Automotive News Canada - May 2020 - v2 - 11

* M AY 2 0 2 0

After two years of
golfing and 'walking
the dog every
two hours,' David
McQuilkin is back
in the car business
because, well,
he missed it

David McQuilkin believes in the
value of suburban dealerships,
which is his reason for buying them.
P H O T O V I A D AV I D M C Q U I L K I N

automotivenews.ca

Retire,
regret,
get back into retail
By PERRY LEFKO

with Brian Legatt, CEO of the Leggat Group, in the
acquisition of Houston Ford in Stouffville, about 90
kilometres northeast of the Milton dealership.

TWO YEARS AFTER RETIRING AS AN OWNER
OF a successful dealership in Ontario, David
McQuilkin is back in the business with a growth
strategy that includes turning around struggling
rooftops and making senior managers equity stakeholders.
And he's not going to let the upheaval caused by
the COVID-19 pandemic shake his resolve.
"Have I regretted the decision [because of
the coronavirus]? Absolutely not. Not a chance.
Financially, we'll get through this."
McQuilkin, 58, decided to return to automotive
retail after realizing retirement was not for him.
"The truth is, I was bored stiff being retired,"
he told Automotive News Canada. "What I really learned is I missed the customers, and you don't
really know how much you miss
that atmosphere and the game and
the hustle until it's gone.
"A couple of winters in Florida
golfing and walking the dog every
two hours, I'm thinking, 'Is this my
trajectory for the next 20 years?'"
McQuilkin seeks to replicate
the success he and his former partner, Ron Loveys, enjoyed over the
22 years they ran Whiteoak FordDesRosiers:
Lincoln in Mississauga until they
Groups, not
sold it to the Go Auto Group in
individuals,
December 2017. For eight consecbuy the
utive years, the pair steered Ford
majority of
of Canada's largest volume dealerindividual
ship, which also ranked in the top
10 in North America in overall vol- stores.
FILE PHOTO
ume sales.
"We had a highly functioning
dealership at Whiteoak," McQuilkin said.
"To re-create that and ideally make it even better, that would be a nice accomplishment to do it
not once but twice or maybe three times. It sounds
corny, but I believe in the product."

DEFYING THE TREND

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

DOING DEAL AS DUO
While McQuilkin kept his hand in auto retail
as a dealership consultant, last November he purchased Gallinger Ford-Lincoln in Milton, 55 kilometres west of Toronto. He also recruited John Bettio,
who worked with him at Whiteoak, to join him as
minority partner and manager of fixed operations.
Bettio, a 30-plus-year veteran, was working at
Oak-Land Ford-Lincoln in Oakville as fixed-ops
manager when McQuilkin called.
"It doesn't come every day, for sure," Bettio said.
"It's something you always aspire to and work for.
You treat the dealership like it's yours anyway, so
to have that opportunity is pretty awesome.
"But the line we have at this dealership [for
employees] is: 'You don't work for me. You work
with me. We work together."
In late February, McQuilkin became a partner

TRENDING
STORIES

McQuilkin is a bit of an anomaly in a retail sector undergoing consolidation. A 2019 study conducted by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants found
that there were 126 dealership groups - defined
as owning five or more stores - that together controlled 54 per cent of the vehicle sales in Canada.
Additionally, there were more than 100 dealer
groups, which typically own between two and four
rooftops.
"That's concentration of power, and it's hard
to identify a dealer in the last four or five years
that did not sell to a group of some sort," said analyst Dennis DesRosiers. "It's a case of survival; you
either do it or don't exist.
"One of the strategies is to acquire some stores to
put yourself into a better position to sell to a bigger
group."
But McQuilkin challenges that notion.
"I'd rather have one store or two stores than 20
stores right now. I could see that being a very, very
major concern, that level of overhead and trying to
control it. We're smaller and we can be nimble."
McQuilkin said he looks for opportunities to turn
around underperforming stores in suburban markets, which he believes aren't as vulnerable as larger, urban markets to disruptive technologies such
as online shopping and to electric and self-driving
vehicles.
"My vision is the further out of a city centre [people] are, the more reliance [they'll] have on your
individual vehicle. You need mobility, you need
access, you need your own transportation."
With Ford exiting the sedan market, it's more of
a rural brand, McQuilkin said.
"You might have a great population density [in
urban centres], but people living in condos aren't
buying F-150s. . . . To me, the opportunities are now
in the suburbs and rural markets."

