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Business View Magazine
Summit Automotive
How customer satisfaction and employee empowerment drove
170% EBIDTA growth in three years
In eight short years, Summit Automotive has experi-
enced runaway success, growing its network of dealer-
ships well beyond its Denver, Colorado headquarters
and posting 170% EBITDA growth over the past three
years. Today, Summit’s operations span 22 franchises
selling multiple brands to drivers in Colorado as well
as Nashville, Tennessee and throughout northern New
England. This year alone, the group expects to sell
more than 30,000 vehicles to the tune of one billion
dollars in revenue. But in sizing up how far Summit has
come so quickly, CEO Bill Carmichael remains humble
and understated: “It’s been a nice success story for
us.”
Carmichael founded Summit in 2007, with a small
group that included George N. Gillett, Jr., a business-
man who has owned more than 200 companies in
a wide range of industries, from sports teams to ski
resorts. Unsurprisingly, an entrepreneurial spirit has
always been part of Summit’s DNA and much of its
success can be attributed to an acquisition-fueled
growth strategy, in which operations at under-perform-
