Southern used-car dealership chain U.S. Auto Gross sales will preserve its retail and provide chain areas closed “for the foreseeable future” and furlough these and different workers with out pay, in response to an organization memo reported by an Atlanta, Ga., TV station.
“Though we have now been diligently working for a while, together with over this weekend, with our non-public fairness proprietor and lenders, we had been unable to succeed in an settlement that can permit our retail and provide chain areas to stay open,” the Sunday message from U.S. Auto Gross sales CEO Bob Anderson said, in response to the NBC affiliate WXIA. The memo mentioned enterprise improvement heart employees and the underwriting and advertising and marketing groups additionally could be furloughed.
Automotive Information was unable to acquire a duplicate of the memo. Nevertheless, U.S. Auto Gross sales worker profiles on LinkedIn featured posts Monday reporting furloughs and launching job hunts.
“Because of our complete gross sales group being furloughed final evening, I’m at present #opentowork,” a Monday submit from Fayetteville, N.C., retailer supervisor Scott Ellingson mentioned.
Assistant compliance supervisor Kyle Wilkins additionally introduced Monday he was job searching “in lieu of our complete group being furloughed final evening.”
Final week, the seller group’s usautosales.data web site contained a pop-up declaring, “We’ve got quickly closed our dealerships and are engaged on an answer to reopen them as quickly as doable. However don’t fret, we aren’t going wherever!”
On Monday, nonetheless, the usautosales.data web site had been stripped of the pop-up in addition to references to the chain’s stock and areas. It targeted as an alternative on matters associated to current clients, akin to restore claims and mortgage funds.
“Our affiliated mortgage servicing firm, USASF Servicing LLC, is open to simply accept your funds and to help in servicing your account,” the web site states.
Messages looking for remark Monday to the media e mail supplied for U.S. Auto Gross sales’ mortgage servicing operations and U.S. Auto Gross sales’ media e mail tackle haven’t been returned. A customer support consultant mentioned she could not communicate on behalf of the corporate.
Additionally, e mail messages and telephone calls Monday to non-public fairness proprietor Milestone Companions, which has held a stake in U.S. Auto Gross sales since June 2015, weren’t returned.
Based in 1992 in Lawrenceville, Ga., U.S. Auto Gross sales’ 39 areas span Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The group had 459 autos in its stock early final week.
U.S. Auto Gross sales’ closure follows the sudden closure of American Automobile Heart, a used-vehicle seller group with greater than 40 areas.
Bloomberg contributed to this report.