Brad Bickle wanted to see for himself what had to change for the group to survive and thrive. Deep into the recession, Brad Bickle, the newly appointed CEO of Stanley Automotive Enterprises, realized he would be the architect of some drastic cuts. When he arrived in March 2009, Stanley Automotive was losing money. It had 798 employees, a peak for the 25-store group. All were in Texas. All sold domestic brands. And General Motors and Chrysler were fast approaching bankruptcy. Before making changes, Bickle visited every store. Stanley’s owners, Gaines and Vickie Stanley, concentrated on smaller markets when they
began buying dealerships in 2001. Bickle’s visits helped determine which stores could be saved and what must change for the group to survive and thrive. “All odds were against us,” said Bickle, 48, who had experience at other dealerships and with Southeast Toyota Distributors, GM and Ford Motor Co. In the end, Stanley closed or sold nine stores, including three GM stores that got wind-down letters from the automaker. Today, the group has 16 stores, including two former new-car stores now selling used cars. The head count has dropped to fewer than 500. “It was the unfortunate consequence that no one could forgo or escape,” Bickle said of staff cuts. After two years of losses, Stanley Automotive is expected to make money in 2010. Other changes also are making a difference.
A renewed emphasis on fixed operations: Stores with absorption rates in the 20 percent range have doubled or tripled that rate, which measures the percentage of a dealership’s operating costs covered by service department income. Bickle credits employee training, performance bonuses and mining the existing customer base. Service consultant MCS has helped.
New used-car policies and sales policies: For instance, salespeople are now required to make a minimum of two contacts a day. They are encouraged to leave the store — wearing their Stanley shirts — to spend time at community events such as rodeos and soapbox derbies, important gatherings in Stanley’s rural locales.
Cross-training staff to improve productivity: Instead of separate sales and finance managers, some stores now have a sales manager with finance experience. Others have dropped from multiple managers in sales and finance to one in each department. “Everyone was staffed for the running and gunning days of 2007,” Bickle said. But a much smaller market “is our new reality.”
