Lithia Motors Acquires Stores In Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Medford, OR - Lithia Motors, Inc., the eighth automotive dealership group, recently announced auto-retail store acquisitions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The new stores will be named Buick GMC Cadillac of North Cedar Rapids, Saturn of Cedar Rapids and Kia of Cedar Rapids. Annualized revenues of the stores are approximately $80M, according to the company. Lithia has now completed the acquisition of thirteen stores with approximately $470M in annualized revenues in 2006.

Sid DeBoer, Lithia's Chairman and CEO, commented, "We are excited to be able to increase our presence in the state of Iowa. In October of this year, we acquired BMW and Mercedes-Benz stores in Des Moines. With these acquisitions we continue our expansion into stable Midwestern markets. GMC, Buick and Kia are new to Lithia's brand mix with this acquisition. We now have 4 stores selling the Cadillac brand and three stores dedicated to the Saturn brand. For the year, we have acquired approximately $470M in annualized sales, which represents 16% growth on our total revenues of $2.94B in 2005," concluded Mr. DeBoer.

SOURCE: Lithia Motors, Inc.