Sym-Tech Dealers Services announced Friday that it has completed its purchase of SSQ Dealer Services.
The deal to acquire SSQ from Beneva Group was initially announced in November.
SSQ provides vehicle protection products and services to dealers in Quebec, giving Sym-Tech a greater presence in that province.
“We are excited to close the acquisition of SSQ Dealer Services, which expands Sym-Tech in the Quebec market and presents attractive growth opportunities,” Sym-Tech president Derek Sloan said. “SSQ Dealer Services has built a strong market presence over the last 20 years by consistently delivering performance to their dealers.”
Regional vice president Francis Vallée will continue to lead the team. SSQ will be rebranded to Sym-Tech. Beneva will remain and credit and replacement insurer.
TRADER Corp. said Thursday it is acquiring Dealertrack Canada from Cox Automotive’s Canadian retail business, along with the Canadian operations of VinSolutions, Dealer.com, Xtime and Kelley Blue Book.
The company said most Canadian Cox Automotive Retail employees will likely move to TRADER.
“We’re delighted to welcome so many Canadian employees and customers to join us here at TRADER,” TRADER CEO Sebastian Baldwin said in a news release. “This investment will enable us to deliver the same levels of product efficacy, innovation and service that our existing customers enjoy, to even more Canadian dealerships and OEMs.”
Cox Automotive executive vice president and chief financial officer Mark Bowser said: “As Cox Automotive continues evolving to meet the changing dynamics of the industry and the needs of our customers, we believe this is the right time and opportunity for these businesses and team members to join TRADER Corporation and help deliver a deeper market-specific Canadian retail solution.
“While it is very difficult to say goodbye to some of our incredible team members in Canada, we thank them all for their countless contributions to Cox Automotive and wish them well as they continue the great work that has made these businesses so successful,” Bowser said.
AutoCanada said Monday it has acquired Kavia Auto Body in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The purchase of the collision center, which has been open for nearly 40 years and is an SGI Elite collision center, is AutoCanada’s fifth acquisition in the past three months.
Kavia Auto Body is located near AutoCanada’s Dodge City Auto and Saskatoon Motor Products stores. The acquisition generates more than $5.5 million in annual revenue.
“The addition of this well-managed business continues the strategic expansion of our national collision presence in markets complementary to our existing dealerships,” AutoCanada executive chairman Paul Antony said in a news release.
“Our focus remains on supporting our customers and OEM partners through the entire vehicle ownership lifecycle – which includes repairing vehicles by following OEM recommended repair procedures and using the recommended OEM parts to ensure the integrity of repaired vehicles,” Antony said. “Kavia Auto Body has built a reputation for excellence and quality in servicing both domestic and imported vehicles in the Saskatoon market and we look forward to continuing its legacy into the future.”
In the last three months, AutoCanada has acquired a franchised dealership, a large independent store, two collision centers and an auction.
The company announced the purchase of North Toronto Auction on Oct. 4.
To close September, AutoCanada purchased independent used-car dealership Auto Gallery of Winnipeg.
A month earlier, AutoCanada said it purchased Markham, Ontario-based Velocity Autobody as well as a Ford store in western Manitoba.
AutoVerify announced it has purchased Car Media 2.0, which provides vehicle inventory imaging services to dealers.
With shoppers expecting to be able to get detailed interior and exterior vehicle imagery online, this move “enables AutoVerify to help dealers provide this type of interactive customer experience in a way that’s simple to integrate and does not interfere with current dealership processes,” the company said.
“This is an important acquisition that will help move AutoVerify forward,” AutoVerify co-founder and CEO James Hayes said in a news release. “It is our fourth major acquisition, bringing us closer to achieving the overall goal of providing North American dealers with an end-to-end solution that allows them to transact with customers who are researching and purchasing a vehicle digitally.”
AutoVerify co-founder and chief financial officer David Brebner added: “There is a lot of knowledge and expertise at Car Media and we are excited to bring that into the AutoVerify fold. By integrating these AI and machine learning powered products into our organization along with the people who built them, we can advance our core values which are focused around the concept of being better. This acquisition will help our team, our customers, and our industry continue to learn and be better.”
