Lithia Motors Inc. reported that its third-quarter net income increased 26 percent to $43.4 million compared with the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 61 percent to $2.1 billion on double-digit revenue increases in all areas of operations.
“Our third quarter earnings were the highest in company history,” Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement today. “Same store sales in all four business lines grew by double digits, led by a 13 percent increase in used vehicle sales.
“A robust new vehicle sales environment, improving supply of late model used vehicles, and the continued growth in our service, body and parts business is allowing our store leaders to unlock new opportunities to improve performance across our company.”
Lithia’s new-vehicle retail sales in the quarter rose 75 percent to 37,401 units, well ahead of the industrywide 6.2 percent gain. Lithia’s used-vehicle retail sales rose 48 percent to 26,206 units.
On a same-store basis, Lithia beat the industry, with new-vehicle retail sales of 23,219, up 9.7 percent. Its same-store used retail sales rose 9.6 percent to 19,255.
While sales volume was up, average gross profit per unit for new and used vehicles declined from a year earlier. The average gross profit per used vehicle declined 4 percent to $2,377. The average gross profit per new vehicle fell 7.7 percent to $2,063. On a same-store basis, average gross profit rose 2.3 percent on used vehicles but declined by 2.1 percent on new vehicles. Average gross profit for finance and insurance per unit rose 5.9 percent to $1,274.
In the quarter, Lithia acquired a Ford store in Missoula, Mont., an Acura store in Honolulu and a Subaru-Hyundai-GMC store in Great Falls, Mont. This month, it acquired a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram-Fiat store in Concord, Calif. Lithia estimates these stores will contribute about $175 million in annual revenues.
“We have purchased or opened six stores in 2015, which will add cumulative annual revenues of approximately $220 million,” DeBoer said.
Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 8 on the Automotive News list of the top 150 U.S. dealership groups, with retail sales of 91,192 new vehicles in 2014.
You can reach Jamie LaReau at jlareau@crain.com. — Follow Jamie on 
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