Hiley Subaru has been in business since 2009.
Eric Schimmels had a big vision for the store when he started as General Manager with the store in 2012.
Years later… Eric and Subaru started to plan the construction of a brand new Subaru point.
After years of putting in the work to bring those plans to life, the Subaru Store started to operate out of their brand new facility in July of 2023.
In the first 12 months at the new facility, new sales have increased by 51.8% Year Over Year and the store has outperformed the market by an average of 31.2%!
Here’s What Happened:
Schimmels has had great success in the DFW market across many brands. He only knows one mode, All Gas, No Brakes.
Our partnership started back in 2020 when Schimmels hired Fountain Forward’s Automotive Accelerator to help his Mazda and Hyundai stores increase new vehicle sales and take market share. In just 30 days, new sales skyrocketed by 80%!
If you want to read about that story more, you can read this article: How to Become the Top Dealer in Your Sales Region in Two Months.
6 months after starting at the Mazda and Hyundai stores, Eric wanted that same success at his GMC and Subaru stores.
Eric is a huge numbers guy. He loves to grind through numbers and that is one of many reasons why this partnership has been so successful.
The Analytics Edge sits at the base of our partnership for each Hiley store. Each month, the Fountain Forward team records and organizes data points for EVERYTHING from marketing to leads to sales.
Each month, we review the data that mattered.
Fountain Forward was hired at the Subaru store amid the outbreak of COVID. The stores navigated as best they could, but volume fell as a low supply of inventory hindered the entire market. Gross became the focus to compensate for lower volume.
After working together for years across multiple brands, we have collected over 1 million data points from everything from marketing, leads and sales and grinded through ALL of it with Eric.
Fountain Forward and Schimmels worked together to keep the store’s budget as efficient as possible throughout COVID.
During this time, the Subaru store was selling every single unit in inventory the store was receiving.
It requires a tremendous amount of effort to construct a new location. After years of planning and preparation, finding the perfect location, and designing the ideal layout, construction broke ground in 2022.
While preparing for the new store, Eric knew that the new facility would bring new challenges.
Expenses were far higher, and the dealership needed to chase higher sales volume to cover those costs.
Supply had started to normalize after COVID and dealers all over were seeing their days supply rise.
In one of our in-person visits, Eric opened up to us. He laid out the situation the Subaru store was approaching, the risks associated, and his objective.
Hiley Subaru was in a slightly different situation than the rest of the market. They were receiving an above-average allocation as a result of moving into this brand-new facility.
If they could turn these units quickly, they’d continue to receive higher and higher allocations. Any slowdown, and support from the factory might have changed.
Eric needed to OUTPERFORM the market and he was willing to do whatever it took.
ALL GAS, NO BRAKES.
They completed the store and moved in July of 2023.
In the 12 months since then, new Subaru sales in the area are up on average 20.6% across all the dealerships in the DFW market.
Hiley Subaru has outperformed this booming market as its sales have increased by 51.8%.
They rolled that momentum all the way into 2024. Throughout Q1, they maintained a top 3 turn rate efficiency on key volume units.
We’re now 12 months into operating out of the new facility and Eric and Team have outperformed the market every single month since.
The sales team at Hiley Subaru is made up of a bunch of rockstars. This is a testament to the leadership and the culture that has been installed at the store from the top down. Hiley Subaru is becoming a force to be reckoned with as they eat up market share from their biggest competitors.
In Conclusion
After years of putting in the work to bring these plans to life, Hiley Subaru is becoming a force to be reckoned with.
In the first 12 months at the new facility, new sales have increased by 51.8% Year Over Year and the store has outperformed the market by an average of 31.2%!
These results for Hiley Subaru are similar to other dealerships around the country. If you’re curious to see if we can help grow your dealership in a similar way as Hiley, click the button below!
