Graham Holdings, the general public conglomerate that used to personal the Washington Publish and in early 2019 entered automotive retail by buying two Sonic Automotive Inc. stores, plans so as to add to its dealership rely after partnering with Chris Ourisman, president of Ourisman Automotive Group.
The businesses, by means of Graham Ourisman Automotive, had been awarded an open level for a standalone Jeep dealership in Bethesda, Md., and need to purchase extra shops, Ourisman mentioned. He and his management workforce that features his sister Juliet Ourisman function and handle the Jeep retailer for Graham in addition to the previous Sonic shops, which at the moment are named Ourisman Lexus of Rockville in Maryland and Ourisman Honda of Tysons Nook in Virginia.
Graham Holdings, of Arlington, Va., owns a 90 p.c curiosity within the three dealerships whereas Ourisman has a ten p.c stake.
“We’re undoubtedly going to proceed to develop and develop, whether or not that be by means of open factors or by means of dealership acquisitions within the extra conventional sense,” Ourisman instructed Automotive Information.
Dealerships are seen as enticing, income-producing entities for outdoor traders, buy-sell specialists say, and the auto retail business has seen extra of them enter the house lately. In lots of circumstances, traders associate with present dealer-operators to run the companies.
Ourisman mentioned conversations with the Graham firm started in 2018 and Ourisman described their partnership as “long run.”
Graham paid $2.3 million in 2019 for Ourisman’s dealership administration companies and superior $3.5 million to an entity managed by Ourisman, in keeping with a regulatory filing. The submitting mentioned Ourisman has an choice to amass a further 10 p.c stake.
Chris Ourisman oversees 17 franchises below 14 rooftops, together with the three Graham shops, which can be a part of the bigger Ourisman Automotive household of dealerships. Ourisman Automotive of Marlow Heights, Md., ranks No. 23 on Automotive Information‘ listing of the highest 150 dealership teams primarily based within the U.S., retailing 31,798 new autos in 2019.
Graham’s holdings vary from TV stations, tech agency Code3 and training firm Kaplan Inc. to manufacturing and well being care companies.
Pinkie Mayfield, chief communications officer for Graham Holdings, declined to touch upon the every day operations and acquisition exercise associated to its dealership portfolio.
The Jeep retailer helped Graham’s automotive unit’s income rise within the third quarter, as did gross sales at its different two dealerships, Graham mentioned this month in its third-quarter earnings report. The dealership unit’s working earnings additionally rose within the interval, the corporate mentioned, although particular figures weren’t offered.
Ourisman Jeep Bethesda’s showroom operates in a 14,000-square-foot house on the bottom ground of a mixed-use constructing in a “high-rent district of downtown Bethesda,” Ourisman mentioned. A service facility is in an industrial house a few mile away. Ourisman declined to say how a lot capital the businesses invested for the dealership, which started producing gross sales in January.
Ourisman mentioned he and Graham actively are searching for and reviewing potential dealership acquisitions.
“D.C., Maryland, Virginia definitely feels rather a lot simpler for everyone,” he mentioned. “However as a partnership, we’re speaking about alternatives in particular locales that make sense for us.”
Ourisman mentioned he and Graham have not mentioned a most variety of acquisitions. And development might include different auto-retail services, Ourisman mentioned.
“We’re very within the growth of various techniques that may be applied inside a market to reap the benefits of different automotive-related alternatives,” he mentioned. “And so utilizing our platform as type of a take a look at mattress for it, with the flexibility to in the end roll out a few of this know-how — software program, {hardware}, no matter it could be — in different locales as nicely.”