United Auto Group is America’s second biggest dealer network and the owner of Sytner Group in this country. It is 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 450,000sq ft facility based around a Penske Racing Museum and test track. It’s a model of motor retailing efficiency that UAG wants to replicate.
Penske 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 manufacturer franchises for an entire marketplace.
He will also give a global view of the 21st century retail strategies that he believes are most likely to prove successful for auto dealers.
A former racing driver and owner of one of the most successful teams in the history of motor sport, Penske opened his first dealership in Philadelphia in 1965. He soon built up the California-based Penske Automotive Group whose flagship is also the world’s biggest car dealership, Longo Toyota.
Today that business is run by son Greg and is among the 10 to 15 biggest groups in America.
It is a separate business to UAG, in which Penske senior, in 1999, invested over $80m for a controlling stake. UAG currently either 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 Penske as speakers on Day 1 of autoretailing 05 are Jacqui Smith, 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. Further speakers will be announced in the next AM.
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