Bart Tecza is a partner and the founder of Car Media. In the release, he noted: “AutoVerify has made their commitment to the North American automotive industry very clear. We are aligned on a vision to deliver game changers, and we're giddy about what's coming up!”
This move continues a line of purchases for AutoVerify.
The company announced August itacquired iDealerPlus, a dealer-facing software platform that aims to match consumers to a specific vehicle in a dealer’s inventory based on their credit profile and the dealer’s profitability guidelines. In June, the company announced the purchase of ShopDesk.
In the past 60 days, AutoCanada has acquired a franchised dealership, a large independent store and a collision center.
Late on Tuesday, the company announced it acquired an auto auction by making a deal to get North Toronto Auction, a fee-based used-vehicle auction business, serving dealers and consumers alike, located in Innisfil, Ontario.
AutoCanada said in a news release that NTA generates in excess of $4.5 million in annual revenue and will operate within the company’s used digital retail division.
AutoCanada indicated transaction will be funded from a drawdown of the company’s credit facility and is expected to be accretive to 2022 earnings.
Operating for more than 19 years serving Toronto and surrounding areas, AutoCanada highlighted NTA operates a state-of-the-art auction facility and has historically transacted more than 5,000 vehicles per year.
NTA’s operations provide an in-house, in-person and online auction solution, which may be utilized to facilitate vehicle sales for both AutoCanada’s used and franchise dealerships.
Further, NTA has the ability to be utilized as a wholesale engine, balancing and redistributing vehicles inside and outside the AutoCanada network across North America, through a frictionless inventory management and transfer process.
Additionally, NTA is also a source of vehicles as its sales team sources auction vehicles from governments, financial institutions, repossession companies, dealerships, rental fleets and more.
Apart from continuing to strengthen AutoCanada’s position in the Canadian used vehicle ecosystem, AutoCanada said the acquisition unlocks additional growth opportunities for NTA’s experienced management team to scale the auction business and add other locations across Canada.
“We’re excited to add NTA’s high-quality auction operations and proprietary digital auction software to the used digital retail division as it has the potential to facilitate wholesale vehicle transactions at scale, both internally, across AutoCanada dealerships, and externally to other dealers,” AutoCanada executive chairman, Paul Antony said in the news release.
“This represents our initial foray into the auction business; however, many of the successful used vehicle operators in the U.S. also own their own auctions as it allows for the vertical integration of inventory management and a reduction in fees paid to auctions,” Antony said. “We are pleased to welcome the experienced NTA management team to the AutoCanada family, and we look forward to continuing its legacy into the future.”
To close September, AutoCanada purchased independent used-car dealership Auto Gallery of Winnipeg.
A month earlier, AutoCanada said it purchased Markham, Ontario-based Velocity Autobody as well as a Ford store in western Manitoba.
In a move that it says broadens its Used Digital Retail initiative, AutoCanada has purchased independent used-car dealership Auto Gallery of Winnipeg.
AutoCanada said the acquisition of the store, which also includes the underlying real estate, would bring in annual revenues of more than $15 million. The deal is expected to be accretive to 2022 earnings.
The dealer group is funding the purchase through a drawdown of its credit facility.
“The addition of Auto Gallery's high-quality used vehicle operations further expands on our Used Digital Retail initiative — a strategy to address the substantial opportunity in the Canadian market with the dedicated sale of used vehicles across all channels, including completely online,” AutoCanada executive chairman Paul Antony said in a news release.
“This acquisition also aligns with our strategy of geographic diversification as it expands our network of used dealerships, furthers our exposure into the Manitoba market and provides a central strategic logistics hub between Winnipeg and Ontario locations and our Western locations,” he said.
British Columbia-based Kot Auto Group has added its first Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram store, purchasing Woodgrove Chrysler.
The store is Kot’s second on Vancouver Island, having purchased Victoria Hyundai in June 2019.
“We are excited to expand with a dedicated domestic brand to our portfolio and allow for more opportunity for our team and our customers,” group president John Kot said in a news release.
“We look forward to welcoming the existing employees from Woodgrove Chrysler to the Kot Auto Group family and are confident that together we will achieve great results,” Kot said. “We would also like to thank Braeden Muller and Kevin Knight from the Knight Automotive Group for the ease of this transition of this acquisition.”
