A household transaction represented the tip of 1 profession and the growth of one other when Patrick O’Brien on April 6 bought Pat O’Brien Chevrolet in Vermilion, Ohio, from his father, Pat O’Brien.
Patrick O’Brien renamed the dealership Firelands Chevrolet Vermilion. His father, Pat O’Brien, had owned the dealership since 2010 and is retiring at age 71, his son stated.
The acquisition provides a fourth dealership to Firelands Auto Group, based in 2017 by Patrick O’Brien. The group additionally contains Firelands Chevrolet-Buick in Norwalk, Ohio, Firelands Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Sandusky, Ohio, and Firelands Toyota, additionally in Sandusky.
Vermilion is about 40 miles west of Cleveland and is east of Sandusky.
Patrick O’Brien, proprietor and vendor principal of the Firelands Chevy retailer, informed Automotive News that he is in a position to go to all 4 dealerships almost daily since they’re in the identical market and positioned about 20 miles from one another.
Aside from including positions, O’Brien stated he stored the identical workers and did not anticipate any huge modifications for the dealership.
“He did a really good job,” O’Brien stated of his father.
Patrick O’Brien stated his dad had an “amazing career” that began in 1970 when he started promoting vehicles for Ed Mullinax, serving to to develop that enterprise and was a component proprietor. The Mullinax dealership group in the end was offered in 1996 to Republic Industries Inc., which later turned AutoNation Inc.
“I started working at Mullinax Ford [in Wickliffe, Ohio] in high school, washing cars and stuff,” Patrick O’Brien stated, including that his father had retired for a couple of decade after the AutoNation sale.
When Pat O’Brien returned to auto retail in 2005 at age 55, his son got here to work for him and his father grew his enterprise to 5 dealerships; he offered one different dealership (the Chevrolet-Buick retailer) to his son in 2017.
Now, Patrick O’Brien appears to be like ahead to carrying on the household custom. And whereas he hopes to maintain increasing his enterprise, the youthful O’Brien stated he has no pending acquisitions.
Source: www.autonews.com
