Crain sells 1 dealership, buys 2 Ford locations

Arkansas Business, Feb 5, 2007 by John Henry, Lance Turner

Crain Automotive Holdings LLC added two new Ford locations to its growing number of dealerships and sold a dealership at Benton.

Crain Ford University at 4800 S. University in Little Rock and Crain Ford of Jacksonville at 1800 School Drive were bought from publicly traded United Auto Group Inc. UAG had operated the Ford dealerships as Landers Ford and Landers Ford North. Crain Ford Lincoln Mercury in Benton on Interstate 30 was sold to UAG.

Darryl Stone was named general manager of Crain Ford on University; Bob Woller will be the general manager of Crain Ford Jacksonville.

Also, Crain Automotive bought Camper Capps at 9801 Interstate 30 in Little Rock last week. It will be renamed Crain RV.

The Capps family operated the RV dealership, which sells Jayco, Damon Motor Coaches and other brands, for 35 years. A purchase price was not disclosed.

Crain said it expects to announce additional central Arkansas dealership acquisitions during this month. Since November, the company has bought dealerships from the Martindill family, the Asbury Automotive Group and UAG. Cram is also in discussions to buy Gwatney Buick Pontiac GMC in Little Rock from the Gwatney family in Jacksonville.

Crain RV will be run by Don Holmes. Phil Capps will remain on staff as general sales manager and finance manager.

Crain Automotive Holdings, owned by Larry Crain Sr. and his sons, Larry Crain Jr. and Chris Crain, currently operate 10 franchised dealerships in central Arkansas:

* Crain Ford University,

* Crain Ford Jacksonville,

* Crain Chevrolet University,

* Crain Chrysler Jeep Dodge University,

* Crain Pontiac Buick GMC Conway,

* Crain Kia North Little Rock,

* Crain Kia Colonel Glenn,

* Crain Mazda Colonel Glenn,

* Crain Mitsubishi North Little Rock and

* Crain Suzuki University.