Dealership emerges from ashes

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This article was published 18/08/2009 (5912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT took Steve Chipman less than three months to make good on a promise he made to employees at Birchwood Auto Group’s Pontiac Buick dealership when they heard in May that GM was not renewing the dealership.

At the time, Chipman said management would secure another dealership to fill the space.

On Monday they did just that.

Chipman and Carl Eisbrenner, principal of Orion Chevrolet, announced a merger of their GM dealerships to be called Birchwood Chevrolet Buick GMC. Initially it will operate from both dealerships — both of which are in the Pointe West AutoPark — but the principal location will be the old Birchwood Pontiac address.

It will be the first Winnipeg dealership to sell all the GM brands — with the exception of Cadillac –at one location.

"We are really excited about GM’s plans down the road," said Chipman. "GM is going to have 20 per cent of the market. It just announced details about the Volt (including its 239 miles per gallon fuel efficiency) and lots of new technology that is just one year away."

Chipman said the Birchwood Auto Group was very disappointed when it found its name on the list of 245 GM dealers in Canada — seven in Manitoba — that were told in late May that GM would not renew the dealership arrangements when they expired in Oct., 2010.

"Since then we’ve been trying to find a way to reassociate ourselves with GM, a relationship that we’ve had for 45 years," he said. "I told our people not to be bitter, but use it as a way to get better."

The new dealership will be a joint venture between Birchwood and the Eisbrenner family who own Orion. Birchwood will be the managing partner.

"We have had a long-term partnership with the Chipmans and Birchwood for many years, so a merger like this was not hard to do. There is a very good track record between us," said Carl Eisbrenner.

Chipman said the goal is for the new Birchwood Chevrolet Buick GMC to become the largest GM retail store in Winnipeg.

Orion was one of the first dealerships to buy a spot in the Birchwood-developed Pointe West AutoPark, which opened in the summer of 2000.

The Eisbrenners are also partners with the Chipmans in the Pointe West Collision Centre.

Financial details of the merger were not released. Carl’s brother Ron Eisbrenner will stay on full-time with the new dealership for at least a year and Carl will work part-time.

Both Chipman and Eisbrenner said the merger will mean few people will lose their jobs with the closure of the Birchwood Pontiac dealership.

Individually the old dealership had about 60 employees each. The merged entity will be bigger and will employ between 90 and 100 people.

Eisbrenner said one of the reasons he thought a merger made sense was so that his dealership could be associated with a larger dealership group.

"For instance, we are already using Birchwood’s larger human resource office," said Eisbrenner. "We did have a few layoffs but we have also placed a few other people in other Birchwood dealerships."

John Carey, president of Focus Hyundai and president of the Manitoba Motor Dealers’ Association, said the merger is an example of the resourcefulness of its members.

The large GM dealership will start business operating from two locations, but in time the goal for the old Orion site will be to house another dealership.

Birchwood already owns twelve dealerships in the city and Chipman said they are on the lookout for the next one.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca