Business View Magazine | September 2022

197 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 KEAT ING AUTO GROUP in the early months of the pandemic. In fact, the company has grown 60 percent from where it was in March 2020, having added 11 dealerships to its family over that time. It has not always been “easy or fun” as Ben puts it, but it has been profitable. At first the challenges centered around dealing with mandated closures and customers not being able to purchase vehicles in person. However, all dealers with the Keating Auto Group overcame this with investments in technology and other tools to make online and remote buying of vehicles easy and hassle-free. The next challenge continues to this day – a lack of vehicle supply. But given the loyalty long-time customers have for Keating’s 28 dealerships, there has been no lack of demand. Keating Auto Group dealers have been successful in securing access to vehicles, while reducing its advertising and marketing spend in the short-term. This has led to the highest margins in company history. Availability of vehicles and service, rather than price, has been the determining factor in beating the competition in recent months. Ben acknowledges, “We get a huge benefit by having our 28 dealers operate with 28 different general managers. They operate their own businesses but also learn from each other. This model has allowed us to adapt well.” Big enough to thrive and small enough to service Being one, himself, Ben Keating is a huge fan of entrepreneurs and anyone who has created a business on their own. Given that, the frequency of dealer consolidation in the auto dealer industry over the past few years is a bit troubling, as many national-owned, publicly traded auto dealer chains have acquired locally owned dealers. Ben feels this has adversely affected the quality of customer service and the connection these dealers have with their local