AutoVerify announced Tuesday it has acquired iDealerPlus, a dealer-facing software platform that aims to match consumers to a specific vehicle in a dealer’s inventory based on their credit profile and the dealer’s profitability guidelines.
“By integrating iDealerPlus into the AutoVerify product mix, we can help dealers eliminate friction in sales and finance by aligning vehicle selection, customer affordability and lender underwriting guidelines earlier in the sales process,” AutoVerify chief executive officer James Hayes said in a news release.
“This solution helps set realistic customer expectations right from the start, allowing dealers to provide better service to consumers with greater profitability,” Hayes said.
AutoVerify, which is powered by Mobials, has now made two acquisitions in the last two-and-a-half months. In June, the company announced the purchase of ShopDesk.
As far as the latest purchase, Mobials co-founder and chief financial officer David Brebner said in a news release: “I couldn’t be more pleased with the way iDealerPlus fits into the AutoVerify team in terms of both products and people.
“By continuing to expand our product offering, we can better serve our customers, and provide exciting growth opportunities for our team. Our core values are focused around the concept of being better, and this acquisition helps our company, our people, our customers and our industry do just that.”
Darren Scopazzi is president of iDealerPlus. In the release, Scopazzi said: ““AutoVerify has built a reputation for continuous innovation and improvement and has supported this industry through some difficult times.
“We’re thrilled to be joining forces with the AutoVerify team and are excited to see how the solution we’ve built complements the AutoVerify suite of digital retailing, digital merchandising and digital desking tools.”
AutoCanada said Monday it has purchased Markham, Ontario-based Velocity Autobody, which is a Tesla-certified, I-CAR Gold Class collision center.
This is the seventh collision center AutoCanada has acquired since the fourth quarter of 2020, said executive chairman Paul Antony, who said the group continues to expand its presence in the space.
“We remain focused on supporting our customers and OEM partners through the entire vehicle ownership lifecycle,” Antony said in a news release.
“We continue to believe that increasing vehicle complexity puts a further emphasis on fixing vehicles the right way — using parts and procedures prescribed by the OEM,” he said.
Velocity Autobody, which has been in business for more than 16 years, has a 12,000-square-foot facility with more than 25 production bays.
Its management team will be retained.
AutoCanada said the acquisition would generate annual revenues of more than $3.5 million, and will be funded via AutoCanada’s credit facility. It will be accretive to 2022 earnings.
When Roger Penske, Rick Hendrick and the late Bruton Smith are mentioned, you might just quickly think of auto racing as fast as vehicle retailing.
Holand Automotive Group president and chief executive officer Gad Bitton now is on a similar journey, announcing on Friday the acquisition of Circuit Mont-Tremblant, a 4.26-kilometer track in Montreal.
Holand Automotive Group features multiple dealerships of luxury and exotic vehicles in Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and Lévis as well as West Palm Beach, Fla. The group also has numerous real estate properties in Montreal and Quebec City.
The acquisition of the world-class racetrack will allow the automotive group to enhance its offering of exclusive experiences and events for drivers of Ferrari, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Lamborghini, Maserati, the all-electric Rimac hypercar, BMW and MINI vehicles.
This transaction comes shortly after Ferrari Quebec and Maserati Montreal, two of the automotive group’s flagship dealerships, hosted highly popular track days for their customers at the venue.
A frequent client of Circuit Mont-Tremblant himself for more than 20 years, Bitton has fond memories of the where he drove his Ferrari 360 as a founding member of the Circuit Mont-Tremblant Club.
“It was important to me that an automotive institution of such historical value remain in the hands of a Canadian company,” Bitton said in a news release.
Vincent Loughran, manager of Circuit Mont-Tremblant, remains in position and welcomes the arrival of such an invested owner. Holand Automotive Group already has ambitious plans to develop and embellish this site, ideally suited to competitions and automotive elegance contests, to attract a highly desirable clientele to the region.
“We will create a state-of-the-art circuit designed for an industry experiencing a revolution,” Bitton said. “With the electrification of prestige brands and the end of new gas-powered sales in Quebec by 2030, our vision will meet local standards and regulations.”
