Lithia Motors Inc., which has remained on a franchised dealership acquisition tear in 2022, is now in the recreational vehicle business — and the rapidly expanding company didn’t have to travel far to do so, according to a report by Automotive News.
Lithia on Oct. 2 bought Airstream Adventures, a collection of six Airstream stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California. The group, founded in 2010 by partners Ted Davis, Parker Johnstone and John Dimmer, is based in Clackamas, Ore., near Portland. Performance Brokerage Services, an Irvine, Calif., buy-sell firm, represented them in the sale.
Airstream Adventures sells new and used models, and it provides service and parts.
Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer, speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings call this week, described the purchase as a low-cost investment.
“I think it’s really a beta test, and we’ve obviously talked about the idea of all different mobility channels,” DeBoer said. In late 2021, Lithia bought a Harley-Davidson store in Toronto.
He said the company has no real initiative to grow the business “other than to really get a feel for what some of these other mobility verticals could look like.”
Read the full report by Automotive News.
Source: https://rvbusiness.com/automotive-news-lithia-motors-may-expand-rv-retail-role/
