The story
Lithia Motors began in 1946 when Walt DeBoer opened a single car dealership in Ashland, Oregon. In the first year, the five-person company sold 14 cars. In 1968, Walt's son, Sidney DeBoer, took over the business and incorporated Lithia Motors Inc. Sidney reorganized the business and in 1970 purchased a Dodge dealership in Medford. With this, Lithia's base of operation moved to Medford and grew to a total of five stores with 19 franchises by 1990.
In December 1996, the company went public, trading on the New York Stock Exchange with an IPO of $11 per share. By 2003, Lithia had revenues of $2.5 billion from its 84 dealerships, while employing just over 5,500 people. The company had increased dealerships to 88 by 2005. Lithia was fined $500,000 by the state of Alaska in 2006 for charging car buyers illegal document preparation fees at their Alaska dealerships. That year, they also settled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for workplace discrimination. In early 2007, Lithia developed plans to build a 60-acre (240,000 m2) auto mall north of downtown Medford and to build a new corporate headquarters in downtown Medford. The Chrysler Jeep Dodge store moved to the auto mall in September 2007, but the project was put on hold for seven years because the recession hit shortly after. In late 2014, Lithia moved their Honda, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen stores to the auto mall. The group's Toyota store, which the group had planned to move to the auto mall, instead went through a $1.5 million renovation in 2013 and stayed on their five-acre site in downtown Medford.
In 2010, it was reported that with the backing of two lenders, "the Commons," a mixed-use building with Lithia Headquarters as the largest tenant, was a "go" and could proceed with construction. According to an article by The Mail Tribune, "Lithia partnered with the Medford Urban Renewal Agency to create The Commons, a revitalization project that includes the headquarters and another $14 million in infrastructure and three park blocks, paid for with MURA dollars. Lithia employees moved into their new headquarters in late 2012. In January 2014, the Commons building was awarded Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Lithia has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Sports Illustrated's All-Star Dealer Award in 1990 and Time's Quality Dealer Award in 1997, 2016 Top Workplace-Oregon Award, 2016 Automotive News Best Dealerships to Work For and 2016 Fortune 500-40th Fastest Growing Company. In 2018, 10 Lithia Motors stores were named "Best Dealerships to Work For" by Automotive News. Cox Automotive awarded Lithia Motors' BMW of Ramsey, New Jersey store with the 2019 Cox Automotive Leader in Sustainability Award, citing outstanding community contributions and sustainable programs including waste reduction, water conservation and energy consumption.
In February 2021, a source reported Lithia Motors was in talks to acquire the Suburban Collection dealer chain in Michigan. Suburban reported revenues of $2.7 billion in 2019. Later in April of the same year, the company acquired New Jersey dealership Planet Honda of Union, which is expected to add $230 million in annual revenue. In August 2021, it purchased Canadian dealership Pfaff Automotive, its first outside the United States, and the Driveway.com subsidiary assumed title sponsorship of the subsidiary's motorsport presence Pfaff Motorsports.
In early 2021, the company added about $6.5 billion to its annual revenue, placing it about one-third of the way towards the company's target, according to CFO Tina Miller, currently in charge over the project. The success of the project is in part attributed to Lithia's e-commerce platform Driveway, which facilitates online used car sales with its inventory coming from dealer lots owned by Lithia.
As of May 2022, Lithia operated 267 stores in 24 states, and 14 in Canada.
With the acquisition of the Jardine Motors Group, Lithia expanded into the United Kingdom in March 2023. At the beginning of 2024, Lithia also acquired the Pendragon Group, thereby integrating additional British dealers (Evans Halshaw, Stratstone, etc.) into the group.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lithia Motors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8