From Automotive Parts to Retail to Service


They can make investments now that they don’t have to pay off immediately.”

Schmitt anticipates that with less access to capital, black-owned dealers will grow increasingly vulnerable and more will become “subject to being bought out by companies that are bigger and have deeper pockets” in the coming year.

“We are excited about the opportunity, but we are apprehensive with the current environment and what is going on with the Big Three [automotive dealers],” Carter says.

Carter had also briefly acquired Williams’ General Motors dealership. The Windermere, Florida-based Carter Group and Williams Auto Group, both privately held companies, would not discuss the sale price for any of the dealerships.

Nevertheless, compared with auto parts manufacturing, the automotive retail industry in the U.S. will not be that much easier for the Carter Group, which runs operations out of Toronto.


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