'I THINK THE MARKET IS THERE'
On his third day at Gallinger Ford in November,
McQuilkin held a staff meeting outlining the goals:
improving customer service and profitability and
doubling new- and used-car sales in the first year.
"I think the market is there," McQuilkin said.
"We've spent a lot more money on advertising."
Building blocks for success include empowering
staff, creating a safe work environment and upholding values such as work-life balance and community
involvement.
"They teach you in school that 80 per cent of your
job is not monetary," McQuilkin said. "It's self-fulfillment and self-actualization. At a certain age, I
think that's exactly true. It's not necessarily true
when you are in your 20s, trying to pay the mortgage.
"It's not about the money now. It's truly about
creating something and being increasingly proud of
something." - ANC

ONGOING WEB COVERAGE

INDUSTRY
PRIMES FOR RESTART
The number of new reported COVID-19 cases in Canada is

falling, vehicle production is lurching back to life and dealerships
are opening their showrooms. But new challenges are in play with
health and safety and rattled consumer confidence.

USMCA
IN-FORCE DATE SET
The trade deal replacing NAFTA takes effect July 1, the Office

of the U.S. Trade Representative says. Automakers and suppliers in
Mexico, Canada and the United States have to comply with the higher
North American content rules, although some want a delay to Jan. 1.

FORD: ALL BETS ARE OFF FOR 2020 REVENUE

The automaker expects an operating loss of more than US $5 billion in the second quarter as the financial toll of the coronavirus crisis worsens. As well, the company said in its
first-quarter earnings report in early
May that it still can't provide full-year
guidance because "today's economic environment remains too ambiguous." Ford CEO Jim Hackett and other PHOTO: FORD
executives noted Ford remained on track with its global redesign
plans despite the pandemic and that the team would continue putting money into "growth opportunities."

MAGNA SETS PACE WITH COMPOSITE FRAME

Innovations in lightweighting, advanced communications and better visibility dominated the 2020 Automotive News PACE Awards,
which honoured 13 supplier winners, including Canada-based Magna
International, in an online ceremony April 28. Magna Exteriors in Troy,
Mich., which is a division of Magna
International, won for its composite space frame. Other winning inno- P H O TO : MA G N A
vations ranged from the design of a new integrated vehicle circuitry to the development of a lightweight cargo box for pickups.

OSHAWA ASSEMBLY GEARS UP FOR MASKS

General Motors Canada will use its idled plant in Oshawa, Ont.,
to make face masks - at cost - for
the federal government for health care
workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The factory is capable of making one
million masks per month, according to
the automaker. Oshawa will use the production model pioneered at GM plants
P H O TO : G M C A N A D A
in Michigan. GM Canada says about 50
employees will make the masks. Oshawa Assembly ended vehicle production in December 2019.

COVID-19 CLAIMS MAVEN, ZIPCAR IN B.C.

General Motors is shutting its first prominent foray into the mobility space amid the coronavirus
pandemic. Maven's assets and
resources will be transferred to
GM's Global Innovation organization. Meanwhile, short-term-rental company Zipcar says it stopped
operations in British Columbia on P H O TO : ZI P C A R
May 1. In a statement, Bostonbased Zipcar blamed the "complexities" of operating in B.C.,
including local insurance regulations.

EXPECT A 20%+ DROP IN VEHICLE OUTPUT

Analyst LMC Automotive says global light-vehicle production is
expected to fall more than 20 per cent to about 71 million units in
2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession. It expects vehicle sales will bottom out in April in North
America and Europe, with post-pandemic recovery "unlikely to
be rapid" in the coming months. Germany-based supplier Robert
Bosch also expects auto production to fall by at least 20 per cent
this year. "We are bracing ourselves for a global recession that
will also have a considerable impact on our own performance in
2020," Bosch CFO Stefan Asenkerschbaumer said. - ANC

FOR FULL TE
XT

automotivenew
s.ca
FOR THESE S
TORIES AND
MORE

http://www.automotivenews.ca http://www.automotivenews.ca

Automotive News Canada - May 2020 - v2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - May 2020 - v2