ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — Lithia Motors Inc. says it plans to start buying more auto dealerships after an 18-month stretch when it closed or sold 20 dealerships.
Lithia announced this week it had obtained a franchise from Korean automaker Kia for Anchorage, Alaska.
The chairman and CEO of Medford-based Lithia, Sid DeBoer, said the company anticipates adding four or five dealerships per year and has the resources to pick up as many as 10.
But DeBoer cautioned that Lithia will not expand purely for the sake of growth, despite making a profit for the third straight quarter.
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Lithia reported this week it earned $5.7 million on $458 million in sales for its third quarter. It marked a substantial turnaround from the same period in 2008, when the company lost $2.4 million on sales of $507 million.
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Information from: The Ashland Daily Tidings, http://www.dailytidings.com