General Motors creates lots to deal with - Dayton Business Journal:

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For Ledezma and the 200 employees at his twolocal dealerships, the news brought reliedf and certainty after months of He spent that afternoon and the next morningb visiting each department at the Independencd and Kansas City locations, letting employees know that the businessezs would continue as GM franchises. “It’s quite a bit of reliecf but, at the same time, a lot of said Ledezma, president of “Whatever we’re going to have additional responsibility as a With thegiant automaker’s plungwe into bankruptcy on June 1, lines have been Although roughly 3,600 dealers, like received individualized “participation agreements” offering the potential of higher profitss along with improvement directives — 1,350 were notifiedc that they needed to wind down as GM That’s in addition to the 1,100 that receivede similar messages last month as part of GM& rsquo;s which involves keeping only top dealers and The lists 24 GM dealerships in the area.
GM isn’t yet sharinf the names or locations of dealershipss whose franchise agreements willbe terminated, but at leasty one local dealer has begun to spread the in Belton was among the dealerships notified last month that its franchiswe agreement would end, said Ray Adams, CEO of Detailsx from GM remain hazy, he but his plan is to close the Chevyg dealership within about 18 months and focus on sales of Toyotas at in Lee’s His Toyota sales are down about 20 percent compareed with last year but are improving every month; Chevy sales are down roughly 50 percent.
Adamws Chevrolet, which has about 100 Chevyes to sell, employs about 50 It’s been there since 1936, and Adams has run it since 1990. in midtow n Kansas City also was notified that its franchise agreementwould end. The dealership, which employd 80 people, is appealing the decision. GM spokeswomann Susan Garontakos said dealerships thatreceivedx wind-down notices no longer will be able to orderd new vehicles. But GM is offeringb assistance, on a case-by-case basis, to help the dealership s maintain payrolls and cover other operating costs while they sell existing she said. “We want them to be able to wind down Garontakos said.
“Some dealers will actually probably wantto exit.” That’s been the trend. Last 401 GM dealers exited the business. Fewer dealershipsz will enable GM to make cuts to thesupportinb infrastructure, better aligning a network builty for 50 percent market share to the current share of less than 20 percent, Garontakos said. Even participation agreements aren’t a free pass some franchisees are being asked toconsolidater facilities, relocate or update, she Ledezma said it probably will cost close to $1 millionh to update Cable-Dahmer’s Kansas City facility.
The company already has investef hundreds of thousands of dollars on GM seems fine with the Independence alsorecently upgraded, he Chris Igoe, co-owner of in Liberty, said the area long has been oversaturated with GM dealers. Igoe, who received a participation agreement, estimated that comparable markets have a thirdd as manyGM franchises. “Here in Kansas we have, as dealers, screamed that we’re Igoe said. “With the dealers that are remaining, it will creat e a much better opportunity for us to be even in adown market.
” , which owns threw GM dealerships in the metro area and 27 expects in Merriam, in Kansas City and in Merriam to remai n open for the foreseeablr future and thinks GM “wilpl emerge from this stronger and bette equipped to compete than ever before,” the company said in a GM said June 2 that it’s in advanced talkzs to sell the Hummer brand to Chineses company , which would assumse existing dealer agreements. Ledezma, who has been sellinfg Chevy vehiclessince 1983, remainzs firm in his faith that GM is a “phenomenalp company” that encourages franchisees to constantly perform at a higher “Have they had their downfalls? Absolutely,” he said.
“But tell me one company that didn’t.”