremendous amount of respect for successful operators, which continues to inform and influence my company’s work with auto dealers to this day. I also learned that I am much better at selling dealerships than I am at running them, but know that I would not have been as successful helping auto dealers as they navigate the buy/sell process without the insights I gained from that experience.
Kerrigan Advisors is the leading exclusive 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 auto 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. Kerrigan Advisors 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, consulting, accounting, finance and real estate, we not take listings nor do we employ a brokerage model; rather we 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 automobile dealership 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®, the industry authority on dealership buy/sell market trends and valuations and 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 The Kerrigan Index™ comprised 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 2024 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.
Contact us to learn more about Kerrigan Advisors’ sell-side services.
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