Germain Automotive taps Bob Morris of Tim Lamb Group to acquire five store deal

Germain buys five central Ohio Sonic Automotive dealerships

From Jim Weiker The Columbus Dispatch November 5, 2019

Germain Automotive is expanding its central Ohio footprint by buying five Columbus-area Sonic Automotive dealerships.

All five dealerships are in the Georgesville Auto Mall at Interstate 270 and Georgesville Road — Toyota West and four Hatfield dealerships: Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai and Kia. Those dealerships will now bear the Germain name.

Terms of the sale, which took place Monday, were not disclosed.

The sale returns the dealerships to local ownership. Sonic, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, bought the Hatfield dealerships in 1998.
The deal also doubles Germain’s central Ohio presence, which also includes Germain Lexus of Dublin and Easton, Germain Nissan of Columbus, Germain Ford of Columbus and Germain Mazda of Columbus, in addition to a Toyota dealership in Naples, Florida.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our product offering by adding five additional automotive brands to our Germain family of dealerships,” company owner Rick Germain said in a news release. “We are lucky to serve a loyal group of customers, and we are excited to bring our family owned operation to new brands that we do not currently represent in Columbus.”

Sonic’s former 300 central Ohio employees are now Germain employees.

Other than the name change, customers may notice changes in the car-buying process, according to Germain.

“We are working on many exciting enhancements to the buying experience, including the introduction of a tablet based, paperless sales and delivery process solely on an iPad,” Rick Germain said in a news release.