Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/575161
www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • October 5, 2015 • 61 POWER 50 Make that five H-D dealerships for Adam Smith Power 50 dealer adds two more Harley stores in Texas BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR By the end of 2014, Adam Smith's Calculated Risk Group owned two dealerships. Now the group totals five Harley-Davidson stores in Texas. The Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group in late June announced the addition of two East Texas dealerships — one in Longview and the other in Nacogdoches. Adding those two to Adam Smith's Texas Harley-Davidson in Bed- ford, Adam Smith's Texoma Harley-Davidson in Sherman and Adam Smith's Harley-David- son of Waco, which was acquired in January, brings the Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group to five dealerships. Both of the new additions have been renamed. What was formerly The Harley Shop in Longview has become Adam Smith's Roughneck Harley-Davidson, and the former Texas Thunder Harley-Davidson in Nacog- doches is now Adam Smith's Lumberjack Harley-Davidson. Both dealerships previously were owned by Keith and Gail Calhoun and Jeffrey and Sandra Brown. Smith had spoken to Keith Calhoun in the past about the possibility of adding the Longview and Nacogdoches dealerships to his lineup, but the conversation grew more seri- ous after Smith closed on the Waco dealership. Smith told Calhoun that he was interested in making one more deal this year, and as Smith already had stores in North and Central Texas, East Texas was an area that intrigued him. The Longview and Nacogdoches locations worked perfectly into Smith's hub-and-spoke strategy, he said. With the Dallas/Fort Worth area as the Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group's hub, Smith was looking at dealerships within in about a two-hour drive from there. Having stores that close together allows for staff to advance their careers within the family of deal- erships, and it allows for employees to return home and sleep in their own beds following training sessions in the DFW area. "I like that we can have group training at one place, and everyone can come in for that training. So if Bedford is hosting a big train- ing event, then everybody from each store can come in for it, instead of the trainer having to go from dealership to dealership to dealership across a bunch of different states." Timing also played a big role, as Smith knew now is the time to buy from a financial standpoint. "The cost of money is about to turn right. The interest rates are not going to stay stupid forever, and you can borrow money really cheap right now, and [Calhoun] was able to get a fair multiple for his dealership because blue sky values and multiples for dealerships are pretty good right now. And so it was a deal that worked out for everybody. He's happy, and we're happy," Smith told Powersports Business. When Smith looked at the Longview and Nacogdoches dealerships, he saw two stores that were performing adequately, but had potential to increase vehicle sales, service sales and overall revenue. "The whole market was asleep, and I've been looking at it for 10, 15 years just salivating about getting out there and doing something. And finally, if you wait long enough, the oppor- tunity does present itself," Smith said. Smith knows how to develop success- ful dealerships. He opened his first Harley- Davidson dealership in 1997 at the age of 23, and by his mid-30s he had bought three and sold two of them. He's owned the Sherman dealership since 2004, and the Bedford deal- ership since 2011. Both Adam Smith's Texas Harley-Davidson and Adam Smith's Texoma Harley-Davidson were named Powersports Business Power 50 dealerships in the first two years of the pro- gram, with Texas Harley-Davidson being named the No. 3 dealer in 2014. The Bedford dealership is also the No. 1 Harley-Davidson dealership in Texas, as ranked by the OEM, the Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group reports, and Smith's dealerships have earned multiple Harley-Davidson Bar & Shield Awards. With that experience, Smith and his team are poised to make an impact on East Texas. People are the most important ingredient to any dealership, Smith says, so he's looking at staffing numbers at the two new stores first. Rob Edwards, who has 15 years of industry experience and most recently was the general manager at a dealership in Missouri, has been brought on as GM of the Longview and Nacog- doches stores. The next step is to make sure the employees who are currently working at those two stores are in the positions they want to be in and are qualified to be in. "The team is a good team. They've all been there quite a bit of time. They're experienced. They know what to do. I think that a lack of training from the owner in the past has held them back, has held the dealership back. Any- body who knows us knows we spend a ton of money on training, so that's going to get fixed pretty quick," Smith said. Before serious training begins, though, Smith plans to expand the teams at those two dealerships. Thirty people are currently See Smith, Page 62 PHOTOS BY SHANE KISLACK " If we do a good job at our stores, talented people will come calling, emailing, or knocking on our door, and when they do, we're going to find them a store." Adam Smith, owner Calculated Risk Group Adam Smith is the owner of Adam Smith's Calculated Risk Group, which now owns five Harley-Davidson dealer- ships across North, Central and East Texas. ADAM SMITH'S TEXAS HARLEY-DAVIDSON ADAM SMITH'S TEXOMA HARLEY-DAVIDSON