An Alberta-based automotive dealership company plans to turn over a new leaf by selling its U.S. locations as it focuses on the Canadian market amidst tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration.
AutoCanada Inc., which operates 64 dealerships across eight provinces, along with 29 collision centres, plans to expand in Canada by selling 17 U.S. dealers for $82.7 million before exiting the American market entirely.
“This acquisition was more or less kind of an acquisition gone wrong, and it put the company in jeopardy,” Paul Antony, AutoCanada’s executive chairman told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview. “I was asked to come in and help bring the company back, return it to its former glory, and we put in a management team and a new board, and went on our way.”
The company reported revenue of $1.24 billion in its first quarter, a year-over-year increase of $28.1 million, according to results released in May. The net loss for the period from total operations was $3.2 million as compared to a net loss of $2.3 million in the prior year‘s first quarter. The net loss from discontinued operations was $12.9 million as compared to $10.3 million in the same period the year before.
The sale includes Autohaus of Peoria and Bloomington Automall in Illinois, U.S. The dealerships sold 15 different brands of vehicles including Audi, BMW, Subaru, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. The 17 U.S. locations sold about 12,900 new and used vehicles in 2024.
The company entered the U.S. market in 2018, purchasing eight dealerships and the auto mall for $110 million (US$86 million). They found a buyer for their U.S. locations and plan to restructure their business as they offload American dealerships.
“We found the right buyer at the right time for the right money, and we sold the U.S. businesses in order to allow us to pay down debt and basically go after the Canadian market and really focus on (it),” said Antony.
Antony said the infrastructure and relationships were not properly set up for AutoCanada to succeed in the Canadian and U.S. markets at the same time.
As Trump’s tariffs slap surcharged prices on auto imports to the country as well as car parts, Antony said it’s the right time to pivot.
“I would say that we want to control our controllables, and so when we look at tariffs, we kind of say we compete in local markets, and the dealers generally get cars at certain prices from the OEMs, and they sell them kind of in that same band,” he said.
“The difference is the experience the customer has along the way. Tariffs are not something that we can necessarily impact.”
