Summit Motor Management Wants to Sell You a Car (and Maybe Help with the Financing)
SC Americas Subsidiary Thrives with Automobile Dealerships in U.S. Chile and Puerto Rico; Auto Financing Company in Mexico

While SCOA recently acquired the after-market tire retailer TBC Corporation, their Summit Motor Management (SMM) subsidiary, with auto dealerships in United States, Puerto Rico and Chile, are selling the cars, trucks and SUV's that will one day need those tires. Call it vertical integration.

Summit Motor Management is part of the worldwide portfolio of Sumitomo Corporation subsidiaries that own and operate automotive dealerships in Asia, Europe, Africa and Russia.

Summit Motor Management is the SC Americas component of that operation and their current portfolio includes three car dealerships in the United States, one in Puerto Rico and an auto dealership group in Chile. They are also partners in an auto financing company in Monterrey, Mexico.

Established in 1989, Summit Motor Management originally managed car dealership operations in the United States and their first dealership sold Mazda vehicles. Since that time it has evolved into a holding and management company and performs roles like accounting consolidation and internal control functions for various auto dealerships under their control.

Summit Motor Management is based out of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County and they have a branch office at the SCOA Detroit office in Southfield, Michigan, the main office for SCOA's other automotive related activities.

Summit Motor's largest U.S. dealership is Tri Cities Motor Sales in Pasco, Washington, which together with a recently opened stand-alone Toyota store in nearby Kennewick, Washington, they are 100 percent owners.

The dealerships are located in a growing part of the Pacific Northwest and there are tentative plans to look for more auto dealerships in this area. The Tri Cities Motor Sales dealership sells Toyota, Mitsubishi and Chrysler vehicles.

Summit Motor Management also has a 49 percent stake in an auto dealership in Redding, California that sells Ford, Dodge and Honda vehicles and a 40 percent ownership in a Kalamazoo, Michigan dealership that sells Hyundai, Chrysler, Volvo, Subara, VW and Audi vehicles.

Sumitomo Corporation Worldwide Auto Dealership Holdings

The automotive retail division of SC encompasses dealerships in nearly every office in the entire SC worldwide netowrk. SC currently operates and/or owns dealerships in the following countries: China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia, in addition to the dealerships they own in the U.S., Chile and Puerto Rico. At the end of 2004, SC owned and/or operated 87 dealers which altogether sold 55,000 new cars and 22,500 used cars.

Chile

Five years ago, SC and SCOA were asked by Ford to start a dealership group in Chile. Although it got off to a sluggish start, it is now doing well, and enjoying the favorable economic climate of the rest of Chile. It has the premier Ford dealership in the capital city of Santiago and the group now has six Ford outlets and one Mazda/Suzuki/Renault outlet in Santiago.

<< Back to Business Highlights