JOE MACHENS DEALERSHIPS McLarty Automotive Group Charles Oglesby, CEO
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harles Oglesby loves cars so much, he has “unretired” himself from the auto business three times. “This is fun,” says the CEO of McLarty Automotive Group, new owner of Joe Machens Dealerships. “A dream.” The dream for Oglesby began last year in Little Rock when the newly formed McLarty Automotive Group purchased all but two of Gary Drewing’s Joe Machens auto dealerships. The purchase on Oct. 19 transferred to group owner Mark McLarty the Columbia dealerships for Ford, Lincoln, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Nissan, Hyundai, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Toyota, Scion and Volkswagen, plus Joe Machens Capital City Ford Lincoln in Jefferson City. “Machens is the first acquisition of McLarty Automotive Group,” Oglesby says. An earlier 2015 Mark McLarty purchase of Fletcher Honda — renamed Columbia Honda — was added to the Machens fold. McLarty Automotive Group also owns five dealerships in the Little Rock area as well, selling Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Volkswagen. McLarty Automotive Group may be a new entity, but Mark McLarty is no stranger to the auto industry. Columbians may recognize the last name — his father is Thomas “Mack” McLarty, former White 38
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House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton — but in automotive circles, the McLarty name has been well-known for four generations, since Mark’s great-grandfather entered the business in 1921. When Mack McLarty sold the family dealerships to Asbury Automotive Group in 1995, a noncompete agreement restricted Mark from owning dealerships in the United States; he moved to Brazil and later China where he built dealership groups in both countries. He returned to the United States in 2014 to establish McLarty Automotive Group and tapped former Asbury chairman Charles Oglesby to head up the company. A 45-year veteran of the auto business, Oglesby began his career in 1972 after graduating from the University of Georgia, selling Oldsmobiles in his hometown of Savannah. By 1985, he had moved on to a Nissan dealership in Dallas, then to other dealerships and consolidated groups in Kansas City, San Francisco, Atlanta and New York. He worked his way up the ranks of the industry — finance manager, sales manager, general manager, partner and dealer. “I found I had a gift for building businesses,” he says. In 2002, Oglesby joined Asbury, the sixth-largest automotive retailer in the country. A Fortune 500 company, Asbury currently operates more than
100 franchises selling 28 brands. Oglesby spent nearly a decade rebuilding dealerships and overseeing the group’s consolidation efforts, retiring as chairman in 2011. The prospect of McLarty’s Machens purchase last year was intriguing — enough to lure Oglesby out of his third try at retirement. The McLarty group’s move into mid-Missouri marked a change in ownership of eight Joe Machens stores selling 14 brands at some of the top volume dealerships in the state. The flagship Joe Machens Ford Lincoln dealership, in business here since 1969, has ranked as the No. 1 volume dealer in Missouri for the past 18 years. With a track record like that, the new owners wisely decided to keep the Joe Machens name. “This operation is so expansive,” Oglesby says. “Joe Machens is the largest automotive group in Missouri. Before we made the investment to buy this group, we looked at the position of the dealerships. Quantity reflects quality. Consumers will not reward you with their business over and over unless they believe they’re receiving value. Customers always go where the value is.” The McLarty group intends to sustain the momentum Machens has built over the years.