Premium partnership: Murray Auto Group grows from within

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This article was published 01/05/2024 (517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dan Murray’s grandfather started the family auto dealership business in Souris some 98 years ago.

Recently, Dan and his three brothers — Doug, Chris and Paul — made the largest acquisition in its history, with the purchase of Shaganappi GM, a Chevrolet Buick GMC dealer in Calgary.

It marks Murray Auto Group’s 32nd dealership.

Toronto-based Dilawri is the usually recognized as the largest auto group in the country, with more than 80 dealerships in Canada and the U.S. AutoCanada, a publicly traded company out of Edmonton, has about 68.

Winnipeg-based Birchwood Group has more than 20. Dan Murray said Tuesday he doesn’t know exactly where Murray Auto Group ranks.

“We don’t really keep track of that,” he said. “Maybe we are in the top 20 in Canada.”

Whereas most large companies are constantly distracted with attraction and retention of talent, MAG has a pro-tip: elevate trusted, qualified leaders to partnership status. That’s not only a human resource policy, but it also determines its pace of growth.

Each new dealership MAG acquires is done in partnership with the general manager who will run it and that general manager is typically already in some senior position at another MAG dealership.

“It really has helped us attract high-quality people to existing dealerships,” said Murray, who runs the group’s flagship location, Murray Chevrolet, at the Waverley Automall in south Winnipeg. “They see us promoting from within, salesman to sales manager and sales manager to partner or general manager.”

Shaganappi GM was acquired in partnership with Daniel Holtmann, a long-time MAG member. In 2015, he left one of the Winnipeg dealerships to become a partner in and run Murray GM in Fort St. John, B.C.

Holtmann sold his stake in that dealership to one of his former employees. “Just like how I became a partner, he has become a partner … and the business continues,” Holtmann said.

Having grown up in Brandon, the group has gravitated to smaller cities. Shaganappi is its first location in Calgary, even though it was already in small town Alberta (Cochrane, Okotoks), Lethbridge and Medicine Hat (two locations).

“It really has helped us attract high-quality people to existing dealerships.”–Dan Murray

“The Brandon-sized markets what would be the most common in our group,” Murray said. “We grew up in a small town. We are comfortable with that.”

But MAG is no small-time operator. Before the idea of the auto mall was really a thing, Murray bought 22 acres of land at Waverley Street and Bishop Grandin Boulevard in 1997, and built the Waverley Automall.

There’s now about a dozen dealerships there and no room for more.

“We bought as much land there as we could buy, but you always wish you could buy more,” he said.

The company only had General Motors dealerships until the financial crisis that left GM vulnerable. Murray said it wasn’t until the “banks started looking at us funny” because of its lack of diversification in 2006-07 it started to acquire dealerships representing other car companies (starting with Murray Hyundai in 2007).

In addition to Hyundai, it now owns Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Mazda and Kia dealerships.

But the group’s growth is entirely predicated on the availability of manager/partners from within the organization.

“We have turned down stores because we have not had someone ready,” Murray said. “Opportunities come up from time to time, but definitely that is the case. If we don’t have a partner available, we would not be buying that dealership.”

“We bought as much land there as we could buy, but you always wish you could buy more.”–Dan Murray

The four third-generation Murray Auto Group brothers, all in the 60s, are still operating their own dealerships. There are a couple of next-generation Murrays now in the business.

Dan Murray said they are working on a succession plan.

“It is hard to say whether they will be succeeding us or not,” he said. “We have never had a partner leave us. That could be the succession plan. There are different ways we could go about it.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca