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GM Leads Industry for Minority Dealer Growth in 2016

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GM picked up the award for “Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer” for the 2016 model year

General Motors continued in 2016 to lead the industry in minority dealer growth. In April 2016, Eric Peterson, GM’s vice president of diversity dealer relations, indicated that the automaker had hoped to grow the number of minority-owned dealerships in the United States by 10 for the year. According to Automotive News, GM hit that benchmark and surpassed it with a total of 17 need additions, and it is only planning to add to that growth even further this year.


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Per the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers’ annual census, the number of minority-owned GM dealerships in the United States totaled 248 at the end of 2016, the most of any brand and good for 22% of all minority-owned dealerships in the nation.

Maurice Williams, General Motors’ general manager of sales support, spoke on his company’s approach during a panel discussion at the Rainbow PUSH Global Automotive Summit last month. There, he revealed that the focus has shifted from gross appointments to net appointments, which has helped to increase the quality of candidates.

There is also greater emphasis being placed on generating interest in automotive industry jobs with youths, which should help to support a future of more diversity among dealership ownership. This includes programs like GM’s Automotive Service Educational Program.

“We asked our dealers to help build some awareness and exposure to this business by hiring African-Americans [and] grabbing someone who has the business acumen and bringing them into the business by mentoring them in your stores,” Williams said. “The more we can build exposure, the better off we are.”


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News Source: Automotive News (subscription required)