United Auto Group is not only America’s second biggest dealer group, and the owner of Sytner Group in this country. It is also at the forefront of automotive retailing globally. One of the company’s newest developments is a luxury auto mall in Scottsdale Arizona - a group of 11 dealerships at a grand 450,000-square-foot facility, based around a Penske Racing Museum and test track. It’s a model of motor retailing efficiency that UAG wants to replicate elsewhere.
Roger will talk about this initiative and other retail strategies at autoretailing 05 – including the setting up of joint ventures with manufacturers, the acquisition of dealer groups, and taking on manufacturer franchises for an entire marketplace. He will give a global view of the retail strategies that he believes are most likely to prove successful for auto dealers in the 21st Century.
A former racing driver and owner of one of the most successful teams in the history of motor sport, Roger opened his first dealership in Philadelphia in 1965. He then built up Penske Automotive, a California-based dealer group whose flagship is also the world’s biggest car dealership, Longo Toyota.
Today that business is run by Roger’s son Greg and is among the ten to 15 biggest groups in America. It is a separate business to UAG, in which Roger invested over $80m for a controlling stake, in 1999. UAG currently owns and operates 151 franchises in the USA, plus a further 101 internationally. In 2004 it increased revenues by 18% to $9.9bn, and net income by 35% to $111.7m.
Joining Roger Penske as speakers on Day 1 of autoretailing 05 are Jacqui Smith MP, Minister of State for Industry & The Regions; Mark Berrisford-Smith, Senior Economist at HSBC Bank, RMI chief executive Matthew Carrington; Paul Burrows and Nigel Ruddock of Grant Thornton Motor Retail; Harley-Davidson Europe’s MD John Russell and Professor Leslie de Chernatony of Birmingham Business School. The conference chairman is TV newsreader Huw Edwards. More speakers will be announced in the next issue of AM.
Day 2 of autoretailing, begins with an opening address from Sir Tom Farmer CBE, and then breaks out into a series of ‘best practice’ management workshops including - Location Clause opportunity or threat, Working with manufacturers’ bonus schemes, Unlocking the profit in your property portfolio, Maximising profit from your data, How new technology is transforming the sales process, Strategic HR for small and medium-sized dealers, Retaining the owners of older cars for aftersales, Used cars: what and where to buy to make a profit, How to sell more finance in your dealership, Get your share of lifetime customer value, and more.
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